JPFO - No Compromise: Why Gun Owners Are Right to Fight Against Gun Control

[R. LaCasse]

Subject: JPFO - No Compromise: Why Gun Owners Are Right to Fight Against
Gun Control


JPFO Webmaster www.jpfo.org

Monday, July 22, 2013

JPFO - No Compromise: Why Gun Owners Are Right to Fight Against Gun Control

The anti-gun crowd doesn't want "compromise." They want confiscation and
control.

By David T Hardy, July 18th, 2013

Article Source:
http://reason.com/archives/2013/07/18/why-second-amendment-supporters-are-righ


In April, the Senate rejected the Toomey-Manchin gun control proposal. In
the wake of its defeat many asked why gun owners and their organizations
resisted so limited a measure. Granted, it would have had little but
symbolic benefit. Its core was to require background checks at gun shows
(which Bureau of Justice Statistics concluded involved a whole 0.8 percent
of crime guns) and on Internet gun sales (a miniscule proportion, most of
which probably go through licensed dealers anyway). But why not accept
something so modest, in light of the draconian ideas then being floated as
alternatives?
Understanding the rejection requires understanding gun owners' shared
experiences. Compromise requires that both parties relinquish something. If
your counterpart's position is "give me this now, and I'll take the rest
later," there is no real compromise to be had. Over decades, that has been
precisely the experience of American gun owners.

Back in 1976, Pete Shields, chairman of what is today the Brady Campaign,
candidly laid out the blueprint for The New Yorker:

We're going to have to take one step at a time, and the first step is
necessarily . given the political realities . going to be very modest. Right
now, though, we'd be satisfied not with half a loaf but with a slice. Our
ultimate goal . total control of handguns in the United States . is going to
take time. My estimate is from seven to ten years. The problem is to slow
down the increasing number of handguns sold in this country. The second
problem is to get them all registered. And the final problem is to make the
possession of all handguns and all handgun ammunition . except for the
military, policemen, licensed security guards, licensed sporting clubs, and
licensed gun collectors . totally illegal.

As the years passed, it became apparent that this was going nowhere; a
different first "slice" would have to be found. In 1990, Violence Policy
Center (VPC) announced that it had found it. The debate must be switched
from small handguns to large "assault rifles."

Handguns, VPC explained, had become a media and political nonissue, while
calls to outlaw "assault rifles" would benefit from mistaken impressions,
i.e., "the public's confusion over fully automatic machine guns versus
semi-automatic assault weapons.anything that looks like a machine gun is
assumed to be a machine gun." That rifles of all types were involved in
about 300 homicides a year was beside the point. The search was for a target
of opportunity, not a solution to crime.

The major gun control organizations bought the idea, to the point of
changing their names to replace "handgun" with "gun." Pete Shields' group,
Handgun Control, Inc., became the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence. The
National Coalition to Ban Handguns became the Coalition To Stop Gun
Violence.

The change underscored a lesson gun owners had already learned. Their
opponents would go for any target of opportunity.if handgun restrictions
didn't fly, try to restrict rifles.and use that as a foundation to take more
in the future. Any "reasonable compromise" would simply be a first step in a
long campaign to make firearm ownership as difficult, expensive, and legally
risky as possible.

Take the example of California. There, 1920s legislation required a permit
for concealed carry of a firearm, required dealers to report handgun sales
to the state, and imposed a one-day waiting period for handgun sales.

The one-day wait was meant to impede "crimes of passion," but in 1955 it was
increased to three days, in 1965 to five days, and in 1975 to 10 days.

Open carry of a firearm was initially allowed. In 1967, open carrying of
loaded guns was prohibited. In recent years, open carrying even of unloaded
guns was forbidden in incorporated areas. The mere sight of an unloaded gun
was apparently too much for the California legislature to tolerate.

In 2001, dealers were forbidden to sell handguns that were not approved by
the government, after rigorous laboratory testing, funded by the
manufacturer. Every slight variation, even changes in color or finish,
required a new certification. The tests actually had nothing to do with
reliability or safety, as evidenced by the exemption of law enforcement
firearms from them.

Along the way, the state banned "assault weapons," magazines holding more
than 10 rounds, and private gun sales that didn't go through dealers. In
1999, "one gun a month" was enacted, for no discernible reason (why would a
gun runner pick the most tightly regulated state in the West as his source?)

Today, the weapons regulation portion of the California Penal Code Annotated
spans over 1,050 pages, yet at last count 68 more gun control measures are
pending in the legislature. No matter how much the advocates of gun control
get, it will never be enough.

Or try New Jersey, which requires a license to own guns, plus a separate
permit for each handgun. Carrying open or concealed is in practice forbidden
(the legal standard for a permit is "urgent necessity"), carrying of
hollow-point bullets is subject to complex rules, and magazines are limited
to 15 rounds.

That's not enough, apparently, since the New Jersey legislature is
considering bills to cut the magazine limit to five rounds, and to require
psychiatric evaluations and home inspections before issuance of the firearm
ownership license. Recently three legislators had an embarrassing "hot mike"
problem after a gun bill hearing, in which someone proclaimed, "We needed a
bill that is going to confiscate, confiscate, confiscate."

Or try New York, long considered to have the strictest gun laws in the
country, including requiring pistol possession permits (issued at the sole
discretion of police, with application fees as high as $340), carry permits
limited in some jurisdictions to government officials and celebrities, and a
10 round magazine limit. Then came the Newtown slayings, and the legislature
decided it must do something more. The legislation it rushed through reduced
the allowed magazine capacity to seven rounds (effectively outlawing the
many firearms for which seven round magazines have never been made),
required background checks to buy ammunition, and greatly broadened its
"assault rifle ban."

New York's Attorney General described this as "modest first step."

So much for compromise.

David T. Hardy is a Tucson, Arizona attorney and author. He has published 21
law review articles on the right to arms, two of which have been cited by
the U.S. Supreme Court, and produced the documentary film In Search of the
Second Amendment. He is also a long time friend of JPFO.


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Also, in this issue, we invite you to listen to an interview -- Charles
Heller, JPFO's Executive Director, interviews David T. Hardy. The discussion
centers around the "Castle Doctrine" and explores the "Stand Your Ground"
aspect, although it is felt that is better referred to as the "No retreat
clause". Predictably, the Zimmerman case is also discussed along with other
associated factors. Click on the player image below to listen -- (also on
our on our Talkin' to America page) ...
http://jpfo.org/filegen-n-z/talkamerica.htm#heller-hardy

Refer to the "Sandy Hook Index"
http://jpfo.org/articles-assd02/sandy-hook-index.htm (HOAX) for an archive
collection of valuable material we have shown since the events at the
Newtown Elementary School.

Check out Gun/Murder Statistics:
http://jpfo.org/filegen-a-m2/gun-murder-stats.htm A set of tabulated and
graphical data showing relationships between gun numbers and murders -
categorized by alphabetical countries listing. Useful research material.

Thought for the day -- "Isn't it strange that after a bombing, everyone
blames the bomber ... but after a shooting, the problem is the Gun ! "

Yours in Freedom, The Liberty Crew at JPFO
Protecting you by creating solutions to destroy "gun control"
Our mailing address is: jp...@jpfo.org
P.O. Box 270143, Hartford, WI 53027, USA
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