How Strict are U.S., Colorado, and Local Gun Control Laws?
By David B. Kopel
Executive Summary
In both the United States and Canada, opinion polling consistently reveals two facts:
A large number of people favor “ more” gun control laws.
An equally large number of people have no idea how strict gun control laws already are.
In Colorado, for example, leaders of a new anti-gun organization called “ SAFE” have claimed that:
There should be a law against buying automatic weapons over the counter.
There should be a law against “ straw purchases,” in which a legal purchaser buys a gun for an illegal person.
In fact, the first item has been law since 1934, and the second item has been law since 1968.
This Issue Paper explains existing federal, state, and local gun control laws. The paper proceeds as follows:
Part I details federal gun laws, including their stringent bans on gun possession by various classes of people, and their preposterous laws regarding handgun possession by juveniles.
Part II describes Colorado gun laws.
In Part III, local ordinances in Denver and elsewhere are examined. The Paper shows how oppressive and unfair many of these laws are, and why Colorado should (like over 40 other states)
enact legislation specifying that gun laws should be enacted only at the state level (with a few exceptions for truly local matters, such as firearms discharge).
The next Part specifies each of the 19 weapons control laws which were broken by Littleton murderers Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold and their gun-supplying accomplices. Before Harris and
Klebold set foot on Columbine High School on April 20, they had perpetrated enough weapons laws violations so that they could have been sent to prison for the rest of their lives.
Gun prohibition lobbyists have used the Columbine murders as a pretext for a campaign to destroy gun shows. Part V examines the phony claim that there is a gun show “ loophole” in current
law.
http://www.i2i.org/SuptDocs/Crime/HowStrict.htm
By David B. Kopel
Executive Summary
In both the United States and Canada, opinion polling consistently reveals two facts:
A large number of people favor “ more” gun control laws.
An equally large number of people have no idea how strict gun control laws already are.
In Colorado, for example, leaders of a new anti-gun organization called “ SAFE” have claimed that:
There should be a law against buying automatic weapons over the counter.
There should be a law against “ straw purchases,” in which a legal purchaser buys a gun for an illegal person.
In fact, the first item has been law since 1934, and the second item has been law since 1968.
This Issue Paper explains existing federal, state, and local gun control laws. The paper proceeds as follows:
Part I details federal gun laws, including their stringent bans on gun possession by various classes of people, and their preposterous laws regarding handgun possession by juveniles.
Part II describes Colorado gun laws.
In Part III, local ordinances in Denver and elsewhere are examined. The Paper shows how oppressive and unfair many of these laws are, and why Colorado should (like over 40 other states)
enact legislation specifying that gun laws should be enacted only at the state level (with a few exceptions for truly local matters, such as firearms discharge).
The next Part specifies each of the 19 weapons control laws which were broken by Littleton murderers Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold and their gun-supplying accomplices. Before Harris and
Klebold set foot on Columbine High School on April 20, they had perpetrated enough weapons laws violations so that they could have been sent to prison for the rest of their lives.
Gun prohibition lobbyists have used the Columbine murders as a pretext for a campaign to destroy gun shows. Part V examines the phony claim that there is a gun show “ loophole” in current
law.
http://www.i2i.org/SuptDocs/Crime/HowStrict.htm