E

Randy, what is your opinion, or the club’s opinion on Gun Control? Should there be any gun control at all, or should there be a waiting period?

My personal opinion is that gun control does not work. All you have to do is look at countries that have basically banned guns, such as Great Britain and Australia, and see that their violent crime rate actually rose after the banning of guns (because only the criminals had guns and they had nothing to fear from potential victims).

I think that waiting periods do little good. If someone is going to use a gun for violence then they are either going to not wait (and get one illegally) or they will wait the five days (or whatever) and then still do the crime. Also why are guns singled out? I'm getting ready for bed (I've got an early morning tomorrow) and don't have time to look up statistics but I'll bet that there is a very large percentage of people who are killed by knives. There is never a call for a waiting period for knives. How about cars? Many, many people are killed by cars (most by drunks). Should we have a waiting period on cars because some might abuse them? Would that waiting period alter anyone's behavior or save any lives? I doubt it.

I like the instant background check. It has improved tremendously over the last several years. The average wait was around 30 minutes. Now it's around five.

One loophole that I would close is the selling of guns by private individuals. With such sales the Firearms Transaction Record (ATF Form 4473) is not filled out. If I sell a gun to an individual I have no way of knowing if he is a citizen, a criminal, or a terrorist. I would make it where only FFL dealers can buy, trade, and sell guns. If a private citizen wants to sell a gun (me included) then he would have to get an FFL dealer to sell it for him (and they would be able to set a consignment fee). I know that this goes directly against our free enterprise system, but to prevent guns from falling into the wrong hands I think that it will eventually be the law of the land.

I don’t know what the answer is, but I would be in favor of some laws; that is, I would not be opposed to all laws as the NRA seems to be. They believe that if they succumb to some laws, then they are opening the door to governmental control. I don’t think that would ever happen. Who could possibly be against a person owning an assault rifle or an Uzi?

Suppose Henry Ford, in 1910, said that he was opposed to any governmental control on automobiles and traffic control. People would be going as fast as they wanted to, vying for right of ways at intersections, driving across lawns and sidewalks, no emissions controls, etc. It would be a nightmare.

So, based on that logic, I am not opposed to good governmental involvement – I just don’t know what it is at the present time. I do think, however, they will eventually have to be involved. It is the only way to curb some of the violence. An afterthought suggestion: Perhaps make all gun owners go through a gun safety course like we make under age hunters go through a safety course; now that might not be a bad idea.

The Brits and Aussies never thought that their guns would be banned, so, with those examples in mind, I understand why the NRA is so staunchly opposed to any gun control. The problem with "assault rifles/shotguns" is many of the anti-gun groups (who influence our lawmakers) define many of the guns that we commonly use for dove and deer hunting and clay target shooting as "assault rifles" or "assault shotguns." Semi automatic four shot capacity shotguns like the Remington 1187/1100 (owned by at least six FCS members) or the Browning Gold (owned by at least five FCS members) and semi automatic four shot capacity rifles like the Remington 7400 (owned by at least four FCS members) would be banned if they got their way.

I think that the answer to stopping gun violence is to implement across the country what 38 states have already implemented - concealed carry. Our founders made it very clear that the right of the people to keep and BEAR arms shall not be infringed. In every case where concealed carry has been implemented violent crime has gone down. The crooks are a lot more scared to commit crimes of violence in such states, as their potential victims might have the means and mindset to defend themselves.

The other thing that needs to happen is the idea that was espoused by Gov. Perry two days ago - eliminate gun free zones (or victim zones as I call them). A psycho bent on killing as many people as possible is going to go where he knows that the sheep aren't allowed to be armed. If CHL holders are allowed to carry their weapon everywhere (as our founders intended) then you'll see a tremendous reduction of school shootings.

E-mail received from John Bobo on 4/30/07