That Law Wouldn’t Have Stopped….Another More Guns Argument

The NRA has trained well their minions. One of the most common arguments after every mass shooting is, well a waiting period wouldn’t have stopped; an age restriction wouldn’t have helped in this situation; or a determined person will get a gun. No one regulation will stop all shootings (with the clear inference that means there should be no regulations).

Again, I’m tired of intellectually dishonest arguments, and the refusal of the ammosexuals to stop claiming that any regulation is, or will certainly lead to, a ban on all guns. What a crock. No, of course, no one regulation will stop ALL gun violence. No single motor vehicle regulation will stop all automobile accidents…so should we eliminate all motor vehicle laws? Since criminals will just ignore the gun laws…by definition of being a “criminal” they’ve ignored other laws…should we just do away with the criminal justice code altogether? See, how stupid that sounds.

In fact, we know that states with stricter gun laws have fewer gun deaths. Just like we know that countries with fewer guns and stricter gun laws have fewer deaths.

They all, each one, act together to make a bad outcome less likely or at least less deadly, but no, they won’t end all bad outcomes. Once in a while one reads about a 14-year-old who takes a car for a joy ride, usually ending in a crash. Do we think that problem would be reduced by lowering the driving age to 14? Of course not. Cars have door locks, and keys. There are a range of safety measures engineered into the car to prevent or lessen bodily injury in a crash. (See a previous article on the “But cars kill people too” argument.)There are police officers who can act to try to stop the 14-year-old. If all these things are in place, it becomes a little riskier, and a little more complex for 1the 14-year-old to drive off in the car.

The same is true with guns:

• If the age to buy a gun is 21 instead of 18, Nikolas Cruz could not have, himself, purchased the AR15 and ammo used in the Stoneman High School shooting in Parkland, FL. He could have gotten someone to make a straw purchase, of made a private purchase, sure…but that regulation would have made it harder for him.
• What if he had to wait 3, 5, 10 or even 30 days to buy the gun. Maybe he would have cooled off or sought help? He called for help a few times.
• What if he had to buy liability insurance for the gun. That might have been a cost he wasn’t ready for?
• What if he had to leave the gun store after the purchase, and go to a DMV office for a registration?
• What if he’d had to take a gun safety course before being able to buy the gun? Would that have dissuaded him?
• What if he’d had to appear before a license examiner and pass a test? Could that have enough aggravation to make him stop the process?
• What if the license examiner had felt uncomfortable with Cruz’s mental state and required him to get a physician release letter?
• What if the gun couldn’t have a 60 or 100 shot magazine? What if 5 shots was the largest magazine. He could still shoot up the place, but it would be harder. He’d need to have 20 magazines, and would lose the time between each re-load (lessens the carnage, increases the change someone can intervene).

None of these things would keep a qualified person from acquiring a gun. Would it be inconvenient? Sure, but have you been to a DMV office or a Vehicle Registration office lately? If you’re determined, and it’s important enough to you, you will take the required steps, but it doesn’t prohibit or prevent you from owning a gun. However, I submit that each of those things, taken as a whole places a number of hoops in front of a gun purchaser. I suspect Nikolas Cruz didn’t have the wherewithal to go through all of those hoops, had they been in place, to buy that gun.

And if any or all of these had prevented his gun purchase, 17 young people would still be alive today. If you think, as a gun owner, going through all that to own a gun is too much trouble, then you have simply decided that the deaths of school children are an acceptable sacrifice on the NRA Altar of the Church of the Second Amendment.

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