F&S: Well, I have a question here that touches on that issue a little bit. A lot of our readers, frankly, are concerned that any new regulations are only going to impact law-abiding gun owners and not criminals who are going to break laws. And so let me read you this question from Mike Boville from Chicago, Ill. "I'm a hunter and gun owner who lives in Chicago, which has among the most restrictive gun laws in the country. For me to legally own firearms is an expensive and time-consuming process, yet gun crimes are among the highest in the nation, and this January was the deadliest month in a decade. Based on the volume of gun violence that takes place in Chicago, where an assault weapon ban is already in place, multiple state background checks and permits are required, and the limit on magazine capacity already exists, how can you justify applying these same policies to the rest of the U.S. when they're failing here?"
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V.P. BIDEN:_ Well, look, here's the deal. Let's make it clear that…the President doesn't think that merely dealing with limits on the number of bullets in a magazine or limiting assault weapons--eliminating, quote, what is being characterized by the Feinstein amendment as an assault weapon--or the background checks does everything. We've also proposed a federal gun trafficking statute. We have proposed the ability for a background check to increase the field that would be disqualified, including people potentially with certain additional mental illnesses, people who are fugitives who have not crossed state lines, but they are fugitives. And also by making sure that the background check system, every record that legally prohibits someone from being able to own a gun under the law, and constitutionally, legally prohibits, is in the NICS system.

Anthony Licata