The media’s focus on gun control in the wake of the tragic Newtown, CT and Webster, NY shootings is not very likely to lead to the passage of new gun control legislation. The issue of bearing arms has been adjudicated repeatedly, and the Supreme Court has found that Americans do have that right. Little noticed, a federal appeals court on December 11 ruled that the state of Illinois must allow ordinary individuals to carry concealed firearms. That ruling follows in the wake of Heller, in which the District of Columbia’s handgun ban was ruled unconstitutional.
Drudge is redlining a fright line — Senate To Go For Handguns. The link goes to Sen. Diane Feinstein’s push to renew the “assault weapons” ban. That ban deals mainly with the cosmetic appearance of firearms. Actual automatic assault weapons have been banned from private ownership since 1934. The Senate, under Democrat control, can and probably will go for gun legislation. The House, under Republican control, is unlikely to take up that cause. The tense fiscal cliff talks will not drive Republicans into Democrat arms on anything, especially a core issue like the Second Amendment. Whatever legislation might pass at the state level will run into court precedent that has recently upheld the right to self defense with firearms. More than 30 states now have concealed carry laws on the books, and most states remain in Republican control after the November elections.
But while the media and the Democrats hysterically demonize law-abiding gun owners and push gun control legislation, they’re actually selling an awful lot of guns. Wal-Mart reportedly sold out of AR-15 rifles shortly before Christmas. A friend of mine works in the gun sales industry, and told me Wednesday that magazines for the AR-15 rifle ordinarily sell for about $20. Thanks to all the attention, demand is spiking and now they’re selling for $75. Prices for the magazines continue to surge on ebay. The ATF’s National Instant Background Check system, which sifts criminal gun buyers from law-abiding buyers purchasing guns at licensed dealers, gets overwhelmed and backlogged nearly every day. Calls frequently cannot get through because demand is exceeding the system’s capacity.
A few days before Christmas, I visited a few gun stores in my area just to see how things are. All of them were very busy in the middle of the daytime. The owner of one reported that he had had over 200 phone calls specifically for AR-15 rifles that day alone. A customer told a story about a man he had seen in another gun store that morning. The store had a single AR-15 on the shelf. A customer asked to see it, and he and his girlfriend discussed buying it at the ticket price. While they were making up their minds, another customer came along and offered the store owner more than the ticket price for the rifle. That triggered a bidding war right there in the store. That AR-15 went home with one of those two buyers that day.
According to the media and the ant-gun left, America was “awash” in guns before the recent shootings. Their attention to firearm ownership, coupled with their avoidance of other relevant issues like the failure to keep criminals behind bars, amounts to a national advertising campaign, selling gun after gun after gun.
Unintended consequences, solutions that lead to more problems, cooler heads prevail, blah, blah, blah. Religion and blind faith is more important to the atheistic, agnostic, secular Left than anything else. Results and proof of policies are for those Luddites theocrat Republicans and conservatives.
“Actual automatic assault weapons have been banned from private ownership since 1934.”
Umm, no. Under the NFA private citizens can and do own machine guns. I know. I have one.
“More than 30 states now have concealed carry laws on the books”
49 of the 50 states have some form of CCW. Illinois and DC are the lone holdouts and Illinois recently got nailed by a Federal court and will have to do it now.
Do some research so you don’t look as foolish as the anti-gunners.
Don’t be a putz. We’re on the same side.
Brian,
OK, so he was a bit rude and abrasive, but the point remains that it is incumbent on us to get the facts right. It’s a well known and commonly used tactic of the left to hone in on some trivial detail misspoken and thus delegitimize an entire argument.
The 1934 NFA did levy what at the time was a confiscatory transfer tax along with severe registration requirements on private ownership of certain classes of weapons. That $200 tax has over time become almost trivial next to the extreme escalation of the market value of automatic weapons given that the available pool was capped with the 1986 Crime bill, limiting civilian possession only to those already registered before the bill’s passage.
