Reply #42: and I'm sorry, but you're not paying attentoin

[iverglas]

I really do not think that writing more laws are going to stop criminals from doing what criminal have always done.

The laws in question, effective laws, are not meant to be obeyed by criminals.

Criminals can do what they have always done only only if they are able to do it.

If there are effective bars to straw purchases and private sales to ineligible persons, just for starters, that's going to put a dent in gun trafficking, which is how criminals get a lot of guns.

Registration is the ticket there.

Require the law-abiding gun owners to register firearms transfers.

If the firearms sold to a straw purchaser who intends to traffic them are registered AND that purchaser is subject to a registration requirement for any subsequent transfers, there's going to be a little less gun trafficking.

A lot fewer people are going to be willing to be straw purchasers for hire, which is what does go on now, for one thing. The gun gets found as a crime gun, they are accountable for how it got there. None of this "I sold it to a tall white guy at the mall parking lot, gee,I didn't get his name".

Not so many girlfriends may be as eager to buy guns for their criminal boyfriends.

Not so many criminals are going to be able to pick up guns via private sales from legal owners, whether at gun shows or at the kitchen table, because the legal owners will be the ones with something to lose once they are accountable for their firearms.

And then there's the whole storage thing. Some people really will think twice about leaving their guns lying around unattended and ripe for theft if they have a legal obligation to secure them (and if there are public education and information campaigns to reinforce that obligation). Again, if they know they are accountable, and they are people with something to lose if they get caught, they have an incentive to obey the law.

Criminals have little incentive to obey the law. Laws that say criminals may not possess firearms simply do not deter them from doing that, they just allow for punishment if they get caught.


I want more Dems elected and 2A seems to be a push button issue for a lot of voters.

And as long as people keep believing that most of those voters would vote Democrat if it weren't for that awful assault weapons ban ... well, I don't think many people believe it, but there ya go.