I don't agree with the waiting period but otherwise it's a thought in the right direction.
"It is a revolting and depressing cycle, one mass killing after another across America. And guns are almost always involved. Once again the barbarity that occurred in Fort Worth, Texas, has politicians sprinting to the nearest available microphone, endlessly pontificating about gun violence.
I believe the entire "gun control" issue in America is largely bogus, and most intelligent observers know it. Currently, there are an estimated 80 million guns floating around the country, so even if severe gun control measures were put in place by the federal government, anybody who wanted a gun could pretty much get one.
America's contemporary gun situation is the fault of history. Inhabiting a new and dangerous land required nearly everyone who came to America in the 17th century to possess a firearm.
And then there were the hostile native Americans who didn't quite understand the colonists, the nasty French who wanted a big chunk of the New World and, of course, the English who exploited the colonies right up until colonists used their guns to end British rule.
See more crime news:
APBnews.com
After that came Western expansion, where guns were an absolute necessity for protection. So our history and traditions are irrevocably tied to firearms, while the histories of Japan and England, for example, are not.
Invaded from within
The Second Amendment also poses a problem for the regulation of firearms because it guarantees the right of all Americans to bear arms. The founding fathers put that in because they feared a military dictatorship and/or a foreign invasion in this country and wanted American citizens to be able to protect themselves. The founding fathers could never have foreseen 20th century social problems like the breakdown of law and order primarily due to massive drug trafficking and the rise of media violence. Firearms, once paramount for self-protection, have now been turned on American society itself. In effect, we have been invaded from within.
The solution to the problem is two-fold. First politicians on both the left and right should zip it about gun control. Common-sense measures like waiting a few days for a handgun purchase should be immediately passed. No felon or mentally ill person should ever be allowed to legally purchase a firearm. If that means waiting a few days so your record can be checked out, well, consider it your patriotic duty.
But far more important than a few minor gun control regulations is the role the federal government must play in prosecuting criminals who use guns. Quite simply, people who use guns to commit crimes are terrorists and should be prosecuted as such on the federal level.
Previous Columns:
Coerced Drug Rehabilitation
Dead Babies and Bad Justice
Alcohol, Abortion Law and a Sad Little Girl
Drug Czars and Criminal Junkies
Related Forum:
Discuss O'Reilly's View
Facing criminals with firearms
According to the 1998 National Crime Victimization Survey, 670,500 Americans said they were confronted by a criminal with a firearm in that year alone. Most of these cases involved rape, sexual assault and robbery. Twenty-three percent of the 2.9 million violent crimes committed in America in 1998 involved firearms.
The FBI says that a year earlier in 1997 (latest statistics available), 68 percent of all murders were committed with firearms.
If the government was truly committed to stopping gun violence, it would immediately set up gun courts and prosecute every single crime that involved a firearm as a terrorist act. Why? Because using a gun to break the law does terrorize the victims in a way that is unforgettable. Even if the gun is never fired, the psychological impact of knowing you were a heartbeat away from death is tremendous and stays with you forever.
You would think this would be universally accepted. You would think any criminal convicted of using a gun in the commission of a crime would be sentenced to a federal prison for no less than 20 years without possibility for parole for the first offense. Second offense -- life. You would think.
So why is this not being done? Are Americans opposed to it? No, the vast majority is not. The one thing that the National Rifle Association and gun control advocates agree on is stricter law enforcement for gun crimes. So where is the legislation? Nowhere, that's where.
But I'll tell you this, if you federalize gun crimes and build special work camps for gun convicts and keep them in there for a big 20, you'll cripple the gun-crime problem in the United States. And then the politicians who continue to demagogue this issue would be forced to shut up. That alone is worth the legislation.
Bill O'Reilly is the anchor of the Fox News Channel show The O'Reilly Factor and the author of the crime novel Those Who Trespass".
------------------
"It is easier to get out of jail then it is a morgue"
Live long and defend yourself!
