Could the government ban guns?
By DawnDee Bostwick
Waynesville Daily Guide
Tue Mar 24, 2009, 05:47 PM CDT
The week Barack Obama was elected president, the amount of criminal background
checks related to the purchase of firearms jumped 49 percent over the previous
year, FBI statistics show.
It’s a trend that hasn’t ceased to stop, as background checks for firearm
purchases have continued to increase in the months following the November
election, when compared to the same time a year ago.
February alone witnessed a 23.3 percent jump, and January and December weren’t
too far ahead, with 29 and 24 percent increases, respectively.
Fears of possible anti-gun legislation that’s being considered by the Obama
administration might be contributing to the rise in sales, as well as the
teeter-tottering economy.
The angst seems to be somewhat legitimate, although at this time it’s unclear
whether a push to reinstate the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act,
commonly referred to as the “assault weapons ban” will be successful.
“Well, as President Obama indicated during the campaign, there are just a few
gun-related changes we would like to make, and among them would be to
reinstitute the ban on the sale of assault weapons,” Attorney General Eric
Holder said during a press conference last month that focused on growing
violence in Mexico.
According to the State Department, drug cartels are using “automatic weapons
and grenades” in confrontations against Mexican army and police units. The idea
is by putting the ban back in place, the flow of guns into Mexico would be
reduced.
Enacted in 1994 under then-president Bill Clinton, the assault weapons ban
prohibited 19 specific firearms in addition to the possession, manufacturing
and importation of the semiautomatic assault weapons and ammunition clips with
more than 10 rounds for civilian use.
Though a bill to reinstate the act hasn’t been introduced in Congress yet, and
Holder hasn’t given a timeline for when that might happen, numerous other
pieces of legislation have been. Six U.S. House of Representative bills are
currently being considered, the most troubling of which, gun-rights advocates
say, is H.R. 45, known as the Blair Holt’s Firearm Licensing and Record of Sale
Act of 2009.
If the legislation is successful, it would require a license for handguns and
semiautomatic firearms, including those people already own. License applicants
would have to under go a background check and take a written firearms
examination, meant to test the applicant’s knowledge of safe storage and
handling of guns, as well as the risks associated with the use of firearms in a
home, legal responsibilities of owners of such weapons and “any other subject,
as the Attorney General determines to be appropriate.”
Furthermore, “the bill would make it unlawful in nearly all cases to keep any
loaded firearm for self-defense. A variety of ‘crimes by omission’... would be
created. Criminal penalties of up to ten years and almost unlimited regulatory
and inspection authority would be established,” according to Gun Owners of
America, a non-profit lobbying organization led by former senator Bill
Richardson.
The bill would also make it unlawful to sell or transfer a “qualifying firearm”
to any person who is not licensed.
Other legislation includes H.R. 17 which would reaffirm the right to use
firearms for self-defense and the defense of a person’s home and family; H.R.
1074 would permit the interstate sale of firearms as long as the laws of the
states are complied with and adhere to federal law.
Bill Morris, Military Pro owner, said sales at his shop have increased as
rumors about possible legislation circulate.
“A lot of customers are afraid that the guns they enjoy shooting so much for
sports are going to be restricted,” Morris said. “A lot of the firearms people
use for hunting and have used for a long time are being threatened.”
Morris, who’s owned Military Pro for five years, spent 20 years in law
enforcement and said he’s been an active shooter for longer than that, shared
his perspective on current legislation, noting that much of it, he doesn’t
believe, is responsible.
“It’s kind of like wanting to ban a car with four wheels,” he said, noting that
most vehicles do have four wheels, but that doesn’t mean all cars are dangerous.
“There’s some responsibility needed when a bill is introduced so that any
attempt on a firearm ban would ban something that is truly destructive rather
than something blanket,” he said.
Pam Hutsell, the store’s manager, said in addition to the rise in sales,
they’re finding its getting more difficult to get certain firearms as
manufacturers’ have the items on backorder because of the increase in demand.
“What we’ve found is its been harder to get guns,” Hutsell said. “After the
election, it seems like a lot of people were more afraid that there were going
to be more (restrictions) put on guns.”
The NRA has come out against any such restrictions, and said of the proposal to
make the federal assault weapons ban permanent is unnecessary.
“Studies for Congress, the Congressional Research Service, the National
Institute of Justice, the National Academy of Sciences and the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention have found no evidence that gun prohibition or
gun control reduces crime,” the NRA-ILA stated.
“Guns that were affected by the ban are used in a only a tiny fraction of
violent crime — about 35 times as many people are murdered without any sort of
firearm,” the organization said.
A Supreme Court decision in 2003 in the case of Washington, D.C., v Heller,
reaffirmed the Second Amendment gives individuals the right to own firearms.
The amendment, ratified in 1791, says, “A well regulated miltia, being
necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and
bear arms, shall not be infringed.”
Though the spike in gun sales might be an early overreaction to an uncertain
agenda, there’s still plenty of questions lingering that are asking what the
government can, and will, actually do.
“I hear a lot of comments daily; ‘What did you hear? What did you hear?’,”
Morris said. “We don’t know where it’s going because there’s so many rumors.”
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