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A common misconception among Montanans is that the gun control lobby is out to take away their right to have firearms. This couldn’t be farther from the truth. On Thursday, Feb. 14, Close Up members attended a lecture by Robin Terry of Handgun Control Inc. When asked if her organization wanted to disarm the public, her answer was a resounding “no.” Handgun Control doesn’t wish to take away your guns, or repeal the Second Amendment, they wish to only to make guns safer and keep them out of criminal’s hands, Terry said. According to Terry, the gun industry is one of the least regulated of all industries. While this fact alone is not shocking, the fact that there are some 220 million civilian handguns in America, and that having a handgun in the home greatly increases the chances of accidental injury or death, or suicide, is. The gun control lobby proposes nothing radical, but rather simple common sense. First, these people are pushing to make trigger locks a required component of all gun designs, much the way an ignition/lock system is in all cars. Second, they propose a means of making it more difficult for criminals to acquire firearms. Terry explained this as a system of titles and deeds on guns, which would have to be transferred when the gun is sold. Once again, this is similar to the manner in which cars are bought and sold. This would allow police to track down persons who sell guns to criminals. The gun control lobby isn’t looking to set up a system in the manner of Great Britain’s near-total ban on gun ownership. They are merely trying to make guns more difficult for criminals to obtain, and to make the new guns sold safer. As any logical mind would see, the radicals in Washington, D.C., are not the gun control lobbyists. The true enemies of the future of responsible gun ownership are maybe those who push the NRA’s agenda. |
