Today’s news included a story about presidential executive orders signed to help satisfy calls for gun control. One of these measures included an order to
prevent importing US military weapons back into the country. The idea for this order is to prevent more of
these “military grade” guns from getting onto our streets. Many of these guns could very well include M-1
Garand semiautomatic rifles that are bought and reconditioned by the Civilian
Marksmanship Program (CMP), and then sold to people who participate in
legitimate marksmanship programs such as the “Appleseed Project” which is put
on by the Revolutionary War Veterans Association (RVWA). The rifles are also collector’s items owned by
legitimate and law abiding gun collectors.
For the purposes of this article, by
the way, I am limiting discussion to these and similar rifles. Any other military grade weapons are probably
already restricted from civilian ownership anyway.
Well, you know what? I am sick and tired of this worn out phrase
where the gun grabbing community says they are doing something "to get guns
off the streets." Really? Off the
streets? What do they mean by that? Are there guns running around on our streets
committing crimes? “Get these guns off
the streets” is the cry that I seem to hear all too often, but as I wrote in an
earlier blog post about a lack of understanding about gun terminology, I
suspect, too, that there is a lack of their own understanding about guns “on
the streets.” To be perfectly blunt, I
am relatively certain that the phrase “on (or off) the streets” is a pejorative
term meant to indicate anything that relates to common citizens, and those who aren't the “beautiful and politically influential people.” I think that they consider any gun to be in
the hands of law abiding citizens to be included in this “guns on the streets”
rhetoric.
But let's say just for a minute (giving them the benefit of the doubt), they
mean that “on the streets” refers only to the criminal underworld and the gang element,
and they simply want to get the guns out of the hands of these criminals, then they need to try again. There
are already laws for that. What they
need to do is start enforcing these laws. Preventing collectors and the CMP from getting
these rifles does not help this situation. It only penalizes these law abiding folks.
Many of these weapons that come back from overseas are in poor
shape. The CMP buys huge numbers of
these things, and cannibalizes them for parts to make enough good rifles to sell
to RVWA members, collectors and others.
This is an expensive process, and quite frankly, I don’t think the thug
gang members have the skills to do this.
So when I hear a gun control proponent say that
they want to get the guns "off the streets" I can only assume that
they actually mean that they want to get them out of the hands of EVERYONE! Sorry – but I am not giving them the benefit
of the doubt. I have seen the gun
grabber heart in action too many times. Gun
control efforts are continuously aimed at making it harder for law abiding
citizens to acquire that which is already constitutionally protected, and do nothing to prevent criminals from getting them. When the founders wrote this amendment, it
was their intention that common citizens would arm themselves and be able to
contribute to the security of the community.
They meant for all citizens to be trained and know how to use those
weapons as well.
These people need to spend more time reading their
constitutions (I've got a whole box of pocket constitutions if they need any) and enforcing already existing laws, and less time worrying about
how to tie the hands of law abiding citizens.
