Hawkins the teen who killed eight people in Omaha mall got the AK-47 from his Step-Father. Something seriously needs to change. How can you allow fully automatic weapons for civilian use? And if yes, how come there is no control over who would end up using it? Does the person who gave AK-47 to Hawkins not have any responsibility to what he did afterwards? Shouldn't any criminal case be filed against him? I may buy in to a theory of keeping Guns with Freedom but at least make license laws tougher and if the Gun is transferred by him/her to someone who is not a licensed user will be a party to crime if committed? If your laws end up killing innocent people then the law has to change.
Thursday, December 06, 2007
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3 comments:
A few things:
First it was an SKS, not an AK-47 as some are reporting. Fully automatic machine guns are illegal in the US without a special federal license. AK-47s have been illegal to important into the United States since 1968, so there are very few of them. You can get semi-automatic copies of them, but they function the same as any other semi-automatic rifle. The SKS is also a semi-automatic rifle.
Second, as a convicted felon, this man was already prohibited from possessing a firearm or ammunition under federal law. The person who lent him the firearm violated federal law in doing so. The NRA has always supported the laws that bar felons from purchasing or possessing firearms, and supports the background check system that prevents them from legally purchasing them.
Of course, someone who's willing to kill other people, is going to be willing to break the law to get a gun, so it's not too surprising that those laws are only marginally effective.
If you're going to accuse an organization and its members of killing people, it helps to have an idea of what you're talking about first.
I am keen to find out the reactions of the families who lost their loved ones in that spree of madness about Guns on streets - legal or illegal. I appreciate your comments and I had no intention to brand NRA as an organization of killers. I support the right of owning Guns and using it with utmost responsibility. But lets get practical - how many incidences have we seen and God forbid will see when some mad person has killed innocent people in a Mall or in a school with an illegally purchased Gun? Tell me if someone intends to kill and does not find a Gun in his Uncle's or Father's house will go out on the street looking for a Gun and that too a semi-automatic one? Whatever Hollywood makes us believe, not long after he does so he will be nabbed and put in the jail.
There are three legal activities this country allows us to own a gun for:
1. Legal Hunting
2. Recreational shooting
3. Self protection
For legal hunting and recreational shooting practices you would never require either an automatic or a semi-automatic gun. And Self protection does not mean you keep renting out your guns. NRA absolutely has to do more. Just because my records are clean is not a reason for me to own a gun. Owning a Gun should not be made a cool thing.
The problem is, semi-automatic firearms are common. They are used for all the things you mentioned. Both police and citizens have largely switched to semi-automatic pistols because they perform better than traditional revolvers.
Semi-automatic rifles are common in shooting competition as well, largely because you don't have to interrupt your sight picture or stand in order to manually operate the action of the firearm to load the next round.
The main reason no one is ever going to agree to ban all of them is because they are so common. The other reason, probably the larger reason, is owning them is a constitutional right in this country.
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