Opinions about Current Events: March 2014

Gun Control II

By Rick Adamson 3.25.14

An open letter to those who are against guns.

I grew up in the early 1960s hearing discussions about gun control. Especially after the assassinations of political figures during that period. One of the underlying themes of these discussions was “if you take guns away from law abiding citizens only criminals will be armed.”

I have continued to hear various arguments about gun control my entire life. So let me give you some facts.

Only around 30 percent of households maintain guns in their homes (a record low and it is declining.) ([1]) Most of these guns are locked away and only used for hunting, target shooting or as collector items. You will never see them!

About eight million Americans had concealed-carry permits as of 2012, the Government Accountability Office said in what it called a conservative estimate.([2]) Concealed-carry means that no one in the general public is very likely to see these guns because there are penalties for exposing them. In addition, these people must undergo classroom training, shooting range training and an FBI background check including fingerprints and the like. They have to be upstanding citizens who have had no serious legal problems. They assume enormous responsibility and potential liability when they get a permit. These folks are not likely to bother you! Criminals do not know who is a concealed carrier so they are less likely to bother any Citizen in a jurisdiction that allows concealed carry.

In order for a Citizen to purchase a firearm from a federally licensed gun dealer (even at gun shows) a detailed form must be completed and the dealer must call that information in to the FBI for verification that the purchaser is not a felon, not a domestic abuser, not an obvious illegal substance abuser and not an obvious mental defect. This check is less extensive than the one for a concealed carry permit and is only as good as the FBI’s database. That database is built based on information reported to the FBI by Federal and State law enforcement agencies and Courts. Currently the main weakness seems to be in the reporting of “mental defects.”

There is no restriction on the sale or exchange of a legally owned firearm between individual Citizens unless the seller knows or has knowledge that the buyer is a felon, is a domestic abuser, is an obvious illegal substance abuser or has an obvious mental defect. There is no requirement to check with the FBI. This is the way it is because, as the argument goes, if granddad wants to give his grandson or granddaughter one of his guns he should be able to do so without interference from FedGov.

Note that all new guns must be purchased from a licensed dealer and are subject to background checks. Only used guns can be sold or exchanged between individual Citizens without such checks, as explained above.

The violation of any of the rules associated with purchase of a weapon, as summarized above, can result in sever penalties, fines or imprisonment.

There is no Federal registry of gun owners; however, each licensed gun dealer must keep the paperwork related to each sale for as long as he or she has a license. This provides a paper trail, from the manufacturer to the dealer to the purchaser, if it is ever needed. So, there is a registry of gun owners and it is regulated by ATF it’s just not administered by FedGov.

Gun owners fear that if FedGov is allowed to keep and administer a national registry of gun owners the next step would be confiscation. See the discussion about Australia and the U.K, below.

Therefore, the purchase and sale of firearms between law abiding Citizens and dealers is well regulated although, one could argue that a sale or exchange between individual Citizens should be subjected to background checks required of dealers and that the reporting of mental issues be improved.

Now, we come to the real problem. The sale or exchange of weapons between criminals violates all of the above rules and is illegal. A weapon in the hands of a felon is illegal. The above rules do not apply to criminals because they acquire their weapons and ammunition illegally. Bans on guns based on their looks or magazine capacity do not apply to criminals for the same reason. And these are the people who commit the vast majority of gun crimes and their guns are illegal today.

At this point I would ask you, if you think that making guns illegal would remove them from the streets then maybe we should make heroin and meth illegal too. These street guns are already illegal; we are just not enforcing the law very well. The point is, if you make gun ownership by responsible Citizens illegal only the criminals would have guns. That would make all of us much less safe because the criminals would know that the citizenry is unarmed and they would be far more brazen. I would argue that the general public is safer with the situation that we have now than it would be it we made guns illegal.

What we need to do is remove the illegal guns from the streets. New York, for example, has made enormous progress using its stop, question and frisk policy. Additionally, they have a law that if you are caught with a loaded illegal gun you get a mandatory 3 year sentence. Other large cities should adopt this policy and apply it in the areas that are just too crime ridden for Cops to go into (they exist in all of our big cities). We need to get the guns away from the criminals otherwise who will be left with them when they take ours away?