John 3:16
"It is a revolting and depressing cycle, one mass killing after another across America. And guns are almost always involved. Once again the barbarity that occurred in Fort Worth, Texas, has politicians sprinting to the nearest available microphone, endlessly pontificating about gun violence.
I believe the entire "gun control" issue in America is largely bogus, and most intelligent observers know it. Currently, there are an estimated 80 million guns floating around the country, so even if severe gun control measures were put in place by the federal government, anybody who wanted a gun could pretty much get one.
America's contemporary gun situation is the fault of history. Inhabiting a new and dangerous land required nearly everyone who came to America in the 17th century to possess a firearm.
And then there were the hostile native Americans who didn't quite understand the colonists, the nasty French who wanted a big chunk of the New World and, of course, the English who exploited the colonies right up until colonists used their guns to end British rule.
See more crime news:
APBnews.com
After that came Western expansion, where guns were an absolute necessity for protection. So our history and traditions are irrevocably tied to firearms, while the histories of Japan and England, for example, are not.
Invaded from within
The Second Amendment also poses a problem for the regulation of firearms because it guarantees the right of all Americans to bear arms. The founding fathers put that in because they feared a military dictatorship and/or a foreign invasion in this country and wanted American citizens to be able to protect themselves. The founding fathers could never have foreseen 20th century social problems like the breakdown of law and order primarily due to massive drug trafficking and the rise of media violence. Firearms, once paramount for self-protection, have now been turned on American society itself. In effect, we have been invaded from within.
The solution to the problem is two-fold. First politicians on both the left and right should zip it about gun control. Common-sense measures like waiting a few days for a handgun purchase should be immediately passed. No felon or mentally ill person should ever be allowed to legally purchase a firearm. If that means waiting a few days so your record can be checked out, well, consider it your patriotic duty.
But far more important than a few minor gun control regulations is the role the federal government must play in prosecuting criminals who use guns. Quite simply, people who use guns to commit crimes are terrorists and should be prosecuted as such on the federal level.
Previous Columns:
Coerced Drug Rehabilitation
Dead Babies and Bad Justice
Alcohol, Abortion Law and a Sad Little Girl
Drug Czars and Criminal Junkies
Related Forum:
Discuss O'Reilly's View
Facing criminals with firearms
According to the 1998 National Crime Victimization Survey, 670,500 Americans said they were confronted by a criminal with a firearm in that year alone. Most of these cases involved rape, sexual assault and robbery. Twenty-three percent of the 2.9 million violent crimes committed in America in 1998 involved firearms.
The FBI says that a year earlier in 1997 (latest statistics available), 68 percent of all murders were committed with firearms.
If the government was truly committed to stopping gun violence, it would immediately set up gun courts and prosecute every single crime that involved a firearm as a terrorist act. Why? Because using a gun to break the law does terrorize the victims in a way that is unforgettable. Even if the gun is never fired, the psychological impact of knowing you were a heartbeat away from death is tremendous and stays with you forever.
You would think this would be universally accepted. You would think any criminal convicted of using a gun in the commission of a crime would be sentenced to a federal prison for no less than 20 years without possibility for parole for the first offense. Second offense -- life. You would think.
So why is this not being done? Are Americans opposed to it? No, the vast majority is not. The one thing that the National Rifle Association and gun control advocates agree on is stricter law enforcement for gun crimes. So where is the legislation? Nowhere, that's where.
But I'll tell you this, if you federalize gun crimes and build special work camps for gun convicts and keep them in there for a big 20, you'll cripple the gun-crime problem in the United States. And then the politicians who continue to demagogue this issue would be forced to shut up. That alone is worth the legislation.
Bill O'Reilly is the anchor of the Fox News Channel show The O'Reilly Factor and the author of the crime novel Those Who Trespass".
------------------
"It is easier to get out of jail then it is a morgue"
Live long and defend yourself!
John 3:16