FOR PUBLICATION

Backdoor Gun Bans

by Larry Pratt

Recognition that gun control cost Al Gore the presidency has come to
even a strident gun control group, the Violence Policy Center.

While they like the idea of registration and licensing because it
paves the way to confiscation, they do not think it is worth the
political cost. It was, after all, registration of guns and
licensing of gun owners that Al Gore loudly advocated at one point
in the 2000 presidential election campaign.

A pollster, Celinda Lake, at their annual conference argued that
Gore’s open support of licensing and registration failed to ignite
supporters of gun control while it galvanized pro-gun voters.

The Violence Policy Center supports the Firearms Safety and Consumer
Protection Act of 2001 introduced by Representative Patrick Kennedy
and Senator Robert Torricelli. Their measure would place firearms
under the authority of the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms to
draw up safety regulations for firearms.

Currently the federal government is specifically prohibited from
having such jurisdiction. This prohibition was slapped on when the
Consumer Products Safety Commission proposed to regulate firearms
safety years ago.

We do not have to guess how such a measure would work in practice.
The state of Massachusetts has already given us the answer.

In 2000, Massachusetts banned by action of the Attorney General the
sale of cheap handguns and required all handguns sold in the state
to have child-proof safety devices. Also required are
tamper-resistant serial numbers and state-approved trigger locks.
With no list of approved or disapproved guns, Glock and Browning are
not shipping product into the state. The number of dealers in the
state has plummeted by nearly 50 percent.

That’s one way to ban guns — make it impossible for consumers to
buy them. Massachusetts has not shut off all sales, but they have
clearly set the course.

Crime has increased in Massachusetts since a 1998 law went on the
books which made it harder for people to buy guns and put home
dealers out of business. The Attorney General’s assault on firearms
can be predicted to continue the increase in crime.

The hope of gun banners in Massachusetts, as well as at the Violence
Policy Center, is that gun owners will not be galvanized by the
so-called “gun safety” approach that chokes steadily but avoids
plunging a dagger in the heart of gun ownership.

Mary Carpenter is the grandmother of two children murdered by a
madman who broke into their California home and killed them with a
pitchfork. She points out that the three surviving children could
have used their father’s guns to stop the killer, but under
California law, they were inaccessible. That had not been
advertised as a gun control law. It was deceptively packaged as a
“common sense gun safety law.”

Gun safety or gun control, the result is the same: these are
criminal protection laws. The reduction in legal guns in
circulation simply means that criminals have a safer working
environment.

The next time you hear someone advocate gun safety, please translate
that to mean criminal safety.

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Larry Pratt is the Executive Director of Gun Owners of America, a
national gun lobby with over 300,000 members located at 8001 Forbes
Place, Springfield, VA 22151 and at http://www.gunowners.org on the
web.