What is “The Right Thing” on Gun Control?
Kevin Felts 10.19.17
After every shooting, gun-grabbers start using buzzwords such as “Do the right thing,” or “Common sense gun control.” Most anti-gun articles leave out the exact details of what is being suggested.
However, from time to time a gun control article gets posted with some suggestions. This is when their ignorance on the topic starts to show.
You see, we already have laws for many of the suggestions anti-gunners make. How can this be? The obvious answer is, the author does not know much about gun laws. They are slinging buzzwords around so their readers will nod their heads and say, “Yeah.”
For example, let’s take an article from My San Antonio: Shut out the noise and do the right thing.
Some suggestions to consider:
Impose universal background checks and a reasonable waiting period for every gun purchase.
Ban sales of large-capacity magazines and commercially available devices that increase a weapon’s rate of fire.
Impose the same age limit for gun purchases as exist for alcohol purchases.
Ban gun purchases by anyone subject to a court order arising from domestic violence.
Impose restrictions on gun purchases by people with judicially or medically certified mental health conditions.
Now For The Reality
- Background checks — These were part of the Brady Bill signed into law by Bill Clinton in 1993. Does “universal” mean all private sales? How would we handle giving firearms as gifts? Or when firearms are part of a will or estate?
- Large capacity magazines — Few murders involve firearms with so-called high-capacity magazines.
- Age limits — In most places these already exist as 18 years old for long guns, and 21 for handguns. How is this going to stop a 14-year-old gang banger from buying a gun on the street? (It won’t.) Are the drug dealers who sell guns to children being prosecuted? So, yes, we already have laws on the books that require someone to be 21 to buy a handgun.
- Ban people from buying guns if they are subject to a court order arising from domestic violence — Already in place. ATF Form 4473 Firearms Transaction Record, 11:h – “Are you subject to a court order restraining you from harassing, stalking, or threatening your child or an intimate partner or child of such partner?”
- Impose restrictions on gun purchases by people with judicially- or medically-certified mental health conditions — Already in place. ATF Form 4473 Firearms Transaction Record, 11:f – “Have you ever been adjudicated as a mental defective OR have you ever been committed to a mental institution?”
The only real suggestion that is not already in place is a ban on “high-capacity” magazines. The next question is, “How would such a ban affect crime?” Not very much, if at all, because very few gun crimes are committed with rifles that use a 30-round magazine.
To the uneducated reader, these anti-gun suggestions seem like decent ideas.
For the educated reader, such as those who read AllOutdoor, we know none of the suggestions will deter crime, and most of the suggestions we already have laws for.
