More than three weeks after the Jan. 8 Tucson shootings, gun control advocates continue to call for President Barack Obama’s help in proposing legislation to enforce stricter gun laws. On Monday, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg set off more sparks when he revealed that two of his hired undercover investigators bought semi-automatic pistols at a gun show in Arizona without undergoing background checks.
The last true milestone in gun control legislation was in 1994 with the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act, which banned civilian possession of semiautomatic assault weapons and magazines. New legislation, the Large Capacity Ammunition Feeding Device Act and the Gun Show Background Check Act, would require background checks from those wishing to purchase guns at gun shows and further prevent high-capacity ammunition clips from being sold.
Any attempt to lessen the number of Americans with high-capacity guns or ammunition should be encouraged. Although the Second Amendment gives the right to bear arms, it doesn’t give to right to bear AK-47s or RPGs. This is the problem with the National Rifle Association: when Charlton Heston raises a three-foot long rifle and insinuates that Al Gore will have to pry it from his cold, dead hands, he forgets that the founding fathers never could have predicted how easily it would be for anyone to purchase such powerful weapons. Likewise, the founding fathers could have never predicted how many isolated violent incidents American towns would be subject to.
Background checks are admittedly controversial because of the personal information they reveal. It might be easier for employers to obtain incriminating information about someone’s, say, mental illness, if they can access that information through a database. However, it’s better for potential gun owners to encounter privacy issues than find themselves in a particularly depressive rough patch and decide to release endorphins by harming others. This isn’t what normally occurs, of course, but peoples’ psyches are infinitely complex and sometimes easily triggered. It’s a liability no one should have to worry about.
In many other aspects of America, so-called liabilities are treated seriously. Certain people can’t drive because of poor eyesight because they could injure others. For some reason, people with guns aren’t viewed as liabilities unless they do injure others, at which point they inspire a media frenzy. Instead of taking that chance, the Obama administration should promote prevention first and foremost, especially in the memory of recently lost lives.
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Our true pro Len is not with guns. 99.9 percent of guns, regardless of type, are owned by responsible ow.era who have never and will never use them for ill. Gun control efforts effect them, but not those bent on mischief, most of whole are already barred from ownership.
Our true problem is with the revolving door prisons and untreated and unsupervised mentally ill. While the mentally ill spree shooters get the attention, the majority of gun violence is related directly to drug trafficers and dealers, gang members, and others who are already prohibited from purchasing or owning firearms.
Mexico already has a near total prohibition of firearms. How’s that working out for them? Most of their guns may indeed come from America. However, they come from our government to Theo government a.d onto their streets through government corruption or deserters from their own military or police.