Background Checks

I don't remember ever being inside the Merchandise Mart, but I remember hearing that you could be born and live your whole in there, womb to tomb. Well, maybe there weren't any tombs, but there was at least one undertaker who could take you to one on the outside.

There are two things wrong with those background checks for gun purchasers. One is that gun shows and private sales are exempt, it only covers federally licensed firearm dealers. With all the hand held computers they have nowadays, there is no reason they couldn't make the gun shows do it, but I don't know how they could regulate private sales between individuals. The other thing is that they don't check your mental health records. They ask you on the form you fill out if you are a convicted felon, a drug addict, or a mental patient, but the only thing they check with their computer is your police record. I suppose there are privacy laws, but laws can be changed. You want privacy, don't buy a gun.

I saw on the TV news the other day that firearm sales generally increase right after a mass shooting. I already knew that they increased every time Obama makes a speech about gun control. Come to think of it, he probably makes a speech about gun control right after there is a mass shooting, so maybe they are counting the same increase in firearm sales twice.

I have said before in this forum that I would support some reasonable gun law changes if I could be assured that they would go only so far and no farther. Call me "paranoid", but I still haven't gotten over my concern about creeping socialism, even though international socialism seems to have gone extinct in 1990. Maybe that's another dead horse that we don't need to be flogging anymore.