This week I applied for my Ohio permit to carry pistols and I believe law-abiding citizens have a right to carry guns because police cannot always protect us. However, the lax gun laws in this nation are insane and the gun industry and the politicians who support it have blood on their hands.
Annually, some 31,244 Americans die from gun violence including 12,632 who are murdered. http://www.bradycampaign.org/facts/gunviolence#NCIPC Yet even the Jan. 8th Tuscon massacre in which six people were killed and 13 people, including Democratic Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, were wounded, hasn't spurred change. Like renewing the assault weapons ban which expired in 2003 and banned sales of high capacity magazines like the 33-round clip used in the Tuscon shooting.
Commonsense tells you that you don't need 33 rounds to defend yourself and inconviencing shooters at shooting ranges by making them have to load more clips is a small price to pay to reduce the kind of carnage that occurred in Tuscon or in the 2007 Virginia Tech massacre that killed 33.
Another reasonable law would be to require all gun purchasers to obtain permits by undergoing criminal background checks and taking the education and gun safety class I attended on Sunday. In Ohio, everyone seeking to carry a concealed handgun must take the 12-hour class which includes demonstrating an ability to shoot safely and learning self-defense laws.
But instead of national requirements, states have a patchwork of laws. In Indiana, where I have a lifetime permit, no classes were required and all I had to do was pass a criminal background check.
Requiring purchasers of all types of guns to get permits and take the classes would discourage frivolous purchases. It would weed out people who literally can't shoot straight and would be a danger to themselves and others if allowed to purchase guns.
Many people have heard of the "gun show loophole" which allows purchases of guns without undergoing a criminal background check. But how many people are aware that in 45 states including Ohio, individuals who are not licensed gun dealers can sell guns to people without making the buyers undergo a criminal background check.
That's right. A licensed gun dealer has to jump through hoops, but not someone who “makes occasional
sales, exchanges, or purchases of firearms for the enhancement of a personal collection or
for a hobby, or who sells all or part of his personal collection of firearms.” http://www.lcav.org/content/private_sales.pdf
The only exception in Ohio is in Columbus where private sellers must have a "weapon transaction permit."
Columbus, Ohio, Code §§ 2323.20, 2323.21 However, the Ohio legislature in 2006 passed a law saying state gun laws supercede local laws.
Since private transactions require no paperwork or identification verification, sellers aren't even required to check the buyers driver's license enabling underaged people to buy guns. The Columbine shooters used guns bought by a friend from a gun show dealer. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/27/opinion/27tue2.html?_r=1&ref=dylanklebold
Kevin Randleman, the suspect in the March 19 fatal shooting Sandusky, Ohio police Officer Andy Dunn, is a career criminal. It's unclear how the .38 caliber pistol used in the shooting was obtained by the shooter, but under Ohio's laws and the majority of other states, criminals like Randleman can buy guns with no questions in private sales. A 2000 Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives report found unlicensed sellers were involved in a fifth of the agency's gun trafficking investigations and linked to 23,000 diverted guns. http://www.lcav.org/content/private_sales.pdf
Republicans will fight the increases tooth and nail because they are completely subservient to the National Rifle Association. Here in Ohio, Republican US Sen. Rob Portman received the third highest NRA contributions - nearly $42,000 - in the last election. http://www.opensecrets.org/industries/indus.php?ind=q13
However, President Obama aka The Great Capitulator, isn't much better. At the memorial to the Tuscon massacre victims, Obama waxed about 9-year-old victim Christina Green splashing through rain puddles in heaven. But he made no mention of banning the high capacity magazines used in her killing or did he mention gun control in his State of the Union speech.
The best Obama could do was a tepid editorial in the Arizona Star that while calling for faster and more thorough background checks made no mention of renewing the assault weapons ban or closing loopholes involving gun show or private sales of guns. http://azstarnet.com/news/opinion/mailbag/article_011e7118-8951-5206-a878-39bfbc9dc89d.html
The guys I took the gun class with are responsible gun owners who aren't looking to be vigilantes. They were told to call the police if there's a problem and that they only have the right to shoot as a last resort when their lives, or the lives of others, are endangered.
"At the end of the day, it's all about safe gun handling," our instructor told us. "The people who take this class aren't looking for problems. They're looking for protection."
The instructor made a legitimate complaint about businesses that post no gun signs making it illegal for licensed gun owners to carry in their establishments. Our instructor called them "criminal protection zones" noting criminals aren't likely to obey the signs.
But the instructor also said he believed requiring the class was, "an infringement on our rights." That's part of the problem: a belief by many gun owners that the Second Amendment means no restrictions whatsover on gun ownership. And that any laws are a slippery slope to government confiscation of all guns.
The NRA plays on this paranoia. I let my membership expire in disgust when during the pro-gun Bush II administration, the organization continued to stoke fears of confiscation.
The NRA's answer to gun violence is always to call for stricter sentencing of criminals without supporting laws to keep guns out of hands of criminals before they commit crimes. The carnage isn't just in the US. The majority of the guns seized in the horrendous Mexican drug war that has killed some 30,000 people since December of 2006 came from Texas and Arizona. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/12/12/AR2010121202663.html
Prior to the Giffords shooting, the Obama administration was planning to cut the BATF budget before reversing course and proposing increases. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/02/02/AR2011020205779.html
But it's not enough. Besides renewing the assault weapons ban and requiring all gun buyers to obtain permits, the BATF needs huge increases agents. The underfunded and the underfunded agency only has about 600 inspectors to check on the more than 100,000 licensed gun dealers who make some 8 million sales per year. http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1618392,00.html
When I asked Sandusky Police Chief Jim Lang whether he supported renewal of the assault weapons ban he said yes, but that it wouldn't stop guns from getting into the hands of criminals. That's true, but his logic is flawed.
Airbags and seatbelts and stricter drunken driving laws didn't stop automobile deaths, but they reduced them. The same way stricter building codes and sprinkler systems reduced deadly fires. Reasonable laws that don't infringe on law-abiding gun owners like myself would do the same.
Yes, the NRA and the gun industry are powerful, but few things worth doing are easy. It's the least we owe Officer Dunn and all the other gun victims.
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