The PSH Is Strong In This One

Last week there was a shooting down on Bourbon Street in N'Alens. The smoke has cleared, the blood, while not completely dry, is tacky, and the press is all over the issue.

It's almost a typical hit piece. Quote from an anti-gun organization? Check. Reference MAIG? Check. Drag the ATF into the piece? Got it. Get any quotes or statements from the NRA or similar organization? Not a chance.

Of course, it wouldn't be a hit piece without the usual distortions, half-truths, and outright lies.

So, a scumbag shoots a bunch of people. That he did so doesn't register on their agenda. That he used a handgun that can accept a high capacity magazine, well that just ain't right. I would like to see one of these 50 or 100 rd mags for a handgun. Leaving aside the AK-type pistols that take all the standard mags that come with the platform (yes, that includes the 75 and 100 rd drums), I wonder just what a 100 rd mag for a Glock 17 looks like?

We get into the lies when we mistakenly represent the 1994 AWB as 'outlawing' them is such a blatant lie it bears correcting. The '94 ban did not outlaw anything. It simply placed manufacture and import restrictions on new ones. 33 rd Glock mags were readily available on Sep 15, 1994 (the day after the ban went into effect), and were still prevalent on Sep 13, 2004 (the day before it sunset). What changed was cost.

So, after all that, we get to the crux of the article. It's a puff piece for Mayors Against (All) Illegal Guns. They're pushing their 10 ways to screw private gun ownership.

They are:

1. Allow criminal penalties for buying a gun for someone else.

(Already a federal crime. It's called 'straw buying' and is punishable by up to 10 yrs in Club Fed.)
2. Allow criminal penalties for buying a gun with false information.

(See #1, above.)

3. Allow criminal penalties for selling a gun without a background check.

(There is absolutely no way to enforce this. You can no more make people go through the NICS check for a private sale than you can a felon. Oh wait. I forgot. The 5th amendment protects felons from this little gem because that would incriminate them. Silly me.)

4. Require background checks for all handgun sales at gun shows.

(Since they don't mention abolishing private sales, I can only surmise that after all the 'stings' they did over the last couple of years, they didn't learn anything. All licensed dealers do background checks, regardless of where they set up, whether it's at a table at the gun show or behind the counter at the store.)

5. Require purchase permit for all handgun sales.

(Three words: Cold Dead Hands.)

6. Grant law enforcement discretion in granting concealed carry permits.

(And this has worked out soooo well in NYFC, LA, SF, and Newark, NJ hasn't it. Are you famous? Are you politically connected? Know somebody who can hook you up? If you answered no, then you're screwed. Just ask the residents of those cities who have verifiable need to CCW and have been denied how that's working out for them.)

7. Prohibit violent misdemeanor criminals form possessing guns.

(What is a violent misdemeanor? Jimmy and Bob get into a dust over Cindy-Lou at closing time? Or is it K-Dog who beat Old Man Smith half to death for his pension check. Misdemeanors are just that. Not as bad as felonies. Now if that misdemeanor carried a sentence of one year or greater in the city/county slammer, I've got a newsflash for you. Disqualified. Funny thing about them federal gun laws. They seem to cover that one just like they did in items 1 and 2.)

8. Require reporting lost or stolen guns to the police.

(Hmmm, this one is interesting. These laws have been on the books in several cities for a few years now, and I can't seem to find any reports where this has actually worked, let alone been used to prosecute anyone. Can you say solution desperately in search of a problem?)

9. Allow local communities to enact gun control.

(Yeah, I don't think that's going to happen. First you've got McDonald, then you have those pesky state preemption laws that don't really allow for that kind of thing.)

10. Allow inspections of gun dealers.

(This one is interesting. The ATF usually inspects them. Probably not as often as these fools would like, but they do get looked at. Just ask Red's Trading Post. Or are they thinking about the morons who work for Furious Mike who know nothing about guns, stores, or both trying to tell these guys how to run their business?)

I guess the bottom line question I've got to ask the MAIG folks is this. Since you've recommended all these little wish lists, just how is this going to help? I mean, if you're trying to stem the flow of illegal guns (and not ban them or nothing), just how does this help? Just looking at the biggest gun running operation in the last, I don't know, 50 yrs, [cough...Operation Fast and Furious...cough] all the dealers involved tried to call off the sales, and yet our own government overruled the better judgement of the proprietors. Funny how all the legislation in the world won't help when the Gun Cops tell you not to enforce them.

The more I think about this, the more it comes down to trying to be a mouthpiece for something that is on the cusp of becoming irrelevant.