America’s slack gun laws are a plague on the citizens of America. That sentence is what you could expect to hear out of the liberal Left, who have no understanding of the laws they helped put on the books. There is no need to have more gun laws if you are not going to enforce the laws that you have already passed.
I, as most of my readers, are fed up with politicians pushing for more laws when we do not need them. There is one thing that I can tell you about gun laws: I have to know them; that is part of my job as a gun shop owner. If I do not, on my end, enforce the laws as they are written, this is what I can get: 10 years in prison, a $250,000 fine and a boyfriend by the name of Bubba. I can honestly tell you right now I do not want any of the three. I do abide by all the gun laws.
Every time we have a national disaster that involves guns, the Left can’t wait to try and blame gun owners for the nation’s problems with guns. Every time it happens it rips us apart as a nation. It’s heartbreaking with the loss of innocent lives. The guns are not the problem — it is the insane acts that take place with the guns, those with mental illness, that is the problem.
There are those on the Left who say “Take all the guns from the people.” Wait just one moment. Think about this. Let us say that all of America’s firearms are taken from the citizens, they’re all gone. The only people who have them are law enforcement officers and our military. But look at this picture, the criminal. One day he finds a cop with his head turned an he takes a baseball bat and takes the cops head off. The criminal will always find a way to have a weapon. This is part of the criminal mind.
Now take the time to look at cities with the strictest of gun laws on the books. What city comes to mind? Of course it has to be Chicago. As we all know, you are more apt to be killed in Chicago than in any of our current war zones around the world. For the gangs of our nation it is a free-fire zone. No one is safe. But to hear the mayor of Chicago tell it, we need more laws. He’s a joke and not enforcing the laws makes him look even more foolish.
The politicians from the Left could not even wait and have common decency before our dead were buried before they had brought up the subject of more gun laws. I don’t give a damn what sister Hillary or Chuck Schumer think, for they are wrong. Guns do not just walk out of shops without strict background checks.
To buy a gun, a handgun that is, you have to have a permit to purchase. In that case, here in Richmond County you have to go to the sheriff’s office and fill out paperwork. There is a full page of questions that you have to answer about your own background before you ever get that permit to purchase. By the way, it takes five business days before you even get it — if you do get it. I have to tell you that our sheriff’s office is very effective in doing background checks. They have to be. They are the law.
One of the first questions is: Are you buying the gun for yourself. It is illegal for someone to buy a gun for another person if they can not legally buy it for themselves. But it is legal to buy for a husband or wife and give it as a gift, so long as that person is not barred from legally owning said firearm. It is also illegal for a convicted felon to have any type of firearm. Even if a person is charged and under indictment for a felony but not yet convicted of that felony, he can not buy a firearm. These questions are asked and if you lie, you can go to jail if you are convicted of telling a lie. Also, if you are a user of or addicted to a controlled substance — legal or not — you can not buy any type of firearm, shotgun, rifle or handgun.
If you have been adjudicated as a mental defective or have been committed to a mental institution you have lost your rights under the law to own or possess a gun. Under this law, the court has determined that you do not have the capacity to manage your own affairs. It is also stated that you are incompetent to even stand trial. There is a misdemeanor that carries just as much weight as the convection of a felony — the charge of domestic violence. With that one charge against you, you have lost all rights to be in possession of a gun.
Even with charges of stalking, harassing or making threats to a child or an intimate partner, your rights are gone. If you have given up your citizenship, that being renounced your United States citizenship, you don’t buy a gun. If you are an illegal alien or unlawfully in the United States, you can not buy a gun legally.
I want to let you know that if you, as a private citizen, sell a handgun, you are held to the same laws as I am. You are required to get a permit from that person. It takes a fool who will sell a gun to a stranger — or anyone as far as that goes — when that gun is in your name and you have filled out the paper work legally. You will go to jail for selling to a convicted felon, as you should.
By the way there are no “gun show loopholes.” All guns sold by dealers at these shows are required to have background checks. More liberal lies.
For shotguns and rifles, it’s the same: You have to go through a background check. I, myself, do that background check by going through the FBI data base. Again, guns don’t just walk out of shops on their own, someone is always accountable for them. The paperwork that I am required to take care of has to be flawless. I am accountable to the FBI an ATF and all state and federal laws. I get audited on a regular basis. Just to let you know how strict the audits are, on my last one I was written up for but one thing: that being a check mark that was out of place. This was on the paperwork that goes with the sale. The customer, even though they never knew it, was put through another deep background check.
I wish those who say there are not enough laws on gun control would look into all the laws that are there before they say some of the things that they do. That is because they make the general public think that the gun business is run by a group of people who have no idea of what they are doing and that is simply not the truth. I cannot tell you how it needs to be handled, as no one can at this moment. I know that the sales from one person to another — outside of sales taking place in stores — need to be monitored better than what is taking place today. You can not, and must not, try and lump all gun owners together and say that we are all crazy, for that is not the truth. Liberals will tell you we must stop selling guns to criminals. Criminals don’t buy guns from gun shops. It’s illegal — they steal guns from legal owners.
Robert Lee is a concerned citizen and U.S. Marine veteran who owns and operates Rockingham Guns and Ammo. His column appears here each Saturday.