Great idea. Then only the criminals will have them.
Oh it's a great idea, it'll save many more lives. Chances are people like Seung-Hui Cho, George Hennard, James Oliver Huberty, Nidal Malik Hasan and Eric Harris & Dylan Klebold - who together massacred 102 and wounded 114 in a span of roughly 23 years would not have had access to the semi-automatic pistols used in the shootings - a Glock 17, Glock 19, Walther P22, Uzi 9mm, FN Five-seven and TEC-9; all easily concealable and the type of firearm that did the most damage and killing in each shooting rampage. And that's just half of them to have taken place in the U.S. since 1984.
Do you know where the vast majority of American criminals (as well as the Mexican cartels) get their guns from? It's a long read but educational nonetheless:
Virtually every gun starts out as a legally manufactured product, but the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) points to three common ways guns move from legal distribution channels to the criminal market:
1) Corrupt federally licensed gun dealers: Federally licensed gun dealers send more guns to the criminal market than any other single source. Nearly 60% of the guns used in crime are traced back to a small number—just 1.2%—of crooked gun dealers. Corrupt dealers frequently have high numbers of missing guns, in many cases because they’re selling guns “off the books” to private sellers and criminals. In 2005, the ATF examined 3,083 gun dealers and found 12,274 “missing” firearms.
2) Straw purchasing: Straw purchasing is the most common way criminals get guns, accounting for almost 50% of trafficking investigations. A straw purchaser is someone with a clean record who buys guns on behalf of someone legally prohibited from possessing guns. Straw purchasers are often the friends, relatives, spouses or girlfriends of prohibited purchasers. The two Columbine High School shooters recruited friends to buy guns for them at Colorado gun shows. One of the buyers admitted she would not have bought the guns if she had been required to submit to a background check.
3) Gun Shows and private gun sales: Gun shows have been called “Tupperware parties for criminals” because they attract large numbers of prohibited buyers. A loophole in federal law allows unlicensed or “private” sellers, many of whom work out of gun shows, to lawfully sell or transfer guns without conducting a criminal background check. Gun show dealers have been known to advertise to criminals with signs that read “no background checks required here.”
How Federal Gun Policy Contributes to Illegal Trafficking:
Congress has passed a series of laws in recent years that allow easy access to guns and restrict law enforcement’s ability to go after traffickers. Three policies in particular impede law enforcement’s ability to prosecute traffickers:
1) Keeping crime gun trace information secret: Until 2002, the ATF released aggregate crime gun trace reports to local police departments, researchers, policymakers and public safety advocates. The reports revealed for the first time that 1.2% of federally licensed gun dealers supply 57% of the guns used in crime. But, bowing to pressure from the gun lobby, Congress voted to restrict police access to crime gun trace data and cut off public access altogether. These restrictions, known as the Tiahrt Amendments (named for the Kansas Congressman who sponsored the bill), have passed in every Department of Justice budget since 2003, despite the fact that prominent law enforcement associations oppose them as a serious threat to public safety.
2) Handcuffing the ATF: The ATF, the sole government agency charged with enforcing federal gun laws, has operated without a permanent director since the Bush Administration, and operates with just 1,800 agents to monitor approximately 77,000 gun dealers. Given these constraints, it would take ATF 22 years to inspect all federally licensed gun dealers. Even if the ATF had the manpower to inspect most gun dealers, federal law limits the agency to a single unannounced inspection of a dealer in any 12-month period. Congress has made it increasingly difficult for the ATF to revoke licenses of crooked gun dealers.
3) An absence of records: It is impossible for law enforcement to know the whereabouts of millions of firearms in circulation today because Federal law explicitly bars the ATF from establishing a database of retail firearms sales, and private gun sellers are not required to keep a paper trail of transactions. Prior to 2001, federal authorities maintained criminal background check records for up to six months. Under President Bush, Attorney General John Ashcroft reversed this policy and ordered the destruction of all criminal background check records within 24 hours. Even though the General Accounting Office found that destroying these records endangers public safety, the policy remains in effect.
Sources:
1) Private Guns, Public Health - David Hemenway, 2005
2)
http://www.mayorsagainstillegalgunscoalition - Mayors Against Illegal Guns Coalition
3) A Gathering Storm - Police Executive Research Forum, 2006
4) Disrupting Illegal Guns Markets in Boston - Braga and Pierce, 2005
5) ATF 2000 - Commerce in Firearms
6) Murder and the Gun Maker - Worcester Magazine, 2007
7) Regulating Guns in America - Legal Community Against Gun Violence, 2006
8)
http://www.csgv.org - Coalition to Stop Gun Violence
9)
http://www.violencepolicycenter.org - Violence Policy Center
10) Pursuing honor students more than gangsters - Arizona Republic, 2007
11) The Damage Done - Buffalo News, 2005
12) Selling Crime - Americans for Gun Safety, 2004
13) The NRA: A Criminal’s Best Friend - The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, 2006
14) Death Valley - Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, 2007
15) Without a Trace - Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, 2006
If the government is going to start arresting law abiding citizens for owning firearms, then they better start executing anybody caught with marijuana as well.
Nowhere did I mention law abiding citizens should be arrested for owning firearms. I simply stated that - in my opinion - there needs to be a tighter control on handguns, more specifically semi-automatic pistols because they are easily concealable and can do a lot of damage in a short amount of time.
Rifles and shotguns in case of - for example - home invasion could be a lifesaver, I agree. I should have worded my post differently, my mistake in that respect. But - assuming you read the entire post - think of the lack of control, manpower, budget and the opposing conservative politicans and their ridiculous policies on gun control the ATF has to work with in order to try to avoid having as little as one of the above named perpetrators owning a handgun. It's a cruel joke and a cry of injustice for all the departed innocent victims who prematurely lost their lives because it appears there was no budget space to fit them in.
Then you have these morons trying to control the internet but don't give two shits about gun control - you should be facepalming them.
![:\](https://bluelight.org/xf/BL_Images/Orig_Emoji/wrygrin.gif "wry grin :\")
