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From an editorial in this morning's edition:
...more crimes are being committed with illicit guns. Keeping those guns from illegal re-sellers, straw buyers or convicted felons must be a national priority. Two rational steps include requiring gun-show dealers to conduct buyer background checks and limiting the number of gun purchases to one per person per month.
Neither of these measures should cause pain to law-abiding gun users. But they could spare communities, including Houston, from much unnecessary fear.
Yes, Chron editorialists, of course.
Let's not even consider the possibility that if convicted felons can't be trusted with guns, maybe they should still be kept out of society altogether.
Let's not even mention the fact that a straw purchase is already a federal felony, punishable by ten years in prison.
Let's just gloss over the fact that there is NO SUCH THING as a "gun show loophole."
Let's just skim right over the fact that dealers selling their wares at gun shows have to require that potential purchasers fill out the ATF Form 4473 before the purchase can go forward -- that is, the potential purchasers must undergo a background check -- as they would be required to do at their normal places of business.
In other words, let's just keep pushing the same old blatant lies and failed "solutions" that we've been pushing for God knows how long. Let's not consider the possibility that, for example, the War On (Some) Drugs has filled our prisons and left little to no room for people that really deserve to be there. Let's not even consider the cultural corruption that has led to more crime being committed with guns.
Judas Priest, is there no one in America's newsrooms who will call this out for what it is...NOT "rational steps," but complete and utter lunacy? I know the Houston Chronicle could by no means be considered a middle-of-the-road media outlet, but considering that it's the dominant daily newspaper in the largest city in one of the most pro-gun states in the land, I really expected better than this. Maybe some of that "elegance, wit and insight" that is supposedly found on "editorial pages in their ideal state."
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