“Obama is going to take your guns away.”
That is today’s scare message, the 2013 version of Chicken Little hollering, “The sky is falling. The sky is falling.”
The president or Congress or the federal government are not going to take Americans’ guns from them in the wake of another dreadful mass shooting. What is likely to happen is much talk, excessive posturing then perhaps some action like restoring the ban on large capacity magazines and the waiting period for buying handguns. There may become a waiting period for any firearm purchase.
And none of the actions will stop the killing of people in this nation by pistols, rifles or shotguns.
Like many others, this writer’s question is what can be done about the misuse of guns, the heart of the entire matter.
When you look back at the mass shootings over the past several decades, some similarities are found — but not many. The persons who did the shootings were misfits. Call them “different,” and that is too vague a term. “Deranged”? Probably, at least most of them. But they used guns to do their killings.
And someone just the other day used a claw hammer to commit a murder.
Timothy McVeigh’s mass murder took more lives than all the gun mass murders in the United States combined, and he did not use a firearm.
A disclaimer here. This writer is not a member of the National Rifle Association, but I do agree with many — not all — of the NRA’s objectives.
Additional legislation to restrict the buying of guns will affect the legitimate purchaser and will have no effect on the street traffic in firearms. Stolen guns are used in a high percentage of firearm-related crimes, police statistics tell us.
Look back at the mass shootings we’ve had. Connecticut, Colorado, Virginia Tech, all the way back to the University of Texas in the 1960s. None of the guns used were stolen. None were purchased illegally. The recent Connecticut shooter used his mother’s guns, so perhaps somebody would call this a theft, but it’s doubtful. The mother had bought the guns legally.
Guns have three general and legal usages in our nation. One is self defense. Another is hunting, and a third is target shooting. This won’t change.
What has already happened in recent days is a jump is prices of used so-called assault rifles, the AR-15 type weapons. From $700 to $1,000 a few weeks ago, the prices being asked are now $1,500 to $2,500.
Ammunition of some types is scarce on store shelves. Yep, people are buying it in fear of coming restrictions.
I do agree with one form of gun control. A relative received a sturdy gun safe for a Christmas present. He has several firearms. Reducing the chance of gun theft is a logical step all of us can take and without governmental meddling.
We seldom see pickups riding around with guns in a rack in the rear window in contrast to 20, 30, 40 years ago. But guns of some type are in many vehicles on the road.
For us in Faulkner County, the people who will be involved in any gun control legislation are named Tim Griffin, Mark Pryor and John Boozman. None are in the “take away your guns” ranks.
It will not accomplish anything to talk to a state representative, a city councilman or a quorum court member about federal gun control. But pay attention to reliable news reports, not the hysteria of blogs and word of mouth.