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Health & Fitness

There Are No Gun Laws, Just Loopholes

Your representatives in Washington know the facts about gun safety legislation. They are a just little short on courage.

A friend said that “we don’t need any new gun laws, there are plenty of gun laws, just enforce the ones we have.” She thought that everyone who purchased a gun had to undergo a background check. She didn’t know that, because of a loophole, 40 percent of all legal gun sales do not require a background check.

She knew that 2 million people had failed background checks when they tried to purchase a gun at a retailer like Wal-Mart, Dick’s, or a local gun store. She didn’t know that a loophole in the law allowed these people to immediately go to a gun show or to an individual who had guns to sell and purchase the gun legally that he couldn’t buy at a retail gun store. It is possible that the gun that person was prevented from buying at Wal-Mart was purchased legally by the next person to walk in the store. Both people could then go to a gun show and the gun that could not be sold legally at one location could be sold legally at another.

Let’s not forget Chicago, New York, Connecticut, Washington, and those other areas with tough gun laws that have a history of gun violence. My friend said that gun laws don’t work and these places are proof. It didn’t occur to her that NRA supported gun laws were like a bucket with a very large hole in the bottom. No matter how fast you pour water in one end it goes out just as fast at the other end.

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Greed and the unrestricted access to guns in some places made sure that individuals with a car load of legally purchased guns could flow out of places like Georgia and travel to places like Chicago every day of the year. Drug distribution in America extends to every town and street. The gun manufacturer’s distribution system is just as extensive and extends to every town and street in America, some parts are legal, and some parts illegal. Anyone can grow marijuana in their basement which makes prohibition difficult. You can’t make a gun in your basement.

This situation is really illogical and makes no sense, unless you are the NRA. Originally, the lobbying arm of gun manufacturers (NRA) supported the background check system because it didn’t work because of the individual and gun show exemptions. The NRA could pretend that it favored reasonable gun regulations when it knew that no one in America was prevented from buying a gun, no sales or gun manufacturers’ profits would be affected.

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Effective national background checks are being discussed and the NRA is changing its tune. If every gun sold in America required a background check, fewer guns would be sold, sales for gun manufacturers would go down, profits too. Now, the NRA says we have enough gun laws. Now, the NRA says national background checks violate the 2nd Amendment. Now, the NRA says that this would be the start down a slippery slope that would lead to registration of guns, like cars and machine guns, and eventual confiscation by a tyrannical government. The NRA repeats this mantra over and over. My friend repeats this mantra without thinking. It can only be repeated if you don’t think.

To the parents in Cobb County, effective gun control laws are about saving our children. To the NRA, effective gun control laws are about profits, profits coated in the blood of Middletown, Aurora, Virginia Tech, Columbine, and every street corner in Chicago.

Don’t let the NRA make a profit from Sope Creek Elementary, Sedalia Park Elementary, East Valley Elementary, Powers Ferry Elementary, or Brumby Elementary.

Your representatives in Washington know the facts about gun safety legislation. They are a just little short on courage. Give them yours.

Representative Tom Price (202) 225-4501

Representative Phil Gingrey (202) 225-2931

Senator Saxby Chambliss (202) 224-3521

Senator Johnny Isakson (202) 224-3643

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