Gun control efforts likely to be feel good laws that miss the mark

Where is the latest round of gun control going to go?  I don’t know.  

If past performance from the our Caligula, D.C. azzweasels is any indication, probably nowhere useful.  They will cite the El Paso/Dayton shootings as a pretext for whatever lame-brained scheme they devise, but when asked if their scheme would have prevented El Paso/Dayton the likely response will be, “No, but we have to start somewhere.” 

Take universal background checks (UBC)…please.  Both shooters passed a background checks.  YGBSM!  No.  I'm not. Their weapons were legally purchased. So when people ask, “Would the UBC have prevented the El Paso/Dayton shootings”, the answer will be, “No, but we have to start somewhere.”  

They can pass a UBC that I’m good with as long as meets 3 requirements, 1) It cannot place any financial burden on the private transfer (Father to son) of weapons.  Demo-Dopes advocate for free and universal healthcare.  We should have the same for a constitutionally protected right.  2) It must be instantaneous.  “Losing the paper work,” cannot be used a subterfuge for denying the transfer.  3)  All records of the transfer MUST be destroyed within 90 day of the transaction.  The forms used for such transfers cannot be used as a de facto government gun registration system. 

So called red flag laws are problematic pre-crime laws.  Who decides?  Thanks to the Demo-Dope Party there is not one department within the government that can be trusted to be an honest broker on such issues.   We know that the left will “SWAT” their neighbors if they have a problem with them.  When red flag laws are passed there will be all kinds of false flag, red flag claims, 98% of which will be filed by Leftist d-bags against law abiding gun owners. 

If the idiots in Caligula, D.C. go down this road, there need to be very substantial guardrails. 1)  Any citizen who files a false claim gets a mandatory 18 month prison sentence and mandatory $10,000 fine.  Without stiff penalties for false flag accusations, AntiFa, Demo-Dopes and corrupt law enforcement will certainly bastardize the system.  2) Any judge that knowingly suspends a citizen’s rights based on false flags gets a mandatory 5 year suspension from the bench.  We know that Leftist judges are more interested in politics than they are in justice.  These weasels will need to be checked.  3)  Any prosecutor who pushes a case based on false flag information is mandatorily disbarred and fined $10,000.  There must be stiff penalties to protect citizens from the Mike Nifongs in the prosecutor’s office.  4) There needs to be common sense rules for exercising warrants on anyone with a red flag accusation.  The presumption of innocence has to prevail.  Banging on the suspect’s door at 5:30 a.m., being met by an armed occupant and then shooting the occupant dead is a BS way to conduct operations on a citizen suspected of pre-crime. Ask him to turn himself in or pick him up on the street in the middle of the afternoon. 

If the Republicans want to propose their own commonsense gun control they’d propose UBC as outlined above and work on magazine capacity.  The most common sporting rifle magazine holds 30 rounds.  Is that excessive?  For my use, yes.  10 rounds for a good shot should be sufficient. Convince me I’m wrong. 

Even if magazine capacity were to be addressed in law, there are millions of high capacity magazines already out there.  What to do?  Buy back?  An exchange of 3 10 round magazines for each 30 round magazine turned in?  Honestly if that offer were to be made, I’d probably turn in five 30 round magazines for 15 10 rounders and keep the other 30 round magazines that I have. 

Gun buybacks 

Here’s another thing that crossed my small mind this weekend.  Slowest of all Joes – Biden says that he would ban all “assault riles. Period.” – "assault rifle" is a term I’m certain His Slowness cannot define.  Presumably there would be some kind of government buyback to make Slow Joe’s fantasy a reality. 

Here’s the problem.  The only thing accountable on modern sporting rifles is the lower receiver.  Enthusiast can buy a lower receiver for about $80.  The rest of the rifle parts can be bought with no FFL back ground check.  So if Slow Joe wants buy back sporting rifles, he’s likely not going to get much more than a pile of lower receivers. 

Now here’s another big deal. The lower receiver can easily be produced on a 3D printer with no serial number.  If a gunner tuned in his accountable lower receiver and used the government money to buy a lower receiver from a guy with a 3D printer, he’d have an untraceable sporting rifle.  Nice work Slow Joe.  You’re going a heck of a job. 

All of this points to the magnitude and difficulty of the problem.  It’s not likely that the idiots are going to stumble upon a workable solution that doesn’t run afoul of the 2^nd Amendment.  It’ll either be stupid window dressing type laws designed to make it appear as if something is being done or totally unconstitutional BS. 

If there’s to be serious gunm reform it has to include at least a proposed repeal and replacement of the 2nd Amendment so we will know where the BS artists are headed.  Also, if the NRA isn’t brought into discussions, we will know that the people working on changes are not serious. 

