Guns & Moms

                    The Million Moms March was yesterday. They are in favor of gun control laws. I come from England and basically I dislike firearms. It seems strange to me that I consider the NRA, whom I dislike, are right and the Million Moms are wrong.

                    Any law which is unenforceable is a disaster. Look at prohibition and the Volstead Act. The public agreed that drinking is bad, which it is, and I know it. There was this hope that if we make it illegal everybody will stop drinking and we will have a better country. Great idea, but the result was the creation of a criminal infrastructure to provide alcohol to the half of the population who did not go along with the program. Joe Kennedy made his fortune.

                    What will happen with a new gun registration law?   My neighbor, who does not break laws, will break this one. Therein lieth the difficulty. If you will not have voluntary compliance with a law, then, you have to figure out how you are going to make it stick when most of the gun owners will not comply. In America you cannot knock on doors and search without a court order. So, what do you do when I have a gun, you do not have probable cause and I tell you to go away. Effectively, the Government cannot act like the Nazis and go get all the guns. The bill of rights does not allow it. So, I get to keep my gun and you go away. Tilt, game over.

                    I think the following measures might help with the guns in America;-

            1. No new gun sales. There are enough guns. Do not sell any more.

            2. Right to carry. Concealed weapon permits are available to all citizens who do not have a history of mental instability or felony convictions and who pass a test in gun safety and use. I do not wish a gun permit but I feel safer if somebody has a pistol when the crooks get loose. I think the guy that shot up the Long Island RR train would have been offed much sooner if somebody in the train had had a pistol. Basically, an armed populus makes mugging a much less attractive profession. The Texas law is effective, it should be the national model.

             3. No machine-gun like weapons. An AK47 is just as bad as a Thomson sub-machine gun. There is no operational difference. Make 'em illegal. No self-cocking wapons.

              Look what happens. The gun nuts want to carry pistols so they come and register voluntarily. The street price of guns rises due to lack of supply so at least it gets more expensive for the crooks. You have no enforcement problems. After a generation or two, maybe most of the guns are off the street and you got what you wanted. The guns are mostly in the hands of responsible people, the machine guns went away and most guns are registered because you ask an applicant for a carry permit to list all the guns which he owns.

                Effectively, by allowing law abiding citizens to register and carry guns gun registration is achieved voluntarily. Further, crooks, who will always have guns anyway, have to worry about ordinary people having guns too. I think that makes me safer because, even though I do not in fact carry a gun, anybody attacking me has to worry about whether I have a gun or not.