Pravda on the Cumberland Strikes Again

[Pat McGarrity]

Thanks to TFA Member, Jon May, for pointing out that Pravda on the Cumberland strikes again and TFA Member Tom Coplin for the research on the "gun show loop-hole".

There are so many lies in this propaganda piece, I don't know where to start. First, Kazmierczak, the NIU shooter did not have a carry permit. He had an Illinois state police-issued FOID, or firearms owners identification card, which is required in Illinois to own a gun.

The so called "loop-hole" is a myth. There is no such thing as a "gun show loop-hole." Gun dealers are federally licensed and must follow the same rules for sales whether they are dealing from a store front or a gun show.( Firearms Use by Offenders, Bureau of Justice Statistics, November 2001)

The facts show that only 0.7 of convicts bought their firearms at gun shows, (Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms...BATF) while 93% of guns used in crimes are obtained illegally, not from stores or gun shows.

The anti-gun crowd attempt to prove their case by stating that 25% of the vendors at most gun shows are "unlicensed dealers." True, but highly deceptive. About 25% of the booths at gun shows are occupied by dealers that do not sell guns, but feature knives, curios, accessories books etc. They do not deal in firearms, and do not need to be licensed.

The "assault weapons ban" banned cosmetic features on semi-automatic firearms and limited magazine rounds. DOJ statistics prove that it did not reduce crime. It was never intended to, however it was an abominable erosion of our rights.

I don't see how newspapers stay in business.

In Liberty,

Pat McGarrity
Director - Shelby County, TFA

http://www.tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll ... 60381/1008
Response to Virginia Tech has not gone far enough
Today's Topic: Campus violence has deep roots
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On Monday, classes resumed at Northern Illinois University for the first time since a former student opened fire in an auditorium Feb. 14, killing five students and wounding 16 before turning the gun on himself.

The tragedy bore marked similarities to the Virginia Tech shootings last April, when a student killed 32 people and himself, and demonstrates that little has changed for the better in the past 10 months.

Steve Kazmierczak, the NIU shooter, had a history of psychiatric problems and had recently stopped taking an antidepressant without a doctor's consent. Seung-Hui Cho, the Virginia Tech gunman, had recently been committed to a mental hospital.
Both men purchased guns themselves. Kazmierczak passed numerous criminal-background checks, according to The Associated Press, and had a state firearm owner ID card, which requires applicants to answer questions including whether they have been institutionalized in the past five years. Cho's purchases met Virginia law at the time, but a judge's recent ruling on his competency should have sounded an alarm with federal officials, had they been notified as part of the background check.

Some observers have credited an emergency-alert system developed at NIU after Virginia Tech, which sent out e-mails and messages on Web sites to notify students a possible gunman was on campus, with preventing more deaths. A similar messaging-alert system is in place at Belmont University in Nashville and several campuses nationwide. Still, an alert system is purely reactive, and does not anticipate an attack.

Students and college officials interviewed around the country since the NIU attack have sounded a note of resignation that such rampages cannot be prevented.

We should never say never when it comes to stopping violence in this country. Consider, rather, that officials simply have not gone far enough to deal with the availability of lethal weapons.

Despite the outcry last April after the worst mass killing in U.S. history, Virginia legislators are still wrestling with gun reform legislation. President Bush signed a new federal law in January to expand the federal database for screening gun applicants, but the law contains a gaping loophole that allows weapons to be bought at gun shows without background checks.

It is disturbing that after repeated incidents of campus carnage dating back to Columbine in 1999 and earlier, organizations continue to block effective gun-control legislation. Even worse, some have proposed allowing more guns on campuses, under the Wild West rationale that if every student and teacher is armed, they can defend themselves against a lone, irrational shooter.

Bills such as one before the Alabama legislature would allow guns on state college campuses if the students are properly licensed — as was Kazmierczak.

Just the opposite course should be pursued. The Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence advocates closing the gun-show loophole; limiting bulk purchases of handguns, which would cut down on illegal gun trade; and an outright ban on the sale of military-style assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition magazines. Kazmierczak and Cho each used the latter in their killing spree. Such weaponry was illegal except for military and police use until Congress let the assault weapons ban expire in 2004.

The problem of mass violence in America runs deep, and gun control alone will not solve it. These senseless killings hearken to how people are increasingly isolated from a network of family and friends, even from their mental-health providers, amid a culture that treats violence as entertainment.

Changing that mindset will take time. In the meantime, fewer guns, not more, is the answer — before the next Columbine, or NIU, or Virginia Tech.