NEW THOUGHTS ON GUN CONTROL

This post is from my "Old sailor buddy”.

OSB says; while I no longer own any firearms, I was at one time an NRA member, competing in many small-bore rifle matches.  I won my share of medals and trophies.  I do not favor the outlawing of all private firearm ownership.  I believe in responsible gun ownership and strong government regulations to ensure that only responsible individuals are granted the privilege of owning a firearm.  I do not fear my duly elected government.  I long ago let my NRA membership lapse when it became apparent to me that it had become a political organization.  I DO fear the NRA and strongly believe that their reluctance to accept even the merest hint of regulation, and their constant fear mongering against regulation has resulted in a significant proliferation of guns.

The NRA likes to use simplistic slogans to create fear in the minds of we citizens.  Here are two that really get under my skin, yet are very effective in creating fear in the minds of the gullible:

“Guns don’t kill people, people kill people”

and

“When guns are outlawed, only outlaws will have guns”

Let’s look at the first one.  It is true that it is an individual who pulls the trigger that kills another person.  But if that person didn’t have a gun, he or she couldn’t pull the trigger of a non-existent gun.  So the slogan should really read, “ People WITH GUNS kill people”.  So It really is the gun that kills people.  If people didn’t have guns, they couldn’t kill people (with guns). A pretty simplistic revised slogan, just like the original one --   but definitely true.  As always, the devil is in the details. 

As I said earlier, few would support the outlawing of all private citizen gun ownership.  There are many responsible guns owners – hunters, target shooters, etc. who use safe practices, and ensure that their guns are only accessible to those who know how to use them safely.  Few individuals in this category would be against the requirement of a background check prior to purchase.  In fact, such regulations already exist    with the glaring exception of gun show purchases where no such requirement applies.

So, the problem is really one of a pathological proliferation of guns into the hands of those who may be inclined to use them in a harmful manner.  I have heard the figure of a total of 250 million firearms in circulation in the US which is a lot.  There is no way to know how many are in responsible hands vs. those of the bad guys but it’s safe to say the baddies have quite a few.  While identifying ownership without gun registration would be difficult (and registration has its problems as bad guys wouldn’t register), the goal of minimizing proliferation has to start somewhere.  The recently proposed ban on automatic, and large magazine weapons, and extending background checks to gun show sales was a good start but failed because of the furious NRA opposition and their thinly-veiled political threats to Senators and Representatives who supported the bans.  While this effort failed, I believe it will eventually be successful and will herald the start of the long term effort to minimize the number of guns in the wild in the US.  While this effort will likely encounter the resistance of the NRA at every stage, with the help of people like Michael Bloomberg and others with the finances to buck the NRA, over the long haul, I believe it will be successful.  With an estimated 90% of our citizens in favor of reasonable gun regulation, it’s only a matter of time (and money) until it happens.  Perhaps not in my lifetime but eventually.

Now, lets go to the other NRA slogan.  Is it true that “if guns are outlawed, only outlaws will have guns”? 

If, by chance guns for private citizens  were outlawed (it shouldn’t ever happen in my  opinion), the Armed Forces, Police, Border patrol, Marshall service, etc., etc., would all have guns.  This may be pretty close to the Militia our founding fathers had in mind in the Second Amendment to our Constitution.  It is also true that there would be some “rogue” guns in the hands of the bad guys but by far, the largest number would be with the “Militia” just as our FFs intended.

One of the biggest problems to overcome in gun control legislation is the idea that the duly elected Government of the US is the enemy.  This preposterous idea is consistently bleated by the yapping Chihuahuas and snarling Pit Bulls of the extreme right wing of the Republican party, their bought-and-sold media outlets, and the NRA  -- all abetted by the gun manufacturers who have much to lose by gun control.      

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