Ask the average gun buff if we need new gun laws and the knee-jerk reaction is, “Not just no, but hell no!”

That’s followed up with, “What part of ‘Shall not be infringed’ don’t you understand? All those gun laws on the books are illegal and should be repealed!”

Let’s just think about that.

You know rights come with limits and responsibilities. Your right to swing your arms ends at the tip of my nose, right? Who would argue a law disarming convicted murderers in prison violates the Second Amendment? You get the point. Some gun laws are just fine. A five year old can’t walk into a gun shop and buy a gun.

Yes, on cool reflection, some gun laws work and are a part of the American concept of ordered liberty. We control bad elements in society and mete out punishment for bad actors and their bad acts. The worse the act is, the harsher the penalty. You want those laws-

Let’s look at our legitimate need for gun laws. Because laws protect the innocent as well as punish the guilty. That’s especially important now the Constitution no longer constrains Congress. Officials do whatever they please, trashing our rights, ignoring their limits, acting like tyrants unrestricted by “a government of limited delegated powers.” You can fight this using new laws, with teeth, to stop those defilers of our magnificent system.

Here’s how you grow teeth. Instead of a law stating (in simple terms), “It’s illegal to take a gun away from an innocent person” (a toothless statement, but oh so typical), you say instead, “Anyone who takes a gun from an innocent person shall go to jail.”

Now the authorities have to watch their butts because there’s a penalty for violating your rights, not just some feckless statement they shouldn’t do it. We win.

“Kosher” Gun Laws

Of all the groups defending the RKBA, the most aggressive is Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership, and even those people support “reasonable” gun control, the type I’m talking about. They’ve identified five Kosher Gun Laws (“Kosher” means proper). JPFO suggests all the rest should be tossed in the ocean:

1) If you criminally misuse a gun, your gun rights can be severed.
2) People who are mentally unfit to handle their own affairs may not bear arms.
3) Until the age of 18, your gun rights come from your parents.
4) You are responsible for the outcome of every shot you fire.
5) Because the God-given right of self-defense is inviolate, anyone who, under color of law, denies or attempts to deny your civil right to bear arms, pays a stiff fine and goes to prison.

See the footnotes and more that expand on these basic rules, at www.jpfo.org.

Other Ideas

No one who reads Handgunner [Magazine] should be a spectator in the struggle to preserve freedom. Find out who your local legislators are and start enacting reasonable common sense gun laws with them. That’s how things get done. What laws? You can read the details of these and more “Model Gun Laws” at www.gunlaws.com/ModelLegislation.htm.

Here are some ideas.

• Constitutional Carry: The right to discreetly or openly bear arms should not require a government-issued permission slip, taxes, paperwork and an expiration date.
• Gun-Free-Zone Liability Act: If you create a dangerous, make believe, so-called “gun-free” zone by simply hanging a sign, you are liable for any harm it causes.
• High School Marksmanship Act: An elective class worth one credit is offered toward your high school diploma, earned after you safely discharge a firearm at a target. “Educate kids on the constitutional roots and proper exercise of the right to keep and bear arms.”
• Protection of Private Property Act: Any legally owned private property may be kept in or on a private means of transportation at any place the means of transportation may legally be. This removes bans on guns in vehicles (without mentioning guns).

And there’s more.

• Defensive Display: Warning an attacker you’re armed is protected by law in Montana and Arizona. Get your state onboard. The warning can be verbal, a motion or reach, or presenting a firearm in a way a person would understand is meant to forestall an assault.
• BIDS vs. NICS: If we must have gun-buyer background checks to stop criminals, at least do it without compiling massive records on the innocent. A simple system called BIDS can do this, and at far less cost than NICS.
• Limited Immunity for 911 Emergency Reporting: If you have the right to remain silent, and the right to have an attorney present during questioning, why are you encouraged to call 911 after self defense and speak into a police voice recorder, to the people trying to convict you? Yes, America needs more common sense gun laws.

Alan Korwin is the author of nine books on gun law. He runs the GunLaws.com website, and is the manager of the TrainMeAZ.com campaign, which you should check out.

