Liberals out of touch with reality regarding gun control

The Daily Item of Sunbury, PA ran an interesting editorial today, "Lobby too strong for gun control." In it is the usual lamenting about the liberal agenda of gun bans not being popular with the peasants (I mean, people) and illustrates the delusions of liberal elites when it comes to gun control.

Our nation is faced with a gun crime crisis, but there is little reason to believe the problem will ever lead to legislation that tramples rights enshrined in the Second Amendment. On the contrary, elected officials wary of falling afoul of the gun rights lobby have been unwilling to adopt even modest legislation that would make it more difficult for criminals to get weapons.

"Unwilling to adopt even modest legislation." Apparently, the more than 20,000 gun laws in this country don't even make the grade. The myriad of "may issue" states that allow bureaucrats to unilaterally and arbitrarily decide whether you are allowed to have the right to carry a firearm for personal protection, numerous victim disarmament zones restricting guns only from those inclined to follow the law in the first place, age discrimination requiring people to be 21 before they're allowed to own a handgun, large swaths of liberal hotzones like Chicago where handgun ownership is prohibited, and many, many more gun laws don't even rise to the level of modestly meeting the goals of the gun grabbers.

The Daily Item tells us that "most gun control measures under consideration are tailored toward stemming the crisis of inner-city crime," and gives the example of legislation the support which would make it a crime to not report being the victim of a gun theft. The claim, of course, with such legislation is that it allows the police to quickly begin investigating stolen guns. What they neglect to mention is that most versions of such proposed laws include stipulations requiring the theft to be reported when you "knew or should have known" that the gun was stolen. They get to decide when you "should have known." Many also include penalties if it was determined you didn't take enough steps to secure your firearm against theft. But, going after crime victims will surely slow down burglars, right?

The underlying problem, of course, is that the liberal elites just don't get it. They think the solution to every criminal act is to pass a new law making it even more of a crime to commit those acts. If 10 laws didn't stop an armed robbery, many 11 will. They also think it is this mystical entity called the "powerful gun lobby" that stops their pet legislation from being adopted, when in reality, it is the 80 million gun owners in this country stopping politicians from completely abolishing their Second Amendment rights.

The skyrocketing gun sales after President Obama was elected show that people do still care about their gun rights, despite the elitist agenda. They're tired of being lied to and no longer fooled by the experiment of oppressive gun control since crime didn't go down as promised. The elites know this in their hearts and know that gun control is about people control, not crime control. The Daily Item even admit that "candidly, most Valley gun killings would not have been avoided by efforts intended to keep firearms out of the hands of criminals."

Gun laws only affect those inclined to follow the law in the first place. "Modest" gun legislation that prohibits firearms in bars will stop law abiding citizens from doing so. It will not stop the career criminal who intends to use a stolen gun to rob the place. Keep that in mind the next time a gun control scheme gets introduced in your local, state, or federal legislature. Or just ask Penn and Teller how being prohibited from performing a trick that requires a prop gun in Atlantic City makes that city any safer from crime. If that restriction doesn't work, I'm sure gun grabbers have more modest suggestions waiting in the wings.