Today’s JG rant: US not the outlier on gun violence 

Re: Dr. Woody Myers editorial “Gun violence calls for many urgent steps” of Aug 9, 2019 

Dr. Myers is woefully misinformed, probably willfully so, but I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt for now.  His statement that, “We are not the only country that struggles with violent racists, domestic abusers or psychotic killers. But we are the only country where this keeps happening. Why? Because we are the only advanced country with widespread and easy access to weapons of war. And with weapons of war, everything is worse” is false. 

We are not “the only country where this keeps happening.”  Not even close.  It might surprise Dr. Myers, the JG editorial staff and willfully ignorant Leftists that the United States is not even in the top 10 of countries with a death rate per million of population due to mass public shootings. Neither is the United States in the top ten for frequency of mass public shootings per million of population. 

If asked to define a “weapon of war”, no doubt Dr. Myers would retreat to lefty talking points and rely on the cosmetics of the weapons rather than how they function. 

This is why the Left cannot be trusted to bargain in good faith on “common sense gun control.”  Put plainly, they don’t know what they are talking about, so they just plain lie.  

If the Left wants to advance “gun safety” they should deal with the truth and the facts.  If the Left cannot get basic statistics right, if the Left cannot accurately define the weapons that they want to restrict, every argument they make thereafter looks foolish and contrived for political purposes. 

The best thing the Left can do to advance their cause in this argument is educate themselves and tell the truth.  

Friday, August 09, 2019 1:00 am

Gun violence calls for many urgent steps

Dr. Woody Myers

Do something.

That was the plea Monday in Dayton. And the day before in El Paso. And before that in Gilroy, and before that in many other communities across the country.

Our country is in pain. Our nation is in shock.

Gun violence in America is an epidemic – more dangerous than Ebola, because proximity is not required and death can be transmitted from hundreds of yards away. And the precursors to this epidemic are easily spread in online chat rooms in all 50 states and from overseas.

We are not the only country that struggles with violent racists, domestic abusers or psychotic killers. But we are the only country where this keeps happening. Why? Because we are the only advanced country with widespread and easy access to weapons of war. And with weapons of war, everything is worse.

In Dayton, law enforcement did its job in 30 seconds, which with an assault rifle and a 100-round magazine in the hands of a coward is all it takes to cost American lives.

Mental illness can create psychopaths who are still today, even after Sandy Hook, easily able to find guns and ammunition and to kill at will. Anger and frustration and hate can create sociopaths who are still today, even after Columbine, easily able to find guns and ammunition and to murder.

And we in Indiana are not in any way immune. Dayton is about 40 miles from Indiana. And Chicago, touching the Indiana border, just had its worst weekend of gun violence this year with seven dead and 52 wounded, some of whom still desperately cling to life.

A governor has no higher duty than to help protect the citizens of the state. And that protection is required before, during and after gun violence.

Stronger federal gun laws (like mandatory background checks) are important, but not the only answer. Better systems to identify and to report those at high risk for committing mass murder (like law enforcement monitoring of online threats and “cooling off” periods and screening of those accused of domestic violence) before they can purchase firearms are important, but, again, not the only answer.

Research to better understand and to better predict the factors leading to gun violence is vitally important as well, but is limited by what is called the Dickey Amendment, which hinders our health agencies like the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from conducting the research we desperately need.

This epidemic will require far more than thoughts and prayers. What we need, more than ever, now, is the immediate and active collaboration between law enforcement and public health leaders, gun safety experts, psychologists and psychiatrists to “do something” – something more to solve the problems.

We need our state legislators and our mayors and our congressional representatives to cooperate effectively and urgently to determine what new steps we take at the local, state and federal levels to make it less likely that you and I and our friends and loved ones suffer like Dayton. Like El Paso. Like Chicago. Like Noblesville West Middle School. And like Indianapolis Martindale-Brightwood  where I grew up.

I am a gun owner. My dad gave me the shotgun he used when we went rabbit hunting together when I was a boy. Before he died, he gave me his favorite pistol. In the days when I had more time, I'd travel to target ranges with my other firearms. I personally took two of my five children to an approved gun safety class (and re-took it myself) before I'd allow them to handle weapons.

Gun ownership is a right, but it is a right that comes with local, state and federal requirements that must be met. Not everyone is capable of the enormous responsibility required. Gun safety is a societal responsibility. That is why we must have strong laws and effective monitoring to ensure that only those capable and accountable are in possession.

There is no one answer. There are many. It is not hopeless. We can do something more. And that is what leadership is all about – taking on tough problems, and finding solutions that work.

Dr. Woody Myers is former Indiana health commissioner and a 2020 candidate for the Democratic nomination for Indiana governor.