Gun Laws
Look, I have a radical proposal, that I have made many times in the past on many different forums, to no avail: instead of passing new laws, why don’t we try actually enforcing the laws that exist? Instead of slapping wrists for violations of current guns laws, why don’t we try kicking some butts?
There are a handful of gun dealers who are tied to hundreds of weapons that show up at crime scenes around the country, and yet they still have their Federal Firearms Licenses. This is not right. This is not just. This cannot be allowed to continue.
Many of these operations have no showrooms or real stores, but they sell huge quantities of weapons. They get fines, and occasional suspensions but they stay in business.
It is time to actually fund the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, and to actually enforce the laws. The same thing needs to occur on the state and local level with real enforcement taking place and real penalties handed out. There is no point in passing new laws until we figure if the old laws will work. A law that isn’t enforced is a political press release.
4 comments
Bryan, you realize you are placing your (presumed) NRA membership status in danger by proposing something so reasonable! 🙂
I’ve been nearby on two occasions when firearms were discharged on our apartment grounds. Both were in the course of attempted robberies; fortunately, both robberies failed, though one victim was slightly injured. (As you may recall from my post a few months ago, one pair of robbers had the bad judgment to rob a resident who lived downstairs from a police officer… talk about quick response!) I’d really like to know where those guys got their guns… based on what I learned later, I doubt either pair of robbers could have passed any sort of background check.
I don’t know if any law acceptable even to reasonable and law-abiding gun owners could be passed in today’s political climate and could even begin to prevent such incidents, but enforcing the laws we’ve got already seems like a good place to start.
I have a few certifications from NRA for marksmanship, but I wouldn’t join on a bet because they back gun nuts, not gun owners, and much of what they do is bad for the woods and hunting.
They have safety courses, but oppose mandates to take them. What’s wrong with requiring proof that you know how to handle a weapon safely before you can buy one.
The NRA should be pushing for lead-free ammo, not armor-piercing ammo, and they should be pushing for getting rid of the gun-runners.
There are a lot of laws in this country that need to be enforced or eliminated, because the currently practice of “remembering” them when it is political useful doesn’t hack it.
Thanks Bryan for such an intelligent response. I’ve stolen your entire post. (Again…)
The real solution is to arrest every male in country on their 15th birthday and keep them in prison until their 46th birthday. Statistically that would eliminate 95% of all crime.