‘Common Sense Gun Laws’: Obama’s Attack on the Second Amendment
Steve,
How would closing the “gun show loophole” have prevented that tragedy? It would not have, because it didn’t occur at a gun show. As others have mentioned, gun shows don’t allow loaded guns on the premises, and anyone carrying a gun into a gun show is checked and it is locked open with a tie before you’re allowed in with in. Even people with concealed handgun permits are checked and required to unload before entering.
The “loophole” says that a private citizen can sell their property to another private citizen. What those who support the closure of the loophole are saying is that a private citizen should not be allowed to sell a gun to another private citizen. It doesn’t matter if it occurs at a gun show or their backyard.
In this case, the private property sale happens to be a gun. It is also illegal for someone to sell a gun to a felon or someone who is insane. We already have those laws. Shall we pass them again?
The same tragedy could occur at a tools/hardware event, where some kid could be killed with a chain saw. Putting child safety locks on a chain saw, or requiring that they be kept in locked safe, will only catch people after the fact, when they don’t safely handle them. The law won’t prevent tragedy. It only provides the mechanism and definition of the punishment.
It is delusional to think that a law will prevent an action from occurring. We have laws against murder. Does that PREVENT murder? Only an idiot thinks that. Laws aren’t talismans or magic shields. They don’t stop people from doing stupid or evil things.
We have laws that punish parents (or others ) who recklessly endanger children. That applies to putting a chain saw, gun, or bottle of aspirin in their hands, or allowing them to go into a swimming pool without supervision. We don’t need special laws, pertaining to any appliance, toy, or tool that a child might handle that could hurt them. You can’t recklessly endanger a child, regardless of what tool or intangible object they could use to do it.
More children die in drowning accidents in buckets of water than die with mishandling of guns, but we label those as tragically irresponsible actions of the parents, and we don’t find it necessary to register buckets or imprint serial numbers on them, or have special laws for their safe handling.