About:
Jews For The Preservation Of Firearms Ownership Mission is to destroy “gun control” and to encourage Americans to understand and defend all of the Bill of Rights for everyone. Those are the twin goals of Wisconsin-based Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership (JPFO). Founded by Jews and initially aimed at educating the Jewish community about the historical evils that Jews have suffered when they have been disarmed, JPFO has always welcomed persons of all religious beliefs who share a common goal of opposing and reversing victim disarmament policies while advancing liberty for all.

JPFO is a non-profit tax-exempt educational civil rights organization, not a lobby. JPFO’s products and programs reach out to as many segments of the American people as possible, using bold tactics without compromise on fundamental principles. Visit www.JPFO.org – Copyright JPFO 2011

The article makes it sound like the study is fair, noting:

“The results indicate that illegal firearms flow from states with weak gun laws to states with strong gun laws, suggesting that traffickers are responding to differences in gun laws across the states.”

But consider this passage:

“Using gun tracing data from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, which identify the source state for crime guns recovered in each of the 50 states, Knight constructed an import-export matrix to measure the state-to-state gun trafficking flow. Knight then classified each state on a scale of weak-to-stringent gun regulation using 10 laws deemed significant in terms of reducing trafficking by Mayors Against Illegal Guns, including legislation on straw purchasing, background checks, and required reporting of lost or stolen guns.”

The fact that ATF’s data was included, as well as that of Mayors Against Illegal Guns seems to suggest that this could be far more biased. Additionally, it made no mention that gun ownership is on the rise while gun crime is down.

Basically this seems like little more than a Mayors Against Illegal Guns study repurposed as “news.”

“Crazy law” – imagine if other laws were considered crazy? Is this legitimate journalism to declare something “crazy” because they don’t agree? The article adds:

“Patient privacy is already protected by law, and the right to bear arms is also already protected by law. So the new bill mainly just protects patients from feeling bad or judged at their doctor’s office. Now if Florida doctors make their patients feel bad about their guns—or if patients only think their doctors are trying to make them feel bad about their guns—the doctors are on the hook for disciplinary proceedings, possible revocation of their medical license, and administrative fines up to $10,000 per count.”

It seems to us that the media already does a great job making people feel bad about guns – but in this case the media likes to make non-gun owners feel bad about all guns!

Perez of course sees it another way, writing:

“What do U think about this incident? Do we need even stricter gun laws to counter against this type of thing?”

What we think is that this type of off the cuff blog post from Hilton is “awful.” Is it that hard to spell out “you?” But to his point, what would stricter gun laws do? It would just keep guns out of the hands of responsible law-abiding citizens! We agree, children shouldn’t be near guns – and children should be taught how to respect guns.

But this type of silly post just stirs the pot and creates hysteria.

But what about Nazi Germany? What about the Soviet Union? How about North Korea or Cambodia? How about China as an example? China today has laws that ban individual gun ownership, but yet criminal syndicates not only have guns but they have gun making factories that churn out AK-47 clones!

And how about Mexico? That one seems surprising to leave off the list. Private gun ownership is tightly controlled in Mexico, and yet the criminals there have no problem getting guns.

Did banning alcohol turn the United States dry in 1919? That didn’t seem to work. So why would gun control?

If adopted, the new regulations may be used to implement AB 1471, which requires that after January 1, 2010, all semiautomatic pistols not already listed on the roster of handguns approved for sale by firearm retailers be “designed and equipped” with microstamping technology.

Read more at Ammoland.com: NRA & CRPA Foundation Submit Opposition To Proposed Microstamping Regulations

California Gun Laws Official Website

Kudos to a candidate for any office that has that level of nerve.

“Washington requires residents who want to keep a gun at home for self defense to be fingerprinted and photographed by police, provide a five-year work history, and note their intended use of the weapon, among other regulations. Residents must register every firearm they own and firearms defined by the city as assault weapons are also restricted.”

Seriously, a five-year work history? And we like the point about “defined by the city.” Well, that wouldn’t be vague or unfair would it?