Note the following:

1. “… the determination of murder and suicide are basic social, economic and cultural factors, not the prevalence of some form of deadly mechanism. In that connection, recall that the American jurisdictions which have the highest violent crime rates are precisely those with the most stringent gun controls.” -Excerpt from “World Banning Firearms Reduce Murder and Suicide?’ Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy, Vol. 30.

2. The National Institute of Justice’s earliest firearms studies uncovered who owns guns, legally and illegally, and how illegal gun trafficking is tied to juvenile gun violence and other crimes such as drug dealing and gang crime. Highlights of these studies:

Many juveniles and young adults can easily obtain guns illegally; most claim to carry them for self-defense.
A study of persons arrested for a wide range of crimes showed that a higher percentage of arrestees than regular citizens own firearms. Arrestees are also more likely to be injured or killed by gun violence. Within a community, this amounts to an identifiable group of “career” offenders.
Surveys of offenders have found that they prefer newer, high-quality guns and may steal or borrow them; most, however, acquire guns “off the street” through the illicit gun market. ([3])

3. One might argue that society simply does not need guns. Many of the people who believe this are surrounded 24/7 by guards who carry guns. We live in a violent society and, the fact is, the police cannot protect us because we do not have enough of them and cannot afford enough of them to deter all crime. Moreover;

Restrictive gun laws create a "Catch-22" for victims of violent crime. Under court decisions, the police have no legal obligation to protect any particular individual. This concept has been tested numerous times including cases as recent as 1993. In each case the courts have ruled that the police are responsible for protecting society as a whole, not any individual. This means that under restrictive gun laws, people may be unable to protect themselves or their family from violent criminals. ([4]) In 1989 the Supreme Court ruled that the government does not have a constitutional duty to protect people, including abused children, who are not in custody. ([5]) See another example here…

So do not fool yourself into thinking that the police are all you need for protection. If we remove legal guns from our society our citizens will be overwhelmed by uncontrolled criminal violence.

4. In right-to-carry states, the violent crime rate is 24% lower than the rest of the U.S., the murder rate is 28% lower, and the robbery rate is 50% lower.([6] )

5. The overwhelming majority of gun related crimes are committed with guns that have been stolen, and traded for drugs. Those guns are passed from criminal to criminal, sold and resold, and may very well be used in hundreds of crimes before they are recovered from someone accused of a crime.([7])

6. Mayor Bloomberg and police Commissioner Ray Kelly have staunchly defended the tactic of stop, question and frisk as the centerpiece of a crime-fighting strategy that has driven overall crime down in New York City by more than 30 percent during Bloomberg's three terms in office.([8])

In New York it’s the stop and frisk policy that is reducing the murder rate. NY has a law which provides for a mandatory three year sentence if you are caught with a loaded illegal gun. Other large cities should adopt this policy and apply it in the areas that are just too crime ridden for Cops to go into (they exist in all of our big cities).

We need to get the guns away from the criminals, otherwise who will be left with them when they take ours away?

7. Laws aimed at criminal misuse of firearms are proven crime deterrents. After adopting a mandatory penalty for using a firearm in the commission of a violent crime in 1975, Virginia's murder rate dropped 23% and robbery 11% in 15 years. South Carolina recorded a 24% murder rate decline between 1975 and 1990 with a similar law. Other impressive declines were recorded in other states using mandatory penalties, such as Florida (homicide rate down 33% in 17 years), Delaware (homicide rate down 33% in 19 years), Montana (down 42% 1976-1992) and New Hampshire (homicide rate down 50% 1977-1992).

