I think as you read through this, and I agree with DP 100%, you begin to understand why the NRA and other groups cannot waiver one iota. Thank you for this well written piece.

The "reasonable" approach to gun control is to enforce the existing laws that keep most guns out of the hands of most loons. Pastor Rick Warren's son recently committed suicide (God rest his soul) allegedly with a handgun with serial numbers obliterated that he allegedly bought over the internet. Even possessing a handgun (except antiques with no serial number) with an altered serial number altered or removed is a Federal offense and has been for years. So he and the seller were Federal Felons. It is doubtful he bought it over the internet unless he set up a sale online and purchased it as an individual transaction. Mailing or shipping firearms outside of to/from an FFL is already against the law. Using the Postal Service to commission a crime is also a Federal offense! So.....if folks scoff at existing laws, why would we expect compliance with new laws? Duhhhh.....

Dave,
Very well articulated. Congress is the hominid equivalent of serpents anyway.

Couldn't have said it better myself. Every gun owner currently standing on the sidelines should read this.

Well said Dave. I came to a similar conclusion years ago about the two types of politicians who support gun control in any form. There are those that are indifferent, ignorant or merely vote for it to say/think they're doing some good.

Then, there are the Anaconda's like Feinstein and Bloomberg. While they may be ignorant when it comes to gun terminology, handling and culture, they know just as well as we Gun Nuts do what gun control leads to. They know eliminating the great equalizer won't result in lower crime, that it won't stop school shootings or drug related gun-violence. They knew all the horrible things that can and will happen if private gun ownership is eliminated. They know, and that's why they do what they do.

Nothing that is proposed will do anything to save a life. The Mexican drug cartels bring in weapons with their drugs and the gangbangers buy both. What we need is real boarder security which will stop the cartels. after this is done and the boarder is secure, then talk to me about any other idea and I will listen, but not before.

JS76,
Maybe you're comfortable having the federal government determining your "need" when it comes to personal protection, but I'm no more ready to cede that decision to some distant bureaucrat than I am to let the feds determine how much income, or what size pension or what kind of medical help I might "need."
We started losing track of what this country was supposed to be about in 1913 when Wilson pushed through the progressive income tax. We had fought a revolution with the most powerful empire on earth precisely because we did not believe that citizens should be subject to a monarch who would arbitrarily determine our needs by supposed divine revelation. The second we granted the government the power to learn our income, to determine what percentage of our earnings we should be allowed to keep, and to demand that we open our private books and affairs to the government's inspection, we lost sight of what it means to be a free citizen living in a republic. Rather than the government being our servant, we had once again become its subjects; forced to "show our papers," prove our innocence against any government accusation and justify activities and actions that should be wholly private.
By and large, the same coalitions which foisted an income tax on us have devoted decades to pushing restrictions on gun ownership. In the early 60s they placed limits on mail order sales of all guns, including bolt action rifles. For nearly two decades they focused on handgun restrictions and in the 90s they zeroed in on "assault-rifles." There is no category of gun they do not want to restrict and their ultimate goal is and always has been the total elimination of private gun ownership.
That does not mean that every idiot politician pushing gun control is being disingenuous; but never doubt that there is a hard-core, determined "progressive" coalition that wants to ban gun ownership; period, end-of-sentence, done. Nor is there any question that both the President and his veep are part of that coalition. As always, they cloak their real intentions with soothing assurances that mean absolutely nothing.
You say we cannot ask for other responses to killings like the one in CT while "doing nothing about gun control." Yet not one single proposal being pushed by the anti-gunners would have prevented that rampage or any of the others, and none of the myriad gun control laws previously passed to supposedly avert such incidents did a dam_ed thing, either. So why, if this discussion is about the CT shootings, are anti-gunners out there beating the same dead, old-horse? And why is it "commons sense" -- other than the focus-grouped talking point that phrase represents -- to pass yet another layer of onerous laws that would do nothing to address the problem while making it ever more difficult for honest, law-abiding citizens to acquire firearms?
There is nothing common-sensible about doing something that is both pointless and stupid and there is nothing to be gained from negotiating menu items with a cannibal. What we should be doing is denouncing anyone who would cynically exploit a genuine tragedy in order to push a decade's long agenda that has nothing to do with the subject at hand.

