Do I believe in any form of gun control? Nothing is simple, much less people. So how do I simplify an issue like gun control. The very purpose of writing this blog is because my viewpoint is not represented in any media. Those who would be advocates for my gun rights say that the problem isn’t guns but it is that federal prosecutors don’t prosecute enough gun cases, it is criminals, it is liberals. My detractors of gun rights argue it is the lack of government regulations, registration and prohibitions which is the problem.
I don’t need government to fix the problem of too much government. Gun control measures will not be thwarted nor assisted by more reliance on government. Nor do I believe there is an unassailable right to keep and bear arms. I don’t believe that the drafters of the constitution would counsel against reasonable restraints on firearms in the midst of our present crisis.
I am not talking about giving up my right to have guns. I am talking about my rights being saddled with responsibility. I believe in accountability. Citizenship is not an insular event. By definition it is participation in a larger community. But every time the issue of responsibility comes along everyone hides behind the skirts of the 2nd amendment. This ain’t your momma. this is adulthood. We got a right to work, and pray. but you can’t hold a church service in the middle of the street with traffic. You can’t work where you weren’t hired. Every action has a reaction. Every gift has a cost, every blessing has its burden. To accommodate legitimate concerns about the transfer of weapons, I don’t need to give up a single bullet or gun.
A study of rats conducted years ago showed that as the available room for their movement was limited and their community enlarged, the rats became increasingly aggressive and anti-social. So too are our pressing urban environments (big cities)Â causing anti-social behavior in humans. The frontier days are gone.
I suggest that liberals and gun control advocates are not crazy or mean or delusional. They are scared and sincere in their desire to stem the tide of violence. If gun owners want to reduce the polarization with our fellow unarmed Americans we can opt for personal accountability. We can quit patronizing gun bazaars called “gun shows” and then refusing to acknowledge that we create an inviting arena for bad people to circumvent any controls on their access to guns. This isn’t about the casual exchange of firearms in our little town square. This is about the overnight creation of a super gun store in the middle of a big city, that folds up its tent at the end of the day and dissolves into the mist.
I don’t have a problem with knowing who I sell a gun to. I don’t demand an absolute right to sell or give my gun away to whomever I wish. As long as there is a legitimate market for my weapons. You can argue for unfettered constitutional rights, but you can’t yell fire in a theatre. No right is absolute when it conflicts with the rights of others. What right is served by an unregulated stream of firearm sales? What harm would come of some regulation of the secondary market place? Forget the anxiety that the “gun control” people want to take away the guns and that this is a movement towards the center where the liberal lurks in darkness waiting to take our guns.
We aren’t giving the guns up. So despite our fear of national registration and confiscation of our guns it isn’t going to happen. Not because there are not those who will seek it, but because we will not give it. It is way past the point where they can recall our guns.
There are compromises which may be appropriate and there may be concessions which are legitimate. There is a crisis of violence in our country. We are having a real bad time of it. And a responsible and accountable gun community doesn’t have to barricade the doors against the rest of the country. We can do our share to preserve our freedoms and rights. We can retain the actual right to own and possess while giving up the unnecessary ability to sell our guns any damn time, to any damn body we please.
Now you can come after me and revile me. But I am not the enemy. I am just a simple-minded guy who doesn’t understand why I am living in a foxhole all the time with my head up our collective ass spouting sound bites about the assault of the 2nd amendment and blaming our predicament on liberals. My issue is the preservation of self-defense, hunting rights and sporting rights. So if I can make changes in the law and behaviors and still keep my real rights then I am ready to take my medicine. In the meantime, I own a gun safe. I do not leave any gun unattended in my car or home. Just a little something we all could be doing to prevent guns falling into the wrong hands.
lawdisorder.blog 
Ok, here’s my comments from the site addressing gun shows:
—
Ah, yes. Gun shows. They have been vilified as the market-place of the trench coat mafia and other evil criminal organizations. As a gun store owner, I could see why gun shows would be a turn off. However, how popular would gun shows really be if there weren’t so many restrictions on the firearms trade? Wal-Mart, for example, quit selling handguns all together, and quit selling firearms in many of the left-slanted cities. They quit selling them, primarily, because the little profit in selling firearms wasn’t worth the huge pain in the ass they had to go through to sell them.
I’m sure the mega-gun shows attract bad people. However, those same bad people buy ropes for hanging, ski masks for robbing, and other “tools of the trade” from stores like Wal-Mart. Bad people are out there, and will get what they need regardless of where/how.
—
My original comments did slightly side-step the point you were making, so let me respond to that point, specifically.
You should be able to sell your guns to anybody you want… private or retail. As a retailer OR private citizen, if you knowingly sell a gun to a bad person, that makes you a sorry human being, not a criminal. The criminal is the bad person who bought the gun and used it inappropriately. It’s not the seller’s fault, the wholesaler’s fault, or the manufacturer’s fault that gun was used in a crime.
If you sold a car to someone you KNOW to be an alcoholic and drives drunk on a regular basis, are you responsible for the proverbial family of six that got killed by that drunk driver? Of course, not! If someone is at your party and gets higher than a kite, if you don’t take their keys, it makes you a sorry human being, not a criminal. The criminal is the dumb-ass who drove drunk.
So, I exercise prudence when selling firearms, personal or retail (when I had my FFL) because I consider myself to be a decent human being, not because I’m mandated by law.
I respect your opinion but I disagree that any right is absolute and that the violation of bad behavior is merely a negative hit to your reputation and karma but not something society would have a vested interest in preventing. Citizenship is a community function by definition. It isn’t a solitary affair. Founding fathers make reference to rights endowed by their creator. So everything derives from somewhere, legislative or God, or gun and is never granted in a vacuum. But I do not expect you to agree that there are limits once you assert anything is “absolute”. So, I will enjoy trading thoughts but I will not endeavor to persuade you to the validity of my position.
Under the “Politics and Debate” section…
http://www.firearmschat.com/index.php?/forum/9-politics-and-debate/
Interesting. You should cut and paste your comments to the blog. Your arguments and rebuttals on my distaste for gun shows are grounded on your belief that either we will all do as you do and exercise prudence or subsequently be help responsible for violations of laws which would never exist in your world. Win win for you but doesn’t even begin to address the problem of selling guns in an arena where most people have no, zero, knowledge of the persons they are selling to. So the only position you would support is that I am allowed to sell my private guns to anybody I want?
Ken Goldberg Attorney
>________________________________
I made a LOT of inline comments for discussion on Firearms Chat and Forums…
I don’t know how to navigate the site. Where are your comments to be found?
well u lost me at, I don’t believe that the drafters of the constitution would counsel against reasonable restraints on firearms in the midst of our present crisis., we cant dig them up and ask them unfortunatly. although i didnt like buddas teaching of peace, lets just change a few things, cuz they dont fit current thinking. every president and congress elected in mexico, has messed with and jerry rigged thier constitituon to fit their needs and so called popular thinking, and look how thats going. the criminals are running the show over there. same thing will happen here if they ban our guns. where theres poverty and uneducated poeple there will be crime. fix that first and then we can talk about restictions on firearms.
I was very specific in stating that I do not support gun bans or restrictions on retail sales. I am merely advocating that when the consumer wants to sell their gun, they must abide by the restriction to not sell to a prohibited possessor. But I know that can seem a slippery slope to some but to me it makes sense.