June 26, 2016: “Common Sense” Gun Control?

A Brief History

Once again a fierce debate tears across the land about so-called “common sense gun control.” Our Founding Fathers wrote in the Federalist Papers that the Government should never have more firepower than the people, and they meant cannons and military muskets, not hunting and target guns. Today, the rabid anti-gunners show their ignorance of the intent of the Founding Fathers by ignoring their writings on the subject and the context of the times. Other (European) countries had long denied their public free access to weapons, and this meant swords and the like before guns were common. (Hence, the common man usually armed with a large “walking stick” or staff since he was denied regular weapons and would have been defenseless against robbers otherwise.)

Digging Deeper

What the Democratic members of the House of Representatives do not seem to understand with their “sit in” in the House demanding a vote on their proposed “common sense” gun laws, is that as is almost always the case, their clueless laws would have not prevented any of the celebrated shooting incidents that precipitate such legislation. The President (Obama) is right there with them with not getting this critical point! Why these people are not DEMANDING that the Justice Department prosecute felons who illegally attempt to buy a gun is baffling. Did you know this law is ignored? The people barred from buying or possessing a gun when caught by the instant background check system are virtually never prosecuted. Why not???

Closing the so called “Gun Show Loophole” would not have prevented any of these infamous attacks, either. What this means, is private sales of firearms between people that are not licensed gun dealers are not regulated. On the surface of this, it seems like a good idea, but again, there are problems. First, this would absolutely require every single one of the hundreds of millions of guns in the United States be registered with the Government. Naïve citizens do not seem to realize that millions and millions of these would in fact NOT be registered, as criminals do not obey laws. It just means new paperwork and FEES for honest people, hassles about transferring their own property (even to a family member or friend), and the shadow of a universal rule of gun registration: Every time a government registers all the guns, the government ends up making a mass confiscation of all or certain types of them. Meanwhile, bad guys still have their guns and honest citizens do not.

Another well-intentioned but idiotic proposal is that “known and suspected” terrorists should not be allowed to buy a gun. “Known terrorist?” Why would such a person not be in custody??? What ridiculous language! As far as “suspected,” there is not a “Terrorist Watch List” as keeps getting mentioned, but a “No Fly List.” This list does not have any published criteria for a citizen being placed on it, and there is no due process for a citizen so placed to challenge being on the list. So many stupid errors have happened with this list it is not funny, Congressmen have found themselves so listed, and unlike normal people managed to get themselves off the list. As it is, regular folks are denied any information about why they are on the list or how to get off if in error. The types of errors have included having a similar name to a suspected person, a similar social security number, an alias or false SSN used by a suspected person, or a false report from a suspicious (often idiotic) friend, neighbor, co-worker or relative. What is stopping mischievous people from calling in anonymous false reports about you? Denying people a Constitutional Right such as the Right to Bear Arms absolutely has to have an appeals process that does not bankrupt the citizen and does not take an excessively long time. Anything else is unrealistic and Un-American. Even the liberal ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union) is fighting against the “no fly list.”

How about banning “Assault Weapons?” Assault weapons are full automatic arms that fire like a machine gun. American citizens may indeed own one of these, but special conditions apply and close monitoring of the ownership and whereabouts of such guns are required. It seems bad guys have not gone to the trouble of using these assault weapons in ANY of the celebrated (and lamented) mass shootings cited by Gun Control advocates. Meanwhile, weapons that LOOK like assault weapons are under attack, and previous foolish criteria to ban these guns included having a pistol grip, a removable flash hider and or a bayonet lug. How does a bayonet lug make a gun so dangerous??? Have terrorists used bayonets in the US? (No.) Good gravy, a flash suppressor is dangerous HOW? This type of misinformation and lack of familiarity with firearms drives the debate. A pump shotgun and or use of fire and bombs could kill as many or more people than these assault gun lookalikes.

President Bill Clinton signing the Federal Assault Weapons Ban (AWB), officially the Public Safety and Recreational Firearms Use Protection Act, into law.

Meanwhile, the places with the strictest gun control laws continue to suffer the highest incidence of gun violence. Ironic, isn’t it? In places where concealed carry has been liberalized or even the head of every household required to own a gun crime has invariably gone down. These are the facts, not the emotions. Misleading polls and laws that miss the point are obviously not the answer. In fact, every time a push for “gun control” is made, the gun industry enjoys enormous increases in sales of guns and ammunition, but oddly enough, crime does not go up.

Our mental health system is broken and our surveillance of terror suspects is marginal at best. Obviously, those are the areas that need addressing. The United States has experienced superior performance during wartime due to a population familiar with guns and shooting, and our military gets more practice at the range than almost anyone else, which of course also applies to the hunting tradition of Americans.

UPDATE, April 22, 2020: On April 18-19, 2020, a 51 year old resident of Nova Scotia, Canada, went on a shooting rampage that left 22 victims dead. The shooter, who had made up his SUV to look like an RCMP police vehicle and had donned an RCMP look-alike uniform prior to the shooting gunned down defenseless victims that apparently did not have or at least did not use firearms to defend themselves. When police finally caught up with the mass murderer, a shootout ensued and the murderer was killed. One of the victims fatally shot was an RCMP veteran of 23 years, the mother of 2 children. In a typical display of political buffoonery, Justin Trudeau, the Canadian Prime Minister, vowed to create new and stricter gun control measures, including an “assault weapons” ban. This before he and we even knew what kind of guns the shooter used and how those guns had been obtained.

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