In light of the VT massacre, The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Ownership’s Paul Helmke is making the rounds. He’s hitting the rotary circuit:

Helmke would like to see a national dialogue about what he called the country’s gun problem and hoped that the NRA would get involved in that discussion.

I’m certain the NRA would, if you actually meant it. But you do not. Your proposals only place additional hurdles on the law-abiding. Up next is his opening salvo in the supposed dialogue. Short version: more restrictions on the law-abiding. Long version:

“Pass the NICS Improvement Act, introduced by Representative Carolyn McCarthy. This legislation provides funding incentives for states to provide appropriate records to strengthen the information in NICS. —

I would not be opposed if it was attached to the BATF modernization act that has been kicked around for a couple of years.

Require background checks for all gun sales, not just those from federally licensed dealers. —

Ah, the evil gun show loophole or, you know, lawful commerce among the law-abiding.

Rescind the requirement requiring that records of Brady background checks be destroyed within 24 hours of purchase approval. —

Impose a backdoor registry to go with the one we already have? No thanks.

Impose a waiting period under the Brady Law, to allow time to do accurate and complete review of appropriate records. —

Waiting periods have shown to have no impact on crime but resulted in at least two cases of women not having a gun when they needed them.

Reinstate the Federal ban on ammunition magazines of larger than 10 rounds that expired along with the Federal assault weapons ban in 2004, and pass a ban on military-style assault weapons. —

Well, we all know that is one stupid law and it had no impact on crime. Here’s why.

Repeal the so-called “Tiahrt Amendment,” which as an annual appropriations rider bars the Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) from sharing data on the sources of guns used in crimes. —

A lie. Police agencies investigating crimes have access to the data.

Require that new semi-automatic handguns be equipped with technology to allow police to quickly match shell casings found at a crime scene to the handgun from which they were fired. This technology, known as”microstamping,” would enhance law enforcement’s ability to rapidly solve gun crimes.”

Microstamping is a pipe dream. Forget about it. Mr. Helmke, for this to be a dialogue, what are you willing to trade for these pipe dreams?

And Helmke hits the blogs, asking: Gun Violence: What Are We Going To Do About It? Well, I’m going to buy guns. See, here’s the important part: None of your proposals target gun violence. They target gun ownership.

Posted in uncategorized on May 2nd, 2007 by SayUncle | RSS 2.0 |