Truth, Lies and In Between

It is time to get on your horse. The MSM and the Brady bunch are going to ride the latest spate of gun violence for all it’s worth.
Time for some statistics and there needs to be a concerted effort from gun owners and lobbyists to keep these assholes the hell off our rights.

Let’s start with the gun show myth:

Under federal law, firearm dealers-persons engaged in the business of selling firearms for profit on a regular basis-are required to conduct background checks on anyone to whom they sell any firearm, regardless of where the sale takes place.

In other words, a background check must be conducted by the gun dealer, even at a gun show.

I talked to a dealer at the Crossroads of the West gun show in Ontario back in January; it is the same process, as if I was standing in his gun store in Riverside. I could have put $100 down, did all the paperwork required by federal and state law, and proceed to wait for 10 days. After the 10 days were up, I could take my happy ass down to Riverside paid the amount due and pick up my new firearm.

What ended up happening, was I went to Bass Pro Shops in Fontana, and bought a rifle there. Same process. Except this time I had to pay in full right then. And in this case, I had to wait 10 days, just like I would have had to do at the gun show.

Under current federal law, it is illegal to “engage in the business” of “dealing in firearms” without a license from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. “Engaged in the business” means buying and selling firearms as a regular business with the objective of profit. Violations carry a five year prison sentence and a $250,000 fine.

A Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) report on “Firearms Use by Offenders” found that fewer than 1% of U.S. “crime guns” came from gun shows, with repeat offenders even less likely than first-timers to buy guns from any retail source. This 2001 study was based on interviews with 18,000 state prison inmates and is the largest such study ever conducted by the government.

Previous federal studies have found few criminals using gun shows. A 2000 BJS study, “Federal Firearms Offenders, 1992-98,” found only 1.7% of federal prison inmates obtained their gun from a gun show.6 Similarly, a 1997 National Institute of Justice study reported less than 2% of criminals’ guns come from gun shows.

The gun market in America is highly regulated. The system works. It prevents people that shouldn’t have access to guns from acquiring them from legal gun sellers. Shutting down gun shows wouldn’t have any impact on gun violence. None.

If you want to control gun violence, enforce current laws and increase the penalty for gun related crimes. Gang members that are caught using a gun should be sentenced to life imprisonment. Other criminal offenders should receive a minimum sentence of 20 years just for possession of a gun during a crime, on top of whatever would be given for the crime itself. I guarantee that this would lower the crime rate in which guns are used.

Deep Thoughts, By Katie Couric

From KDBC TV:

Background checks are meant to keep criminals from owning guns, but just about anyone can walk into a gun show and buy a weapon from a private dealer, no questions asked.

The Brady Campaign to prevent gun violence reports that 83% of Americans favor background checks on ALL gun sales.

Legislators have an obligation to protect the Constitution.

They also have a responsibility to protect citizens from more of the tragedies that keep replaying themselves in communities all across America.

That’s a page from my notebook.

I’m Katie Couric, CBS News.

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