Like DSM Bird Dog said in the first response...."GIVE THEM NOTHING..EVER!". If they can't get a Shark bite on you, they will take a 1000 little piranha bites...with the end result being the same. Stand by the NRA and fight. Fight like we've never fought before. They lie, always have...FIGHT!

rcmich,
My apologies to the serpents.

Well said Dave. We have to keep fighting back and never give an inch. It annoys the Hell out of me that the gun control people now call themselves the "gun safety" people. If these snakes truly wanted to promote gun safety, they would fully fund all of youth shooting programs sponsored by the NRA, FFA, 4H, CMP and many others.

Let’s just remember how we got here since December.

A Ct. academic, well-healed, upscale lady owned an arsenal and taught her "troubled" kid …she kept in the Attic a la Jane Eyre…how to access it and shoot.

The Elite, Money, Classism, and Proto-feminism. These conditions set the stage for the disaster to be wrought on an unsuspecting community. There are no homeless, mentally disturbed, wool shirts whacks here.

The Fallout? Our President trying to deliver for his constituency a weapons ban. All his comments since December have tried to seize the emotion of the moment into a generalized "we are failing our children". In other words "never waste a crisis" to obtain that hazy socialist, liberal utopia.

I think this article by Dave is the most insightful analysis of the gun control movement that I have ever read. Well done.

DEP could not be more on the mark. I especially like the analogy to being squeezed by a boa constrictor, because that is exactly the approach the anti-gunners always take. You're supposed to "compromise" with them on something completely stupid as a gesture of "reasonableness," even though it will do nothing to inhibit miscreants; only further restrict lawful gunowners. Once you acquiesce, they are back demanding yet another "compromise" as if the first had never been made. Eventually you end up being England, or New York.
Gun owners need to understand that when you repeatedly hear the other side using phrases like "common-sense" or "reasonable" or "balanced" they are wielding those words like weapons. They are talking points handed down to various party and movement apparatchiks who follow them as blindly and robotically as any bureaucrat in the old Soviet Union adhered to the daily dialectic. Their opponents, who do not spend every breathing moment thinking about how they can alter society and force everyone else in it to go along with their idea of Utopia, are always at a disadvantage; because they don't conform to group think and have trouble comprehending that they are dealing with unscrupulous zealots who will use any means at their disposal to achieve their ultimate ends. Like DEP, I have been watching this dance drag along for the better part of 50 years. The anti-gunners are never satisfied, they never give up, and they will use every opportunity to push their real agenda -- total confiscation and/or a ban of personal firearms -- until the day comes that they finally achieve it. The only recourse is to resist any attempt to target honest, law-abiding gunowners with any additional restrictions whatsoever. We have nothing to do with assassinations or school shootings or street crime, and it is high time we quit kowtowing to politicians who insinuate that we do.

Seriously, if it were just about a background check, I don't think anybody here would object to waiting 5 minutes while someone makes a call to NICS to find out if they can legally obtain a firearm they want to purchase. But politicians are sneaky, slippery bastards. When a bill like this hits the table, it's an opportunity for them to slip language into it that can really screws us over.

If background checks for private sales are what people want, then there's no reason not to make the background check system open to the public. The 4473 form is online, and the background check is a 5 minute phone call. All you do is read the information off the 4473, the operator has you hold for a minute, and they tell you to proceed, delay, or deny the transfer. There's no reason we need to go to a gun shop, sheriff's office, or police station to do something that we are perfectly capable of doing ourselves. The selling party can keep the 4473 as a record of transfer so if anything happens with the firearm, there is proof that a background check took place and a legitimate sale was made. We can self regulate...in fact, we already do.

A consequence that we are suffering now is the ammo shortage. Oh, sure you can go to a gun show, pay to get in, wait in line and then be over charged for the ammo you buy, like $85.00 for a brick of .22lr(which I did not purchase, this is crazy! My wife and I like to go out in to the desert and do some plinking, but not at these prices- we'll bring the shotguns, shells are still relatively priced OK. Can anyone give a good answer to why plinking rounds are so pricey?