The story offers this passage:

“The research offers rare insight into how even residents of distant states can pay a price for another state’s weak gun laws.”

Does the research, which was compiled – and dare we say cherry picked – from ATF data really offer “rare insight.”

This editorial later states:

“A patchwork of protections, the research shows, is no protection at all.”

The research doesn’t actually show this fact. It merely shows that criminals will go to great lengths, in distance and effort to obtain firearms. New laws won’t stop this fact.

But we actually agree that the lack of commonsense gun laws is an issue. It defies commonsense that bolt-action rifles that hold more than five rounds are banned in New York City. It defies commonsense that handguns were banned in Chicago and Washington, D.C. Of course when LoHud.com asks for unified gun laws they really mean gun control.

With the kind help from our friends at GunBoards.com they offered some thoughts on what it is actually involved in buying a machinegun.

Currently, there are basically 4 types of machineguns in the US market today.

“The first is the C&R (curio and relic) transferable machineguns,” says Frank, an advanced collector of firearms who offered his knowledge of machinegun collecting. “These guns are original factory guns registered generally prior to the end of December, 1968 when the Gun Control Act of 1968 passed, banning the import of machineguns for civilian sales.”

He notes that DeWaTs are in this group. These are registered as “unservicable firearms” and transfered via 5320.5 or form 5 tax exempt. “Those were guns that came in under the US DeWaT (Deactivated War Trophy) program. The GCA 1968 defined the receiver of a firearm as the firearm owner and since most DeWaT’s were deactivated in a manner that left the receiver intact they were allowed to be registered during the amnesty in December of 1968. If they were registered they can be reactivated legally and returned to functional status.”

Next up are machineguns that were manufactured in the US after the 1968. “These guns are transferable but unless they are put on the C&R list individually they aren’t normally C&R. These guns had to be built and registered in the United States in order to be transferable. Many original guns were cut in half to destroy them then rewelded and registered during the period between the Gun Control Act of 1968.”

This cutting and rebuilding was the only way to take an existing “contraband” machinegun and make it legal.

All this changed on May 19, 1986 with the signing of the McClure-Volkmer Act or Gunowners Protection Act. This “controversial act” banned the further manufacture of all machineguns for civilian sales

“Pre May (May 19, 1986) Dealer samples are machineguns that were imported between the Gun Control Act of 1968 and May 19 of 1986. It wasn’t legal to import machineguns for civilian sales after 1968 so anything imported could only be sold to a class 2 or class 3 dealer as a ‘Dealers Sales Sample.’ As such the guns could be kept by the dealer after he gave up his Federal Firearms License (FFL) or Special Occupational Taxpayer (SOT) but could only be sold to another SOT paying FFL. They never become transferables but since the dealer can keep it they call them keepers. Also they don’t require any special paperwork above and beyond the normal forms for transfers so they are easy and simple for dealers to buy. They will transfer on form 3s between active dealers and if the seller has given up his FFL/SOT then the transfer will be via tax paid form 4.”

Post May Dealer Samples therefore refer to any machinegun made or imported after the McClure-Volkmer Act.

“These guns can only be registered to an SOT paying FFL holder who has a letter from a recognized and certified law enforcement agency asking for a demonstration of the firearm. The letters are a pain to get and the guns have to be abandoned, sold, destroyed or otherwise transferred out of the SOT’s inventory when he gives up his FFL/SOT. The value of these guns is the lowest because the market is very limited.”

For this reason C&R guns are usually the most valued.

“These will transfer on form 3s tax exempt between active FFL/SOT holders, on form 4s tax paid if a non FFL/SOT is at either end of the transfer or a form 5 tax exempt if the firearm is unservicable or transferring to or from a government agency. Transferables are next in value and transfer the same as the C&R’s.”

Special Occupational Taxpayer and this is what converts an otherwise ordinary every day FFL dealer into a class 3 dealer.

Disclaimer: Consult with local law enforcement to clarify the laws in your area. The above statements are meant for background information only and should not be used as a legal recommendation.