"Delvin Benet" wrote in message
.. .

On 1/31/2013 2:48 PM, rangerssuck wrote:
On Thursday, January 31, 2013 5:16:56 PM UTC-5, Ed Huntress wrote:
Sorry, Chris, that this is a mess. I'm rusty and I messed it up.

Hey, Ed -

Welcome back. I *thought* this might draw you out from under your rock.
Thanks for responding to Chris - even at your rustiest, your writing is
very well thought out and to the point.

What you said about registration is exactly what I meant. If you can't
keep track of the guns, how can you know how they are getting into the
hands of the criminals? I fail to see how this places any restrictions on
any law-abiding person to bear arms.

You *don't* know how the guns got into the hands of the bad guys, even
*with* registration. You don't know if it was stolen, borrowed, sold
outside dealer channels, or anything else. Besides, a gun first has to
be recovered from a criminal, but frequently they aren't - if the gun is
stolen, it will often be simply discarded or passed on to some other
criminal.

The only rationale you've given for registration is unsound.

================================================== ============

Let's see what a sound program would be. By the way, this system is
something like the one we will almost inevitably have, sooner or later, so
we'd might as well get it all out now.

First, universal background checks. To have background checks for purchases
from FFL holders, but not from the "collectors" gag who sell at gun shows,
is insane. Even Wayne LaPierre stumbled and bumbled trying to explain it,
knowing that it's sheer lunacy. The background check system has stopped well
over a million illegal purchases. How many just turned around and bought
from a "private" seller? We don't know. We don't have the stats. There is a
claim that only a couple of percent of guns recovered in crimes came from
gun shows, but that refers to guns bought from FFL holders who sell at
shows. We don't know how many came from "private" sellers. We can't tell.

Second, make the background check rational. In other words, provide enough
money to police and mental health institutions to get the databases up to
date and fairly complete. Since conservatives believe in direct fees for
users in opposition to funding things from general tax funds, finance it
with a tax on guns and ammo. I'd go along with that.

Third, 100% registration at the time of sale, new or used, commercial or
private sale, and creation of a database available to police. What that will
do is enable the easy tracking of guns back to the last legal purchaser.
Then find out what happened to the gun when that purchaser last had it. If
it was stolen, find out if the theft was reported within 48 hours of the
owner's awareness. If not, he gets a hefty fine. And no theft should go
unreported after any three-month period. That's long enough for any gun
owner to check his inventory and to notice if any gun is missing. Again, a
hefty fine if he reported his guns intact and it's discovered that a theft
occurred a year ago. That will be harder to prove, but it's a reasonable
imposition of responsibility. Once people know the law is serious about
this, I would expect a big jump in securing guns well and a heightened sense
of how seriously we all take it.

All of that will put a damper on strawman sales. It won't stop them, but the
responsibilities described above will make it harder for a straw purchaser
to claim loss due to theft. Being able to easily track down the purchaser
will make it all but impossible for those sales to result in "gifts" and
private sales to family members and friends who the purchaser knows is
prohibited from owning guns. A sale or gift to a known felon will get jail
time. A sale to anyone else, without a background check and a recording of
the sale to the registration database, likewise will get jail time. And
we'll be able to find those strawmen with such a system. Before long,
they'll know it. Really bad news travels fast in the criminal community.

Up-to-date databases on ownership and criminal/mental health records will
enable easier confiscation of guns from criminals who were *not* criminals
or nuts when they purchased a gun. If they failed to turn it in when they
became ineligible, more jail time.

Next, waiting periods for gun purchases. This will reduce some crimes of
passion and some suicides. My college roommate walked into a gun store,
bought a S&W .38 Spl. revolver, and killed himself with it less than two
hours later. Since I knew him from the time before he was sick until his
schizophrenia had progressed very far, I know he was impetuous, up-and-down,
and might have been saved and even made healthier. He was doing OK and then
went off his meds two weeks before he committed suicide.

Of course, with good background checks, Dan would not have been able to buy
the gun. He was committed years before. He would have faced two roadblocks.
That likely would have stopped him. It was his third suicide attempt, BTW,
but his first with a gun.

Next, require safety training for all first-time gun owners, like the NRA/PA
State safe hunter/safe shooter program my buddies and I all had to go
through in 1960. It was a good program. It got us off to a good start. We
took pride in handling our guns safely. Without the program, we would not
have been allowed to shoot in small-bore rifle competition or skeet at any
local club or range. We had to show our card.

There are some other things I'd favor, but this is about as far as things
probably will go. We'll tussle over ARs and big magazines, but I don't
expect anything definitive to happen there. I'd favor a lockup requirement
for all guns while no one is in the house, but I doubt if that would fly. In
fact, I don't expect much of the above during my lifetime, but that's
setting the schedule a little tight, anyway. d8-)

Anyone serious about wanting to do obvious, reasonable things to reduce gun
crime, accidental deaths and suicides will favor those things. They don't
prevent anyone from owning the firesticks of his choice. Accepting the fact
that our decision to own guns implies serious responsibility will go a long
way toward making this country grow up and put away our paranoid fantasies,
and our Walter Mitty delusions of heroic grandeur.

And we'll all still have our guns. I'll be able to shoot my Colt and Hi
Standard semiauto pistols, and all of my other toys as much as I want,
including the Mossberg 3-1/2" magnum shotgun that I shoot religiously. In
fact, whenever I shoot 3-1/2s in it, in light clothes, I yell "Jesus
Christ!"

Then he helps me see the light.

--
Ed Huntress