To AJ McCLure: Here I am talking about the end of the Second Amendment and you want cleaning products. OK, here's about all I ever use: Shooter's Choice powder solvent, Rem-Oil, J-B Bore Cleaning Compound, Birchwood Casey Gun Scrubber, Break-Free CLP, and for long-term storage, RIG Gun Grease. Also, elbow grease.

At last some one said what I had been thinking for years, but way more articulate than I could ever be. I bug my representatives in Congress regularly about this issue. I just wish someone would listen.

oh and by the way, ny state with its SAFE ACT is violating HIPA laws as we speak, releasing personal, confidential information to the police / government. and because of this people who have had as much as a conversation with a psychologist are being confronted by ny police and being asked to release any firearms that they have or risk prosecution with no due process...NO $hit.

Well at this point in this fight maintaining the few guns I have seems am immediate concern,but as a forensic mental health worker I can assure you that no "thorough" back ground check will help make society safer because the murderers that I have conversations (48 hrs a week)with are often angry people who became impulsively enraged and acted out in response to a set situation, whereas their previous mental health and criminal records were non-existent. The real issue here isn't relevant changes for public safety, I believe it is a change from being a citizen to a camera monitored subject. Cheers.

Old Chinese proverb:

"A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step."

To JS 76--You sound like Mike Bloomberg, who doesn't care about our 2d Amendment rights--he just wants to make guns illegal, period, even though he knows that the 'illegal' owners will pay absolutely no attention. "Common sense", he and Joe Biden call it.

Everything's code in the world of gun control. The phrase "common sense" that you use is code for 'take away everything you can from law-abiding gun owners, until they cry 'uncle'" like the NYC gun stores did a decade ago. "Common sense" says that you don't "need" an MSR, and then gun ownership begins to be defined by 'need', rather than as a constitutional privilege.

And you don't even bother to use the code word "assault rifle", with its connotations of fully-automatic fire. You just call it 'semi-automatic', which, of course, includes dozens of legitimate sporting and target weapons which were developed before the AR-15 class of MSRs existed. You ignore the distinction, like most gun-grabbers, preferring to use inflammatory rhetoric.

Most of us legitimate gun owners see the bitter irony, when a few deranged, suicidal freaks decide that mass murder is the path to eternal infamy. Every time they kill, the grabbers try to take away the guns from the folks who didn't do it!

JS76, you're not on the track of the solution--people who think like you are the problem!

Unh-unh!
Nope!
Nah!
No!
No way!
Nyet!
Nien!
Negative!
Any way you can say it, "GIVE 'EM NUTHIN'!"
Only a weasel could possibly think "enchanced background check" is "legalese" for just another step towards total ban and confiscation!

H-E-L-L NO!!!!!
NO MORE!!

The gun haters and all the other light weight clowns that vote for them can just go get @#%&!!!. Pick a word that fits best here!

MG

Funny how the first elementary school shooting, by a deranged son of a millionaire, should be a cause for new gun laws. It is not as if millionaire's can't get special access to the law anyway. Millions of Americans grew up in homes where the family gun was in the closet. Everyone in the family knew where it was and yet, it killed no one. In my case the family gun was my late grandfathers gun, which is now pushing 100 years old and has yet to kill a single human, but is still knocking ducks and geese dead with regularity. That Mod 12 Winchester loaded with 7 rounds of 00 buck could pump out 63 pellets much faster than a Bushmaster could fire 63 times. JS76, The technology to do despicable acts isn't new. Chuck Shumer and Anthony Weiner's position isn't new either. Mental illness isn't new. Giving up freedom for the illusion of safety isn't new, its just stupid behavior.

Mayor Lindsay had a twin brother. One day while they were talking on the phone, Mayor Lindsay told his brother that a mob was hanging a figure in effigy outside his office. He added that he hated to tell this, but the figure looked just like his brother.
Mayor Lindsay also carried a concealed handgun on his person.

