I hope to provide some sanity to the discussions on the recent killings and shootings we have sadly (again) experienced.
I'm a gun owner, I'm a Paramedic in a mid-sized city and see gun violence regularly, I'm in the Army Reserves and have taught "gun" use to over a thousand young men and women. I teach gun safety classes required to get a State CCW permit.
I don't support many of the ideas being spouted as "commons sense laws that would prevent these mass shootings." I do support laws that would actually do something to reduce them.
I will explain them and why after the squiggle, I hope I've given you enough to choose to click.
This won't be really short. The issue is far to complicated to try to lower it to sound bites. I also want to provide information you can use to counter the sound bites.
Laws that would work.
These would be laws that are actually enforced. For starts, that radical Rand Paul of all people proposed a law that makes sense: Require local and state police departments to update the NICS-The National Instant Criminal Background Check System, (not the TV show NCIS which I keep typing even though I know better) within 24 hours. This would have stopped the South Carolina shooter.
It would help because checking to see if someone is in the list of barred buyers only helps if they are actually on the list.
Number 2
Next item that would do a lot to to stop criminals from getting guns is 100% background checks on all non-family transfers of guns. Study after study shows that guns bought with a background check are hardly ever used in crimes. Something like 2% according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics. Criminals currently avoid background checks - duh, of course - because it blocks them from buying them. So they use other sources of guns. The most common is private transfers. They go to back street dealers, or buy from adds in the paper. These sales don't require a check (except in some states like Oregon.) So they account for about 60% of the source of guns to criminals. Not gun show dealers. But gun show parking lots and backyards.
Personally I would love to see a second list of Pre-Approved Gun Buyers. Where you could submit for an annual background check for a small fee to cover the cost and get an ID card that you present when you want to buy a gun along with a second ID proving your who you say you are, the seller calls 1-800-pre-approved gives the ID number and gets a Yes or No. If yes, no forms needed to fill out. If no, then the normal form 4473 gets done and NICS does its job. (Any valid Military ID would also count as a PAGB ID) Of course the two lists would be cross-checked.
Having a PAGB list gets rid of the NRA's rant that doing background checks "creating a national registration list of guns the government will use to confiscate guns with". It also does not "ban people from guying guns", in 2013 over 16 million guns were sold with background checks, and an additional 800,000 were blocked. Of course less than 3,000 of the people blocked were ever followed up on by the police. It is against the law to try to buy a gun when you are prohibited from owning one. (something else that would reduce the number of criminals with guns, to actually arrest the criminals who try to get guns)
Number 3
Another law that would work is to require longer mandatory sentences (aka jail time) for criminals who use or have a gun when they commit a crime. Several studies show that locking up violent criminals does reduce crime AND murder. (another Duh study) However too often DA's let criminals plea out and drop possible gun charges or never bother to charge them in the first place. Mandatory sentences for violent crime and guns will only work if they are enforced. And personally, I would rather have the thug who threatened to shoot the little old lady for her social security check in jail for 15 years, than some heroin using loser/abuser.
The NRA has advocated this approach for a long time, just not very loud. Often you will find it at the bottom of their lists. Or they cover it with the "enforce the laws on the books now". - (see number 1.) Besides, what "tough on crime" politician would be against it. Which makes the fact that such ideas never get out of committee really get you mad at politicians of both parties.
Number 4
Mandate that all guns other than the ones being carried by a person must be kept locked up. What this does is reduce the number of guns stolen - which account for about 30% of guns used in crimes. It has the side benefit of reducing child negligent discharge and deaths.
I know fellow gun owners who refuse to lock up their guns simply because "the anti-gun radicals want me to be disarmed". And honestly many of the mandatory lock up laws from the 70's and 80's did say that. DC made me keep my guns disassembled and locked away from the ammo at all times even in my own home. Today's mandatory lock laws make it clear that if you have it under your control it does not need to be locked up and unloaded.
This answers the complaint by gun nuts that "if it is locked up and unloaded, I can't use it to protect my family when the hoards kick in my door to steal my collection of tin foil hats"! Well, honestly if the tin foil hat hoards kick in your door and you don't have a gun on your person, it might as well be unloaded and locked up if you have to run to your bed room to get it from under your pillow.
The refusal to lock up your guns makes no sense to me. I have over $12,000 invested in my guns. I've been collecting my "arsenal" for over 20 years, as well as the guns i've inherited from family. What person would leave $12,000 of gold or jewelry laying about when you are not around? Yet many gun owners leave $800 guns tucked under a pillow or on an end table.
Laws that won't work and are aimed at disarming gun owners.
Waiting periods. Criminals don't use them, they go for the private sale which is exempt from waiting periods. All it does make buying a gun legally harder.
Registration. Does not work, has never been shown to help solve crimes, and only increases the cost of buying a gun. Add in that several times the registration system has been used to confiscate legally owned private guns that suddenly became "illegal" due to changing the law. That plays directly into the NRA's claims.
Magazine limits. yeah, sounds nice. "If they only have a few bullets they can't shoot as fast." In the Oregon case, made no difference as the killer lined up people and then started to execute them. Most mass killings fired a lot of rounds, they were not pressed for time to reload until the end when the first police showed up, then it became an issue. Reloading is a skill, I've fired 10 5 round mags in just two seconds slower than firing two 25 round mags. It is just a "feel good" recommendation.
Cosmetic feature bans. The Assault Weapon argument of the NRA is very valid. A bayonet lug, heat shields, pistol grips, adjustable stocks, etc. don't effect the capability of the bullet to do damage. Just because the gun "looks" like something the military uses does not change the ability to work. Remove all those cosmetic items and the gun will still work the same and do the same damage. So really, stop demanding bans on cosmetic features. That just plays into the NRA's hate speech fund raisers.
We need to focus on what does work, makes sense, is able to defend from facts and appeals to the gun nuts desire to "keep criminals from having guns". This would be more effective than all the feel good laws ever passed.
I know some will disagree, partly because I discount the Assault Weapon Ban as not effective (it has been over 10 years since it was ended, millions of AR 15's have been sold and there has been no change in the number of criminals uses per person). Others will freak because I support some gun control laws. (might even call me a non-gun owner poser)
I like my guns. My daughters love going target shooting with me, my wife supports me with the IDPA events I go to twice a year and lets me budget money for ammo. (and does not tease me that she is a better shot with her .380 than I am with my .45)
I will oppose any ban or any attempt to block ownership of firearms by citizens. But I will support rational laws that reduce - not prevent - criminals from getting guns easily. As long as humans are human, we will have crime, but we can make it harder and more risky to get and use a gun in a crime with out making it harder for citizens to use their Constitutional (and in my opinion G-d given) right to own weapons to defend themselves.
half of my collection in 2003, Upstate New York (Ithaca), At fourth annual Warsaw Ghetto Shoot Out on April 19th.