Washington Post: Why Don’t People Listen To Gun Owners Who Support Restrictions?

Nothing will stop the gun haters from propagating their ideas which do not work, and will only effect the law abiding citizens

Most gun owners support restrictions. Why aren’t their voices heard?

Once again, their voices are missing from the debate.

Gun owners who favor tighter restrictions on firearms say they are in the same position after the mass shooting in Oregon as they have been following other rampages — shut out of the argument.

The pattern, they say, is frustrating and familiar: The what-should-be-done discussion pits anti-gun groups against the National Rifle Association and its allies, who are adamantly opposed to any new restrictions on weapons.

Gun owners who occupy the middle ground complain that they are rarely sought out or heard, yet polls show that the majority of gun owners support universal background checks and other controversial limits. President Obama is reportedly considering using his executive authority to impose new ­background-check requirements for high-volume dealers in private sales — and many gun owners may support that.

This is all about being a hit piece on the NRA and those who aren’t for increasing the background checks. Note: I’m not a member of the NRA. I’ve never felt the need. I don’t agree with everything they do. But, they do work hard to protect our Constitutional right from what the gun grabbers want to do

Surveys by Johns Hopkins and the Pew Research Center show that about 85 percent of gun owners favor universal background checks, an idea fiercely opposed by the gun lobby. Gun owners also strongly support a federal database of gun sales, prohibiting ownership for those convicted of domestic violence and barring people with mental illness from buying guns.

Most law abiding gun owners are fine with background checks. I certainly am. Those I know with guns are. We’re certainly for prohibiting ownership to domestic abusers and those with mental illness that makes them a danger. But, let’s consider why the NRA and other gun lobbies oppose the “universal background checks” idea

Gun control supporters initially opposed NICS. However, once they recognized that NICS was inevitable, they began advocating steps aimed at incrementally transforming it into a national registry of guns. At first, they wanted background checks required on all private (i.e., non-licensee) sales, trades and gifts of handguns. Then they wanted background checks on private transfers of all firearms at gun shows. Now, they demand background checks on all private transfers of all firearms, regardless of location, and they want the FBI to retain, for an indefinite period, records on people who pass NICS checks to acquire firearms.

NRA opposes expanding background check systems at the federal or state level. Studies by the federal government show that people sent to state prison because of gun crimes typically get guns through theft, on the black market, or from family members or friends, and nearly half of illegally trafficked firearms originate with straw purchasers—people who can pass background checks, who buy guns for criminals on the sly. No amount of background checks can stop these criminals.

NRA also opposes gun registration. Expanding background check systems and allowing records to be kept on people who pass background checks to acquire guns would be steps toward transforming NICS into the national gun registry that gun control supporters have wanted for more than a hundred years.

As we can see, the anti-gunnites have incrementally pushed for more and more, and want this registry, which is government keeping track of private ownership of guns. As the recent IRS issue shows, not too mention all the hackings of federal government agencies, we can’t trust our information in government hands.

Second, increasing this won’t actually do anything for those engaged in wrong-doing with guns. Wayne LaPierre, head of the NRA, also stated that the system is not working, since the roughly 250,000 prohibited people have never been prosecuted for attempting to purchase a firearm. The NRA used to support universal background checks, meaning everyone who purchases, regardless of where, but, the system is broken. Illegal purchases/attempted purchases are not prosecuted. Mental health information is very often not entered in the system.

BTW, why no mention that 64% want more armed security in schools, a notion gun grabbers are very much against? Same survey.

Though there is less support for banning high-powered assault rifles — about 49 percent of gun owners would, vs. 64 percent of non-gun owners, according to Pew — gun control advocates are emboldened that a near majority is out of lockstep with the gun lobby.

Except, these “high-powered assault rifles” are anything but. One can purchase much more powerful rifles. The .223 isn’t exactly the most powerful bullet out there. And all they mean is “scary looking weapon”.

Really, though, the fallacy of the survey is shown in that 58% favor banning semi-automatic weapons. That just shows that most do not understand what different types of guns are. Semi-auto means pull the trigger, one bullet exits the barrel, and one bullet moves from the magazine into firing position. But, the gun will not fire again till the trigger is pulled. Heck, we could almost say a revolver is semi-automatic. Do the gun grabbers want only guns which fire the same as they did during the War for Independence?

This is all stale rhetoric, which won’t take guns out of the hands of bad actors. Chicago has some of the most restrictive gun laws in the nation, yet, they continue to see high levels of gun-play and murders. Same with D.C., Baltimore, Detroit, and other Democratic Party run cities. Lets look for ways to get the guns out of their hands, while significantly increasing penalties for those who use weapons for crime. How about re-instituting hard time? How about chain-gangs out working on roads? Let’s stop restricting those who want guns for self-defense and can pass a background check, and start going after the bad actors.

Crossed at Pirate’s Cove. Follow me on Twitter @WilliamTeach.

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