Brady Bunch, Bush, and the NRA Agree on Latest Federal Gun Control Measure

Tuesday, January 8, 2008, President Bush signed a new gun control measure into law. While federal laws had previously been in effect to require states to verify gun purchasers were not mentally ill, no money was allocated for states to implement systems to quickly and accurately make proper determinations. The new law allocates over a billion dollars in your tax money to implement such systems and processes.

It is easy to see why the anti gun control crowd and the NRA agreed on the new measure. With the horrific occurrence at Virginia Tech and the resulting media investigation that outed the deceased killer of so many innocent people as a mentally ill person, it is politically difficult to stand in the way of such a law. On the surface, it makes perfect sense to deny weapons to the mentally ill and convicted felons.

Yet the thing that is being ignored in the wake of this tragedy is the Constitution of the United States. That document does not stipulate that only mentally pure non-felons may keep and bear arms. It states simply that the right of two groups to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed. Those two groups are individuals and militias. Our founding fathers crafted a magnificent document that has stood the test of more than two centuries of politics, war, and national disaster. We should be very cautious before we enact laws that clearly defy it.

This new law may save lives. It may save the lives of potential innocent victims and some mentally ill would be killers as well.

It is more likely to cost lives. Time will tell, but I foresee innocent persons who may have been treated some time in the past for temporary depression or minor metal issues long since overcome dying at the hands of a criminal because they have been denied their right to defend themselves with firearms. Even convicted felons, who have done their time and turned their lives around (some do actually succeed at re-habilitation) should not be denied their right to purchase and bear a firearm. If society thinks it is safe to let them out on the street again, society should accept and prepare for the risk of them having firearms. Many "mentally ill" people live in some of the most dangerous locations in our society. Most of them have types of mental illness that are harmless to others and they have the intelligence and morals to be entrusted with a firearm if they chose to own one. These folks need the ability to defend themselves even more than those of us who have comfortable homes, alarm systems, and pet canines that alert us and frighten away criminals. For some of these "mentally ill" folks, having a firearm at hand in their home is a necessity they literally cannot survive without.

If a person is too mentally ill or violent to be entrusted with the right to purchase a firearm, they should be secured for treatment and removed from society until a panel of experienced mental health professionals declare that person mentally well enough to return to normal life. If they can't be entrusted with a weapon, they shouldn't be walking around free to pick up any old hammer or steak knife, either. That means that we should trust mental health professionals to do the right thing and not turn folks with mental illnesses who are violent or threatening loose on the streets.

The Virginia Tech killer was mentally ill, not stupid. If the gun shop had not sold him a gun that day, he still would have found a way to obtain one and the massacre still would have occurred. The massacre occurred and so many people were killed not because the mentally ill guy got a gun so easily, it occurred because there were no armed citizens present to stop him from going on his rampage.

More restrictions on the people's ability to obtain firearms is not the answer.

The answer is to allow more law-abiding citizens to KEEP AND BEAR ARMS in accordance with the United States Constitution so that the next time a person attempts to go on a killing spree, an armed citizen will be at hand to take that person down before innocent lives are lost. Comparison of the recent church camp shooting in Colorado where a female concealed handgun license holder took out the bad guy vs. the Virginia Tech massacre illustrates this fact perfectly.

Sorry, Mr. President, Brady Bunch, and National Rifle Association (of which I am a member), I can't stand with any of you on this one.