Tag Archives: The National Rifle Association (NRA)

How To End Gun Ownership Without Actually Saying You Are Ending Gun Ownership

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The Massachusetts legislature is currently considering HD 4420.

According to The Boston Globe on Friday:

Representatives will gather in closed-door meetings next week to hold “candid discussions” about a 140-page gun reform bill that Speaker Ron Mariano wants to win House approval by the end of the month.

With the omnibus bill idling amid a House-Senate procedural dispute and national gun safety groups applying new pressure on legislative leaders, Mariano’s office scheduled a pair of private events for representatives and staff to talk about the proposal.

The bill stretches across a wide range of firearm-related issues, including where guns can be carried, the licensing process, the state’s existing ban on assault weapons, rising numbers of untraceable “ghost guns,” and training for gun owners.

Mariano told reporters on Thursday that his goal is to win House approval for the omnibus bill (HD 4420) before lawmakers take a traditional break in August. Asked about how the House plans to navigate a procedural disagreement with the Senate that has stalled the bill’s early progress, Mariano said, “I’ll look at the different options that are at my disposal” and try to pick one.

According to the National Rifle Association (NRA), here are some of the provisions in the bill:

As written, HD 4420:

    1. Institutes a new, broad “Assault Weapons Ban,” including firearms already owned by law-abiding citizens.
    2. Bans all federally legally tax-stamped automatic firearms.
    3. Gun bans on possessing any gun, loaded, or unloaded at:
      1. All state, county, and municipal buildings.
      2. All polling places.
      3. Any private property unless the owner has provided express consent or has posted signage allowing firearms on their property.
    4. Mandates Safe Storage laws.
    5. Mandates new training requirements including costly written exams and live fire training.
    6. Mandates registration of all guns and feeding devices.
    7. Mandates reporting of any modifications or new parts to a gun.
    8. Mandates serializing all firearm parts.
    9. Bans anyone under 21 from acquiring or carrying any semi-automatic rifle or shotgun.
    10. Bans anyone under 15 taking part in shooting sports and training.
    11. Places new mandates, protocols, and training requirements on retailers.

I am not a constitutional expert in any way, but this bill seems to be a way to limit law-abiding citizens’ access to guns. The process that a person would have to go through to get permission to buy a gun would be very costly and time-consuming. Most people would not want to spend the time or the money. The bill also totally overlooks the fact that only law-abiding citizens follow laws–criminals don’t. All this law will do is make more people unable to defend themselves if they need to.

Why More Gun Laws Are Not The Answer

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ConstitutionUS.com notes that the Declaration of Independence states the following:

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

One of those unalienable rights is the right to self-defense. Our Declaration of Independence and our Constitution are based on the Law of Nature and of Nature’s God. That law includes the right of self-defense.  Currently, we are seeing a move by many in Congress to change the Second Amendment and to infringe on the rights of Americans to bear arms. There have been a number of incidents recently where someone who should not have had a gun murdered innocent people. That is unacceptable, but the problem is not the gun, and the solution lies in the area of mental health–not in the area of disarming legal gun-owners.

In its magazine  (America’s 1st Freedom) and on its website, The National Rifle Association (NRA) has a page of testimonies where a good guy with a gun prevented a bad guy with a gun from harming innocent people. These incidents are often (purposely) overlooked in the media and need to be acknowledged.

Volume 24, No. 4 of that magazine includes several examples:

In Des Moines, Iowa, on January 5, a man and woman repeatedly walked in front of the doors of a tower apartment building. The apartment manager, who had her young son at her side, finally opened the door to ask if there was a problem, whereupon the two strangers allegedly grabbed the child. The woman claimed she was the child’s real mother and tried to run away with him. A struggle ensued until the manager drew her firearm and said “let go of my kid.” The man and woman walked off and were trailed by security personnel until police officers could arrive. Police told reporters, “It certainly looks like the big turning point here, the pivotal piece to keeping her child safe was the fact that she was lawfully armed with a handgun.” The man and woman were charged with felony child stealing.

…At around 5 a.m. on January 18, a man came into a gas station in Avondale, Arizona, with his face covered, mumbled something about “rob” and “money,” and then pointed a gun at the clerk and at a customer. However, when the suspect became distracted by another customer, the clerk reportedly drew his own firearm and shot the assailant. The would-be robber was taken to a hospital in critical condition, and neither the clerk nor any customers were hurt in the incident. While mainstream-media accounts often quoted an employment attorney advising clerks against arming themselves, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics has found that about two-thirds of workplace homicides involved robbers. “I’m not happy I had to shoot him,” the clerk told reporters, “But I’m not stressing. The moment he pulled the gun on me, he set the situation and I just followed it. He made the situation what it was.” Police indicated the clerk would not be charged.

How long does it take for the police to arrive? In both of these cases, would it have been too late? I don’t want America to become the wild, wild west, but it is becoming increasingly obvious that good guys with guns save lives.  We need more good guys with guns and less bad guys with guns. That will not be accomplished by laws that restrict gun ownership–bad guys don’t pay attention to laws. These two stories are only a fraction of the recorded incidents where lives were saved because someone legally carried a gun and spent enough time at the gun range to shoot accurately. Let’s encourage that behavior–not legislate against it.