Sunday, November 24, 2013

Senator Sessions Shows Courage, Blocks Gun Ban

The Glock pistol was the first gun that anti-rights types claimed was "undetectable"  The KelTec P3AT is one of the new breed of small concealed carry guns that is extremely light and popular.  Both guns use composite frames.

The ban on "undetectable" guns is set to end on December 9th. This ban should be opposed on principle.  It does nothing to add to the false security provided by metal detectors.  The guns are detectable, of course, just not detectable on metal detectors with a high setting.  If a detector cannot detect an "undetectable gun" or a cartridge, it cannot detect a bomb or plastic bags of gasoline.

The ban stifles technological innovation and promotes the discredited idea that a disarmed population is safer than an armed one.  We did not even have metal detectors a hundred years ago, and we had lower murder rates than we do now.  Promoting the idea that all of society should be changed to make fortified zones a tiny bit less likely to be penetrated is a failed approach to public safety.

This law will not stop people from making guns on 3-D printers.  Those horses have already left the barn.  It just adds another victimless crime law to discourage innovation, just as considerable strides are being made in firearms with composite components, which make them easier to carry, cheaper to produce, and more corrosion resistant.  Senators with the courage and conviction of Jeff Sessions should be lauded and supported.  PJMedia reports that Democrats are angry with Senator Sessions:
Pro-gun-control Democrats in the Senate are angry with Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) for blocking reauthorization of a law that would ban 3-D printable guns that lack metal parts.

Sens. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) tried to bring up the Undetectable Firearms Act on Thursday evening. The law, which passed in 1988, bans guns that can’t be spotted by metal detectors.

The last reauthorization, in 2003, passed both chambers of Congress unanimously. It sunsets on Dec. 9.

Why should Republicans give this up without something in return?  If the Democrats want it so badly, then they should be made to give up something for it.  That is the nature of real compromise.  The Republicans should couple a renewal of the ban on false "undetectable" guns with a removal of the federal tax and regulation of short barreled rifles, for example, or national concealed carry reciprocity, or eliminating the ban on carrying weapons on Corps of Engineers land.  Any of these would do, and would be relatively uncontroversial.


©2013 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice is included.
Link to Gun Watch

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