Milestone:

Yesterday's post on Gun Watch was the 1,000th. Time sure does fly!




Idiot Calfornian legislation: "Unsuccessful at keeping guns from gang members and criminals, California may target a new frontier in its crime-fighting efforts: ammunition. Guns don't kill, bullets do, argues Assemblyman Kevin de Leon, a Los Angeles Democrat who is pushing the idea. "I think it will lead to fewer deaths," he said of regulating handgun ammunition. "But I don't believe it's an end-all or a panacea." The freshman legislator said his bill is particularly timely, given the rampage at Virginia Tech that left 33 people dead. De Leon has proposed Assembly Bill 362 as a step toward making California the first state to conduct instant background checks on buyers of handgun bullets. Among its provisions, the bill would require that personal information be collected from buyers of handgun ammunition, that such transactions be conducted face-to-face, not by mail, and that retailers store their handgun ammunition behind counters. Critics claim that tighter regulation of bullet sales would create more hassles and higher costs for gun enthusiasts, but not necessarily cut crime. "I don't consider criminals dumb," said Sam Paredes, executive director of Gun Owners of California. "They figure out ways to get around whatever is thrown at them." "You'd have a lot of guys going to Nevada and bringing back a ton of bullets," said Wes Lewis of Guns N Stuff in North Highlands. State law currently requires buyers of handgun ammunition to be 21 or older. But it does little to ensure compliance or to prevent sales to felons or individuals with a history of mental instability who can't own guns legally but might acquire them from friends or on the black market."


Culture, Not Guns, is Important: "For centuries, guns have been plentiful in the United States. Young men, and often young women as well, were taught gun safety and how to shoot before they were old enough to drive cars. Yet your chances of being gunned down by a total stranger at your local school or bank or church in 1644, 1744, 1844 or 1944 were exactly nil. Yes, we had some spectacular political assassinations, but to suggest that the easy availability of guns accounts for the grim social realities we've created in the 21st century is simplistic to the point of foolishness.


The company gun-banners keep: "The Turkish Ottoman Empire established gun control in 1911. It then proceeded to exterminate 1 and a half million Armenians from 1914 to 1917. The Soviet Union established gun control in 1929. Subsequently, from 1928 to 1953, 60 million dissidents were imprisoned and then exterminated. China enacted gun control laws in 1935. After the communist takeover, from 1948 to 1952, 20 million Chinese, unable to defend themselves, were murdered. Nazi Germany fully established gun control in 1938. That helped the government to round up 13 million defenseless Jews, Gypsies, homosexuals, mentally ill and impaired human beings. Many were imprisoned in concentration camps, then destroyed. Guatemala passed gun control laws in 1964. Then, from 1964 to 1981, 100,000 defenseless Mayan Indians were exterminated. Uganda established gun control measures in 1970. Predictably, from 1971 to 1979, 300,000 defenseless Christians met a similar fate. Cambodia established gun control measures in 1956. Subsequently, from 1957 to 1977, 1 million Cambodians met their deaths. Our Founding Fathers had good reason to include in the Constitution "the right for each citizen to bear arms."