The solution to violent crime lies in the promise, not the mere threat, of swift, certain punishment. Our challenge: To reform and strengthen our federal and state criminal justice systems. We must bring about a sharp reversal in the trend toward undue leniency and "revolving door justice." We must insist upon speedier trials and upon punishments which are commensurate with crimes. Rehabilitation should be tempered with a realization that not all can be rehabilitated, and that prisons cost society less than the crime of active predatory criminals. NRA is meeting that challenge with its CrimeStrike division, established to advance real solutions to the crime problem while protecting the rights of all honest citizens. Working in states across the nation, CrimeStrike has worked for passage of "truth in sentencing laws" which requires that criminals actually serve at least 85% of time sentenced, "Victim's Bill of Rights" constitutional amendments, and "Three Strikes You're Out" laws. The job ahead will not be an easy one. The longer "gun control" advocates distract the nation from this task by embracing that single siren song, the longer it will take and the more difficult our job will be. Beginning is the hardest step, and the NRA's Institute for Legislative Action has taken it. ([9])

The above should show us that the current gun control agenda will do nothing to stop gun violence because it is not aimed at the problem but at responsible Citizens. Regulating guns based on their looks or the capacity of their magazines makes no difference in gun crime rates.

Check out this video from the Daily Caller:

George Will: Tougher gun laws, assault weapons ban won’t help

Following the tragic shooting in Washington, president Obama turned a memorial service into a platform to promote his gun control agenda. The president scolded the nation that gun violence “Ought to obsess us” and he invoked the

United Kingdom

and

Australia

as modeling the correct parodigm. After “just a single mass shooting occurred in those Countries,” he said, “they change.… mobilize and they changed.… “

Obama thinks Australia and the United Kingdom should be our models. First, you should know that these Countries forced the registration of all guns then confiscated them and made their ownership illegal. Neither of these Countries have a Constitution, by the way. In any case, let’s just see how they are doing now:

From the Ballina Shire Advocate, August 21, 2013, “New plan unveiled to tackle out-of-control gun violence.”
From News Limited Network August 2, 2013, “Is Australia starring down the barrel of a gun crisis?”
The Government's latest crime figures were condemned as "truly terrible" by the Tories today as it emerged that gun crime in England and Wales soared by 35% last year.

How could this be? Guns are illegal in Australia and the UK.

I do not think the current administration knows what it’s talking about. They just want to do “something”, anything including violating the Constitution. Well, let’s attack the problem and get the illegal guns off the streets! And, at the same time, leave our law abiding Citizens alone.

The administration also wants a National registry of all gun owners. We have gun registration; it’s just not centrally controlled by FedGov.

See this for a discussion of Why does Wayne LaPierre, the head of the National Rifle Association, claim that Obama wants a national federal registry for guns?

Check out this recent headline “Detroit Police Chief Craig Endorses Concealed Carry For A Safer City”. It seems that “But over the course of a 36-year career in law enforcement, Craig found that violent criminals believed in gun control, too. After all, why would bad guys want to increase the probability that their victims are capable of matching force with force?” Read more…

It should be clear by now that we are safer with the way things are now than we would be by banning guns. We have plenty of gun laws on the books save improving the reporting of mental defects and 100 percent background checks. Don’t be swayed by the Washington rhetoric, they are on the wrong track. We need to address the real problem, criminals with guns!

More notes:

John F. Kennedy was a Life member of the National Rifle Association. He supported Second Amendment rights for Americans, saying in an April 1960 statement, “By calling attention to a well-regulated militia, the security of the nation, and the right of each citizen to keep and bear arms, our founding fathers recognized the essentially civilian nature of our economy. Although it is extremely unlikely that the of government tyranny which gave rise to the Second Amendment will never be a major danger to our nation, the Amendment still remains a major declaration of our basic civilian-military relationships, in which every citizen must be ready to participate in the defense of his country. For this reason, I believe the second amendment will always be important.”

Surprising findings from a comprehensive report on gun violence. Read more… ([10])

13 Must-Know Stats on Gun Violence and Public Shootings. Read more… ([11])

Some U.S. Cities Have Higher Gun Violence Than ENTIRE Nations — Check This Map Read more… ([12])

Quoting from Federal Judge Chang (he heard the case against Chicago pursuant to which the City attempted to ban licensed gun dealers (gun stores), from operating within the City “whatever burdens the City hopes to impose on criminal users also falls squarely on law-abiding residents who want to exercise their second Amendment right”. He concluded that the law was unconstitutional. He also cited a study by Chicago’s lawyers which concluded that licensed dealers (gun stores) “play a minor and unimportant role as direct sources of the criminal handgun supply”.