And on top of all that you still have state and local laws. A number of states forbid ownership of full auto as do some localities. It’s one of those curious facts of firearms law that you can be perfectly legal one minute, then step across an imaginary state line and become a dangerous felon. Sadly, a number of firearms owners have found this out to their regret when in transit through places like D.C. or NYC, and that for simple possession of a handgun in checked luggage let alone an NFA firearm.
We may be on the same side, but at least I knew what I was talking about. Get a clue.
Too bad we caught you not knowing what you’re talking about:
http://pjmedia.com/tatler/2012/12/27/obama-guns-for-me-but-not-for-thee/#comment-446351
Can’t own modern MP5 courtesy of 1986 Firearms Owners’ Protection Act.
http://www.nraila.org/news-issues/articles/2011/no-surrender.aspx?s=%22Firearms+Owners%27+Protection+Act%22&st=&ps=
“One anti-gun amendment offered by Rep. William Hughes, D-N.J.—a provision that limited civilian sale of fully automatic firearms to those already existing and in lawful ownership—did pass on a highly questionable voice vote.”
I think you just love posting that you own a machinegun.
If you want to be precise about it, the 1934 NFA restricted true assault weapons (automatics firing multiple rounds per trigger pull). You had to buy a $200 stamp (tax) and get cleared by the local sheriff or police chief. In 1986, Congress passed the “Firearms Owners’ Protection Act” that made it illegal to buy an assault rifle made after 1986. Market pressures of supply and demand kicked in, and only the wealthy can afford say, a Vietnam era M-16. Not exactly protecting firearms owners, but that’s prostiticians for you.
Good place to start: http://www.atf.gov/firearms/nfa/
By the way, why would you tell the public you own one of these restricted firearms? Those with techie skills and ill intent can locate you from online postings.
Doubtful. But you’re welcome to try.
Huh. Thanks for calling me a person of ill intent. Merry Christmas to you, too.
Huh? Called you nothing. Seems to me you’re projecting a bit. Might wanna get that looked at.
“Welcome to try” is a clear implication that you assumed I had intent. Your response is projection. Might want to get that looked at.
It’s all about fundraising – really, if you can scare some people, then you can send them an email asking for money for the “cause.”
Wasn’t the Obama re-election campaign all about scaring people that Romney was some sort of monster? And then in the next sentence, asking for money to fight the monster?
So that is exactly what the Left is doing – trying to make gun ownership some sort of monster, that only a well-funded campaign can stop (please send your check today!) So what if they have to stand on some dead kids to get their message out, its for the children!
If the killer in Newtown had used a knife or bomb, it would still be (pick your monster: republicans, whitey, talk show hosts) that would have to be stopped, make sure to send your check today.
There are already millions of guns in this country, adding a couple thousand more this holiday season is a rounding error.
Not to worry, there are gun sellers who’ve made fatal mistakes of siding with the gun grabbers. Their stock, they chose to remove from the shelves, will be quietly shipped to other sellers as places like Dick’s find gun sales lagging in the future.
Oh boy, first time gun buyers, gotta love them. New fangled modern weapons take some TLC to get them ready to go. Was at the range one day when a man and his young son,10 or 12, walked up to the line with a brand new AR-15. I watched as he loaded up the magazine, chambered a round and began to shoot. He got off maybe two or three rounds before the rifle jammed on him. He cleared the jammed round, got another chambered, fired and jammed again. I walked over to see if I could help and found out he had just bought it and had come straight from the gunshop to the range. He had not bothered to clean it first let alone do any kind of lubricating. If I’d offered him a hundred bucks for it he might have taken it but he decided to take it back to the gunshop. I can just imagine the scene he made once he got back there about them selling him a defective POS rifle.
I did my part for the holiday season – 2 new CCL pistols, 1 new rifle, 2 new shotguns…. I would have done more, but the budget can only be stretched so far. Fortunately, January is less than a week away.
– DiFi: how would your legislation have prevented what Dan White did?