Gun Show Gimickry

Gun Show Gimickry

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

This comes from one of those cutesy little point by point emails you get that's been forwarded from someone, who forwarded it from someone else ... well, I responded to it with what I thought was sound argument – for a right wing Christian conservative extremist, that is.
Here's the response. See what you think.

   Point: Gun shows have always offered a way for "straw purchasers" to funnel weapons into the hands of criminals.
   Notice how they make it look. As if the people that go to gun shows are there to, "funnel weapons into the hands of criminals." Just picture it, two guys in camo with NRA patches on the shoulders at a gun show ...
"Hey John, you going deer hunting this weekend?"
"Yeah, Mike, just as soon as I'm done funneling weapons into the hands of criminals."
Are they serious with this?

Point: "Straw purchasers" are legal gun buyers who are acting as surrogates for the criminal who wants the gun.
If it's not too painful for the anti-gun lobby, let us now use our brain for just a moment. Why would a law abiding citizen go to a gun show and risk committing a felony so that he could help a "criminal" get a gun to use in a crime. Another question – again, brain in action – why would a criminal, who can go on the street in just about any city, with no knowledge of anyone or anything and, as was demonstrated in a TV special by a news crew that video taped the experiment, have a gun in their possession within an hour. No no, a criminal wouldn't do that. Instead, he would stalk the gun shows until he saw some good ol' boy on his way in, walk up and ask him to buy a gun for him.
Uh ... yeah.

Point: The inconvenience of a background check at these shows is a small price to pay, if the stricter controls will save lives.
They won't. Again, I don't care about "the inconvenience of a background check" I care about the inconvenience of a tyrannical government. I care about the inconvenience of the state violating the highest laws of our land, that dastardly and irritating little document known as The Constitution of the United States. If our government can violate that little mistake made by the framers of our Constitution, that little mistake we know as the second amendment, then they can violate ANY of the other protections we rely upon to ensure our God given freedoms.
I, for one, would rather they didn't.

Point: A February 1999 report by the ATF found approximately 10 percent of the guns used in crimes by juveniles and children were sold at gun shows and flea markets.
This is, I must admit, a fairly clever deception by the anti-gunners. They make it look as if the buyer has gone to a gun show for the purposes of getting a gun so that he can go out and commit that rape, or rob that convenience store. What they don't tell you though, is that 10% is merely a percentage of guns taken off the criminal. Most likely, he stole the gun from a home, pawn shop, gun store, or any number of the other places that obtained it through legal means. That statistic they use may lead one, who doesn't think it through, to believe that a group of gang members are just sitting around, planning their next nefarious caper and thinking ...
   "Damn! Here me and my homeys sit, needing to do some theft, drug dealing, and murder, but alas, our plan is foiled; we are all out of weapons and have no idea where to get some. Hey, Bob, do you know where we can get some guns?"
   "Yeah, Mark, not to worry. All we have to do is go to the gun show. It's five dollars to get in, but, with this coupon I received in the mail, they'll knock two dollars off."
"Yay!!! Gteat, Bob. We can get in for only ... let's see, if I have five apples and my neighbor takes away ... yeah, that's right, we save two bucks. It'll only cost us three dollars to get in. We're saved. Now we'll have all the guns we need and can go on that shooting spree we've been planning for so long."

But actually, none of the points mentioned above matter. We are a country that, at one time, loved, fought for, bled for, and died for liberty. And although those in the modern day press, with a maniacal and egoist arrogance, consider themselves to be the protectors of our liberty, they are gravely mistaken. The Constitution is the protectors of our liberty. But it can only protect us if we apply it. Some on the left, the anti-gun lobby for instance, don’t seem to hold it in very high esteem. That's what's wrong with this country today. If we could bring ourselves back to those days when that God given document meant something and was not so easily shoved aside for some political agenda, we will again have justice for the innocent, punishment for the criminal, and a peaceful and prosperous nation. And we will not have politicians in office who think that the best way to protect the American people is to rape the Constitution ... for the greater good, you see.

Keck