US Gun Control Laws Threaten People's Safety
The
Centers for Disease Control (CDC) had long been criticized for generating
questionable studies that gun control organizations have used in defense of
their cause. So imagine people’s shock
when the CDC, after analyzing 51 studies in 2003, concluded that the “evidence
was insufficient to determine the effectiveness of any of these [firearms]
laws.”
Regardless,
even though the research doesn’t support gun control, its advocates still clamor
for more firearms restrictions under the thinking that maybe it will “save just
one life.”
But
what if it can be shown that gun control can cost lives?
In
March of 1991, Bonnie Elmasri of Wisconsin
inquired about getting a gun to protect herself from a husband who had
repeatedly threatened to kill her. She
was told there was a 48-hour waiting period to buy a handgun.
Unfortunately,
Bonnie was never able to pick up the gun she needed for self-defense. She and her two sons were killed the very next
day by that same abusive husband (of whom the police were well aware).
Contrast
this horrible tragedy to another woman's story that ended much differently.
Marine
Lance Corporal Rayna Ross of Virginia
bought a handgun to protect her child and herself from a stalker in 1993. Shortly thereafter, the predator entered her
home in the middle of the night and attacked Ms. Ross with a bayonet.
She
shot and killed the attacker in what the local prosecutor ruled to be a
justifiable homicide.
Thankfully,
Ms. Ross was not disarmed by a dangerous waiting period. She survived because, unlike Bonnie Elmasri,
her right to protect herself was not put on hold by some government bureaucrat.
Whether
it’s a waiting period or a total gun ban, firearms restrictions have done
nothing more than put good people’s lives in jeopardy.
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I have to agree on a waiting period. It is sad that deaths occured because of it, but without, it ANY nut case cold just walk in a buy a hand gun. Yes, I know that a person can buy a long gun without waiting
A background check is different than a waiting period--I agree with reasonable background checks, but in most cases that can be done by phone in a few minutes, without a significant wait.
A wait inconveniences the law abiding--I'm allowed to carry a gun, and I already own several. There is no gun shop in my town. A waiting period would mean that if I wanted yet another gun, I'd go to the gun shop, almost certainly while carrying one of the guns I already own, pick out my new gun...then I'd have to drive back to the shop once the wait was over. If I see a bargain while I'm visiting the other end of the state, I essentially have to pass it by.
Waiting periods may have made some sense for first-time buyers before technology made instant checks possible.
Here in Texas if you have your concealed handgun license, you can buy a hand gun with no waiting period. The reason for the waiting period is so some guy all pissed off at his woman has time to cool down before he blows her brains out in a fit of rage. I like the waiting period, I believe it prevents such things from happening. I know, if he wanted to he could beat her brains out with a baseball bat, but that's not as easy as just pointing, and pulling a trigger.
So, this "waiting period" stops a guy from murdering his wife how if he already owns guns? And the "waiting period" would certainly not help the wife unless the murderer was nice enough to wait until she got her gun home before he attacked her.
This waiting nonsense is another feel good but idiotic idea with no basis in logic or fact. Good people have no desire to harm others. Criminals do not obey laws or care whom they harm - and they don't get their guns from a shop or jump through any of the hoops honest people are forced to put up with.
As the survivor of an attack, I know without any doubt that I would have been dead a long time now if I had not been armed and ready to shoot.
I am now a certified NRA instructor for handguns and self defense. I spend a great deal of time helping other women (and men too) understand how to defend themselves, both armed and otherwise.
I have no desire to ever harm anyone, but I will never be a helpless victim. My life is worth preserving.
I really can't imagine a situation where someone who is unstable enough to think that shooting someone is a good idea, but stable enough to maintain a criminal history clean enough to legally buy a gun, and who doesn't own a gun and is mad enough to go find a gun store, pick out a gun (without appearing to be a nutcase to the gun shop people) spend a couple hundred dollars, fill out the NICS 4473 form, wait for the background check, then go back and find the person they are mad at and shoot them....but not so mad that they wouldn't still want to shoot them a couple days later. Is there evidence that people with clean criminal backgrounds commit murder with guns they have bought at a licensed gun dealer in the last 10 days in any statistically meaningful numbers?
On the other hand, I've seen stories of someone who needed a gun to protect against a nutcase, but was killed before the waiting period was over. Thankfully a rare situation, but more common than what a waiting period is theoretically supposed to protect against.
Ironman- respectfully- I disagree.
As Sevesteen pointed out- purchasing a firearm is a relatively intense process. By me for instance, to purchase a firearm (handgun specifically) I must go, pay for the firearm, pass my NICS check upon completion of my 4473, receive a green certificate, drive to the pistol licensing unit, turn in the ticket and have my permit amended to reflect the additional handgun, then go back and show my dealer that the pistol is now, in fact on my license. Only then can I take possession of the firearm.
As a result of working within so many constraints- this often takes several days to accomplish, and as the Licensing unit by me is small, people often are required to miss work to accomplish the task. The hours do not even run a full business day, and are open 4 days a week instead of 5.
Waiting periods, and additional steps like the ones I described to not deter the mentally deranged, as you described. Those people are committed. They are, for lack of a better term, fanatical.
People who do get deterred are good, everyday Americans who want to take up handgunning for sport or protection. Many people do not have the luxury to miss multiple days of work to get to a gun shop prior to close, or afford any other such time consuming activities.
With these waiting periods, we simply punish the honest and the good.