True Gun Reform
Laws We Could All Get Behind
The gun prohibition lobby — and make no mistake, it is prohibition they’re after — is fond of demanding “gun reform” and “gun safety laws” when they are really talking about gun restrictions and gun bans, i.e., gun control!
It’s time for gun owners to return fire, politically speaking, with some demands of our own, some of which truly qualifies as gun law reform. These are suggestions meeting the measure of “common sense” and will bring a halt to penalizing law-abiding firearms owners for exercising their right to bear arms. This is especially important now, with fully half of the states allowing permitless carry.
Goal Number One
We need to repeal or drastically amend the Gun Free School Zones Act. This federal law makes a felon of anyone driving, riding or walking through an area an individual “knows or has reasonable cause to believe, is a school zone.” What is a school zone? It’s the area within 1,000 feet of a school on all sides, slightly longer than three football fields placed end-to-end. It might be invisible from where you are standing, walking or driving, but it’s there.
Has this law ever worked to actually prevent a school shooting? You might ask anyone who remembers Columbine, Marjorie Stoneman Douglas, Thurston, Ingraham and Pearl high schools — and don’t forget Sandy Hook Elementary.
Name a small town anywhere in the nation where you won’t find a school within 1,000 feet of a main street or highway. It’s going to be difficult because schools need quick access from main roads in case of emergencies and just to make it easier for school buses to drop off or pick up students. There is frequently no choice but to drive through such areas because there are no alternatives.
I know of several places where there are schools along state highways or main county roads or where a school building stands along the only access into and out of a particular community. One such farming/ranching community is located in a huge canyon/coulee and pretty much everybody living in this area has a gun. In the fall during hunting season, this single road regularly serves lots of hunters, and the rest of the year you could easily find someone with quick access to a rifle for coyote control.
At the very least, this stinker of a statute should be amended to exempt any citizen licensed to carry a concealed, loaded firearm or who possesses a valid hunting license, thus opening up the potential of a 14th Amendment challenge by anybody in any of the 25 states choosing to carry without a permit — and who doesn’t hunt?
Another possibility would be to shrink the zones to the immediate property line of the school. This means roads and sidewalks would no longer be within such zones. After all, people intent on attacking a school have never been deterred by the invisible boundary of a gun-free school zone.
If you contact your congressional representative, take a road map showing where schools are located in your community, and their proximity to highways, county roads and arterials.
Goal Number Two
Pass national concealed-carry reciprocity. This proposal made it through the U.S. House of Representatives during the Trump administration but it didn’t move in the Senate and many people blame then-Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) for letting it gather dust. Some may argue it didn’t move because McConnell knew he didn’t have the votes to pass it. One might suggest in such a situation, you bring it up anyway to identify those people who stand against the Second Amendment.
Reciprocity makes sense for any number of reasons and here are a couple worth consideration:
• Ctizens should not leave their right of self-defense at the border of their home state. Contrary to what Dianne Feinstein or Chuck Schumer might think, gun owners have rights, too and those rights are enshrined in the federal constitution and the constitutions of at least 44 states.
• Citizens traveling peaceably through one or more states should never fear prosecution for being legally armed. Your right to keep and bear arms is not restricted to your state of residence. It’s a right wherever you are on U.S. soil; a fact anti-gun ideologues are too stubborn to acknowledge.
Politicians who claim they “support the Second Amendment … but” have less credibility than a blind baseball umpire. You need to smoke them out, and one of the best ways to do it is ask them to vote for national reciprocity. When the excuses start piling up, it will be easy to tell your friends from everyone else.
A few months ago, I read an insane reaction to a newspaper article from one opponent of reciprocity, who argued it was a plot to cultivate and recruit new members for the National Rifle Association from among today’s young people. Anti-gunners like to justify every restriction by arguing, “If it saves just one life, it is worthwhile.” Throw this right back in their faces.
Of course, Democrats controlling New York, New Jersey, Maryland, Illinois, California, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Delaware, Oregon and a few other states cringe at the thought of reciprocity. They have repeatedly lied about what reciprocity will do and it is time to put them on the spot.
Goal Number Three
Another great idea is making gun safety courses part of the public-school curriculum. Anti-gunners will scream but it is time to make them justify decades of opposition to this common-sense effort — one which will save young lives by helping prevent childhood accidents.
Taking a firearms safety/hunter education course is a requirement for getting a hunting license in all 50 states. It has helped prevent hunting accidents and undoubtedly saved some lives. Why can’t it be a requirement to graduate from high school? Parents who shriek about their children being exposed to (gasp!) guns often don’t seem too alarmed when schools allow some woke ideology in the classroom so it’s time to ask “what’s the difference?”
Lawmakers in Kansas brought it up earlier this year. What’s wrong with your state legislature?
Take Action
This summer, members of Congress will be showing up at parades, political picnics and other activities in their districts. Check your community calendar and find out when these activities will happen. Such events will give you the opportunity for personal contact. Shake hands with their aides, make your points and provide contact information for follow-up conversations.
Be creative rather than combative. Be cordial, rather than cranky. Be willing to help craft legislation and be ready to provide visual aids to explain and demonstrate the issue. The ball really is in your court!
