Village Idiot Gun Proposals

by David Calderwood

Recent reports on proposed gun legislation have been an object lesson on the
ignorance level of reporters on the subject of firearms. The only question is
whether the politicians intentionally play to this ignorance, or if the
proposals represent some sort of “meeting of the minds,” a convocation of
village idiots.

Let’s examine three such proposals while injecting a bit of common sense.

Trigger Locks
Trigger locks: These nifty things are mostly key-locked devices that either
block or surround the trigger of a gun to prevent its being pulled. Virtually
all locks come with the admonition to use them only on unloaded guns.
Applying or removing a lock from a loaded gun ranges from Mildly Dangerous to
Sheer Lunacy, since the chance of actually activating the trigger is quite
high.

Naturally, those promoting trigger locks do not believe guns are appropriate
tools for civilian defense against human predators, so trigger lock mandates
should not, in their view, inconvenience anyone but the twelve-year-old who
plans to depopulate his middle school.

There are two problems with this scenario. First is The Dremel Tool?.

Well, not just the Dremel Tool; this refers to any hand tool that can be used
to cut one of these silly little devices off the gun. As anyone who has owned
one of these $30 handyman specials can attest, they can cut something as
simple as a trigger lock off a gun in about twenty seconds. Sears sells a
similar tool that was probably on half the 1999 Christmas lists in America.
So, except for the youngest and least inventive kids, trigger locks are
another of the regulator’s bane, a False Sense of Security. If you want a gun
that’s relatively child resistant, consider one of the semi-automatic models
available that require substantial hand and arm strength to retract the slide
(a 1911-A1 .45ACP comes to mind). An unloaded semi-automatic would be at
least one more obstacle to an accident involving a small child (though I’ll
admit they require more training for safe use by the adults. Do not run out
and buy one unless you’re willing to learn its proper use.)

Oh, I forgot. Semi-automatics are those “evil assault pistols,” whatever
that’s supposed to mean. The best strategy is to teach kids about gun safety
early, but that’s anathema to the gun haters?kids might come to enjoy the
sport.

The second problem is obvious to people who own guns. Putting a trigger lock
on a gun is like leaving your car’s spare tire at home while you take a long
drive. Just when you need it most, it will be inaccessible. This is hard for
people who don’t own guns to understand. They think that only the police need
to have guns, since only the police come into contact with violent criminals.
Apparently the rest of us only become violent criminals in the presence of
guns.

The gun haters think crimes occur with plenty of forewarning, hence their
dependence on that weapon of first resort, the cellular phone. “Hey mister
criminal, can you stop stabbing me for a minute? The 911 operator said it’d
take a little while for the cops to get here.”

This hardly rates a rebuttal, but I’ll point out a simple fact. Criminals
generally go out of their way to avoid choosing a cop for a victim. The
reason is self-evident, and the result obvious: it’s the civilians who will
be targeted for victimization. And given the benefits of resisting violence
with the most viable tool for the job, the gun. Gun trigger locks are not
likely to pass muster with anyone who actually knows anything about them.

Smart Guns
Smart Guns: What’s next, brilliant bullets? Let’s revisit that Dremel Tool?
again. Chances are that any “smart gun” Smith & Wesson or Colt invents can be
given a lobotomy with a little judicious tinkering and a few readily
available tools. If not, the complexity of the device would have to be
extraordinary. There’s a fly in that ointment, though. Reliability and
complexity tend to be antagonistic. Staking one’s life on such a device is
not going to be acceptable to anyone who believes a gun is a useful tool for
defense against violent crime. It’s no surprise that police organizations
have been less than enthusiastic about this foolishness for their officers’
use.

Bullet & Shell Casing “Fingerprints”
Bullet & Shell Casing “Fingerprints”: New York’s Governor has now called for
manufacturers to fire new weapons and record the unique identifying marks
left on the bullet and shell casing. This would presumably aid in identifying
weapons used in crimes. Boy, does this one merit a belly laugh.

Apparently the esteemed governor is unaware that on semi-automatics (the only
guns that leave their shell casings like miniature calling cards at the scene
of the action), the barrel is as easily switched as the magazine. Ditto for
the slide (the top part of the gun), so every part that the bullet and shell
casing touch can be replaced in moments. It’s the frame of the gun (a part
that never really touches the bullet or shell casing) that has been serial
numbered and tracked since the Gun Control Act of 1968.

Perhaps the governor believes that barrels and slides should be numbered and
tracked the same as the frame of the gun. The added cost and paperwork
nightmare for owners wouldn’t be much of a burden on him. It’s not like we
don’t have room for another law, another mine in the field for some
unsuspecting citizen to trip over while pursuing her hobby. I mean, let’s
throw the book at the guy who makes the mistake of putting a barrel from his
old .45 into his new .45, forgetting that it’s against the law to put the old
non-numbered barrel into his new “ballistically finger-printed” gun. Hey,
ignorance of the law is no defense.

Sound absurd? It’s already law. Put the collapsible butt stock from an old
AR-15 semi-auto rifle on a new AR-15 and, voila, you are a federal criminal.
For a gun like Ruger’s fine Mini-14 you don’t even need a tool to swap the
rifle stock and break the law.

And lest we forget, it’s a rather simple process to choose a cartridge that
uses a bullet that will not survive to be examined. Let’s give a premeditated
crook the benefit of the doubt. He or she chooses a revolver (no shell
casings left lying around after the fracas) and a so-called frangible bullet,
and who cares what the governor and his cronies want to record.

All in all, we have a lot of newsprint and airtime devoted to some of the
stupidest ideas this side of paying farmers not to grow crops. All because
our erstwhile reporters don’t have the sense to fire a few pointed questions
at these big windbags. All they’d have to ask is, “Governor, there are
already over two hundred million privately held firearms in America, we know
guns last for hundreds of years. Since your proposal can’t possibly have
anything to do with reducing crime, what’s your real agenda?”

The Framers of the Constitution would be able to tell us in a New York
minute.