Good article Dave. We as firearms owners and the Second Amendment are being squeezed every time a shooting incident occurs. There is a problem in our society. It is all to easy to blame the gun for all the evils instead of the philosophies and social programs that produce the individuals that commit these crimes.

Mr. Petzal, elegant use of facts to support our side of the "national dialogue".
JS76, what good will "enhanced background checks" do when law enforcement is not utilizing the existing system? In 2010, the most recent year that statistics are available for, the NICS system produced over 76,000 initial denials. Of those, the Obama Justice department only recommended around 100 cases for prosecution. Of that small number, only 44 cases were, actually, prosecuted. Of that incredibly small number, only 13 convictions were obtained (out of 76,000+ denials). The most serious conviction resulted in a small fine.
I have grand children and nieces and nephews, in primary school and younger, and I agree with the voters of the school districts in and around Newtown, CT, who agreed with the NRA and elected to increase armed security in their primary schools.
You want a logical reason to own a modern sporting rifle (MSR) with a standard capacity (they come from the factory with 20 and 30 round magazines,so, 10 rounds would be a low capacity magazine) magazine? How about the fact that FBI crime statistics show that multiple assailant home invasions are a crime trend that is not going away? Do you want to try to defend your family against two, or more, criminal madmen, each armed with 30 or 50 round weapons with yoiur 10 round weapon?
Sales figures show that MSRs comprise up to 40% of the current market. Apparently, several miilion homeowners, recreational shooters, competitors and military/law enforcement people find logical reasons to purchase these firearms, every year.
cbanks, I think you meant to say Constitutional RIGHT, not privilege. Having a driver's licence is a privilage. Owning firearms is a Constitutional Right.

Even for those who are "sincere", they are in league with the enemy, and must be defeared.

@JS76: First off, what are you doing here? Secondly, in what parallel universe did you expect to find someone who would agree with your "no legitimate ownership" tripe? While you're there why not pop off and say there is "no legitimate reason" for people to hunt or fish? After all we can go to the store and buy all of the meat and fish we need, where's the need?
The answer is simple: It isn't a question of having to demonstrate a "need" or a reason for "legitimate ownership". Just like you don't have to demonstrate a "need" to vote, or to get an education or to buy a home you can afford in a certain neighborhood or not be arrested and held indefinitely without being told what you did wrong, defend yourself against false charges, forfeit your property, etc. All these things I just described are RIGHTS. Just like the uninfringed right to keep and bear arms. If you want to prepare for the zombie plague(?!), shoot in 3-gun matches, practice for service rifle at Camp Perry or just want to hang it on the wall to look at, what difference does it make?
Yes, in many/most cases more stringent enforcement of existing law would get to the real problem, which isn't guns, it's the people who obtain/use them illegally. That won't happen because it isn't an easy scaspegoat for our screwed-up mental health system to get a pass on like guns, and incarcerated people can't vote, unlike dead people in heavily democratic districts.

yeah well after what happened in boston, i want to see obama and co are gonna do next. disarm us? how about closing the borders you fools and if congress disagrees, pull executive order like you have done with everything else.

Dave if there was no problem then people wouldn't be offering solutions.

Doing nothing about gun control while offering every other solution under the sun (mental health, Hollywood movies, guards in schools, etc) seems like bending over backwards to tie your shoes. While these other elements should be included, you're are ignoring the most responsible, obvious tool-- common sense gun measures.

We should do mandatory background checks for ALL transfers of guns. We should increase enforcement and penalties for anyone using a gun during a crime. If a weapon you sold illegally is used in a homicide, you're charged as an accomplice. If a weapon you own is used in a crime and you didn't report it stolen, you're charged as accomplice.

Finally no one can tell me with a straight face that the reward of recreationally owning a semi-auto rifle capable of more than 10 rounds without manual reload is worth the risk you ask the rest of us to carry for that hobby.

Unless you have teams of friggin ninjas attacking your home there is no legitimate ownership of these weapons. The hard on you get from ripping off X number of shots in a row is gun masterbation, and equally shameful.

Dave since you don't have school-aged kids maybe you don't feel this like the rest of us do.