90% of Americans support background checks. The NRA writes contribution checks. Guess who wins?
Yep. The watered-down background checks law couldn’t even get through Congress when just about everyone supported it. What does that tell you?
The small percentage of those against background checks are either (a) NRA lobbyists who want to sell as many guns as possible for the gun manufacturers who pay them or (b) gun nuts who are convinced that everybody having a gun is the only thing standing between us and totalitarianism. And yet, that’s who Congress listened to.
So it still remains easier in most of the United States to buy a gun than it is to get a driver’s license and drive a car.
Most of the GOP angrily hate any kind of background check or restrictive registrations because they violate basic Constitutional rights. I know this, because I heard them say it while they were passing laws requiring background checks and restrictive registrations in order to vote.
And even so, this law would have done practically nothing. It was weakened to the point of being meaningless, with exceptions for selling guns to family, neighbors, or friends.
“Hi, welcome to Billy-Bob’s Gun Emporium.”
“I’d like to buy twelve military-style assault rifles and some armor-piercing bullets. But, uh, I don’t want to do a background check.”
“Where do you live?”
“On the other side of town.”
“We’re neighbors! Do you have any money?”
“Yes, right here.”
“Ah, then you’re also a friend! No problem. Here we go…”
To think that we couldn’t even get this first step passed, with support unlike just about anything else in the entire country (try to get 90% of the public to agree on anything), just lets you know who really runs things here.
And it ain’t us.
ventrellaquest.com 
Your analysis is entirely incorrect, sir.
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Thanks for reading it, though.
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Always! I enjoy your work. I agree with a tremendous amount of it – civil liberties and all. But you know we disagree on core issues like gun control and keeping so much government in our lives…stuff like that.
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“90% of Americans support background checks [between private citizens who are not firearms dealers].”
The most recent polls I have seen say it’s about 70% (CNN/ORC Poll. April 5-7, 2013. N=1,012 adults nationwide. Margin of error +/- 3).
“I’d like to buy twelve military-style assault rifles and some armor-piercing bullets. But, uh, I don’t want to do a background check.”
The National Firearms Act of 1934 made it so that you had to pay a $200 tax on assault rifles (aka machineguns) and register them with the government. In 1986 that registry was closed and there have been no new legal weapons of that type for civilians to own since then. Billy-Bob’s Gun Emporium would have none to sell.
Also, while the unlikely scenario you describe regarding background checks has actually happened (http://www.19actionnews.com/story/6524793/atfsecret-service-arrest-3-seize-inventory-of-gun-dealer-fueling-violent-crime-in-new-orleans), criminalizing private, non-commercial firearm sales would neither change the legality of that scenario nor increase the (significant) penalties for violating the law. BATFE frowns on that sort of behaviour.
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Really? Oh, it’s only 70% of the population, not 90%? Well, that makes all the difference.
(It is 90% according to this reliable poll, and it’s 85% among NRA members): http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-250_162-57568149/poll-9-in-10-americans-support-background-checks/
Once more, your argument seems to boil down to “Gosh darn it, we can’t stop this stuff so why even try?”
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Well, I don’t think anyone has to worry about being part of a National Registry, seeing how Congress passed CISPA today, 288-127, which will allow companies to share any and all information with other companies and government agencies.
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Sorry, meant 288-168
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They protected individual freedoms, plain-and-simple. Passing that bill would have destroyed the fabric of American freedom. No new gun laws!
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So, basically, keeping guns out of the hands of criminals and the criminally inane would destroy the fabric of American freedom? I boggle at your words, sir. I have no problem with sane, responsible people owning guns. All I want is to be sure we aren’t selling guns to people who plan to mow down schoolchildren, moviegoers, or other members of the general public. I fail to see how a basic background check, which might prevent such a sale taking place, destroys our freedom. I’m far more worried about things like the PATRIOT Act doing that.
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If you trade freedom for security, you will end up with neither. New gun laws will not keep guns out of the hands of crazy people. It just will not work. I also don’t trust my government with that kind of information. They are already doing sketchy things like taking away the guns of combat veterans because they suffer from PTSD, or because they went to see a doctor to discuss some hard time, and the Dr. decides to report them as being unstable and unfit to own firearms, which is complete crap, especially for our combat veterans. The government has proven time and time again that they are completely irresponsible, and in many ways act in an evil fashion.
Honestly, I am way less afraid of a criminal with a gun then I am of our current administration and their objectives and intentions. I certainly don’t want the “Evil Empire” to know what guns I own, and what guns my friends and compatriots-at-arms own. The government does not own me, nor do they get to tell me how to live. I do not have to tell them what guns I am buying.
Gun control isn’t about guns or stopping lunatics – it’s about control. Plain and simple.
Why don’t you mind your own business, instead of trying to tell me what I can and can’t do, when I am not hurting anyone. No new gun laws!
I cannot comprehend how someone is so quick to give away their rights and freedoms out of fear, and just to control others… It is baffling to me.
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And under the current proposals, you would be fine. You’re not insane, you’re not a felon, you would easily pass a background check. Why that is a violation of your rights is beyond me.
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