Too Little, Too Late Policy-Making for Gun Control

As a gun owner and strong supporter of the Second Amendment I can't believe that the Founders intended to extend our hard fought constitutional rights to keep and bear arms to criminals, the mentally ill and children without any restrictions or background check.

Imagine if your son or daughter was one of the 32 gunned down at Virginia Tech or is one of the 83 sons and daughters who will die from gun violence today and everyday in the US. Then imagine that you found out after burying your child that Congress and the president have allowed the gun lobby to dictate national gun policy such that criminals, the mentally ill and terrorists can buy guns in 32 states without even a background check. In fact Virginia is one of those states where private individuals and "Collectors" can legally sell guns at countless weekend gun shows and flea markets or literally out of back packs and car trunks and police are actually prohibited by Federal and State law from doing anything to stop it. How mad would you be?

Well that's the national gun policy in the US and even after the Virginia Tech massacre neither the Virginia Governor nor Congress is even considering requiring criminal background checks for ALL gun sales. In fact as 32 parents are burying their kids killed at Virginia Tech it's even doubtful that Congress and the president will stand up to the NRA and pass legislation allowing mental health records to be included in the National Instant Check System (NICS) database for gun purchasing.

Yesterday the Virginia Governor announced an Executive Order mandating that mental health records be included in the State's background check database and could be used to prohibit an individual from purchasing guns from a Federally Licensed gun dealer. This is typical too little-too late and "the horse is already out of the barn" policy- making. Clearly the deranged Virginia Tech shooter had a history of mental illness and should not have been allowed to buys guns and high capacity ammunition clips. If his mental health records were in the State database maybe he would have been prevented from buying his arsenal at a gun store. But so what? The mire fact that he even bothered to go to a licensed gun dealer with his questionable mental health history is evidence of just how easy it is to legally buy guns in Virginia and most other states.

In Virginia and 32 other States you only have to succumb to a criminal background check if you buy guns from a Federally Licensed gun dealer. Criminals and terrorists have long known that if you can't pass a criminal background check you can simply buy an unlimited quantity of guns legally from private individuals or from private "Collectors" at one of 5,000 gun shows around the US every year. This NRA supported and well known gun show loophole was actually included in Al Qaeda's terrorist handbook as an easy cash-and-carry source of high powered weapons without any ID or background check. Coincidently or not, Virginia has also been notorious for it's gun shows being a source for the sale of crime guns and "straw purchases". Last year the BATF successfully prosecuted several such cases and unfortunately instead of being praised by lawmakers they were called to testify before Congress about why they were doing sting operations at Virginia gun shows and "harassing gun dealers" even though the BATF had a 100% conviction rate.

It's time we all realize that the president and Congress have intentionally created a national gun policy specifically designed to allow unlimited quantities of guns to be sold without criminal background checks, record keeping or law enforcement intervention and it's very effective. As a result 80-90 more parents and children will bury their family members today and everyday from largely preventable gun violence in order to please the NRA and keep their special interest "Blood Money" flowing into Democrat and Republican campaign coffers. There's just no other plausible explanation.

We're just fooling ourselves if we think adding mental health records to the NICS database without requiring criminal background checks for ALL gun sales is going to prevent massacres like Virginia Tech and Columbine High school or dramatically reduce the 30,000 gun deaths each year in the United States.