The Hard Truth From Orlando

It's like gun control legislation. All the NRA and like-minded idjits are terrified Big Brother is going to come into their houses and take their guns away. Not so. But it's about time we start getting on top of what constitutes LEGAL acquisition and RESPONSIBLE gun ownership. Like it should be illegal to leave a firearm in your personal vehicle unless the vehicle has an attached, secured lockbox designed for storage of a firearm. If you don't have a concealed firearm permit that lets you carry it on your person or you are in an area where all firearms are prohibited, then leave the darned thing at home in a lock box, not in your car. An estimated 232,400 firearms are stolen each year -- 172,000 stolen during burglaries and another 60,300 stolen during other property crimes. The stats don't differentiate between car burglaries and residential/business burglaries. But I can tell you, Orlando's gun thefts are primarily from car burglaries because the gun owners don't have the license to carry but they keep one in their cars "for protection." 80 percent of these firearms are not recovered up to six months after being stolen. But when they do turn up, they've been used in a crime by the same bad guys who use them like trading cards in the community to commit other illegal acts.

If I buy a gun, it's with a "carry permit" and I'll wear the thing all the time when it isn't physically locked in a hidden compartment in my vehicle or my residence. It'll be as much a part of me as my glasses because I see no other reason to have a firearm for "protection" unless it's with me and I have the legal authority to carry it.

Mental health is not added to the data bases for background checks and to prevent purchase of ammunition or firearms. If you've been Baker Acted (and many of our mentally-ill shooters HAVE been at one time or another), it means you've been involuntarily committed for treatment because you present a threat to yourself or others. That's the bottom line; you have been identified at some time as having presented a threat to yourself or others. A Baker Act is a LEGAL proceeding, a kind of arrest/incarceration, and therefore it SHOULD be included in all background checks. But varying states have varying requirements and most of the time, it doesn't reflect at all in local police records or on the NCIC. If you've been Baker Acted, you shouldn't be allowed to have or acquire a firearm without additional medical certification that you are no longer a threat to yourself or others. Will it be 100%? Nothing is. But it will stop a lot of these mass-shooters from easy acquisition.

Internet sales of firearms and ammunition to individuals who are not licensed gun dealers should be prohibited. You have a license, you have to have certain qualifications to keep that license -- as well as the insurance to cover you if you screw up and sell to the wrong person.

These are realistic things that gun lobbyists are ignoring. These are realistic options that gun manufacturers don't want anyone to look at because it affects their bottom line. And it doesn't impact the sacrosanct 2nd Amendment in any material form whatever. But as long as money drives the gun train, we're not going to see any improvements -- any more than we will in the pharmaceutical monopoly.

     Florida Cracker