Strong Gun Control Laws

I am writing to encourage you to propose, enact, and support legislation intended to limit or control the use of guns.  I urge you to consider making your state a leader in prohibiting all firearms of any kind.  The Brady Campaign reports that every year 100,000 people are shot by firearms in this country. In 2007, 12,632 murders were committed using firearms and 613 persons were killed unintentionally. In one year, only 39 people were murdered by guns in England and Wales, and only 200 in Canada, compared to over 12,000 in the U.S. . A study by the American Journal of Public Health concluded "the United States has higher rates of firearm ownership than do other developed nations, and higher rates of homicide.%u201D Representative Carolyn McCarthy is proposing stricter gun control laws, including H.R. 308, banning high-capacity ammunication magazines, and I support her efforts. I also support H.R. 263, requiring background checks for all sales of guns, preventing unlicensed dealers from transferring their guns.  

Guns are particularly dangerous for women, because 83% of female murder victims are killed in their homes, and women who live in a home with a gun are 3.4 times more likely to be killed, according to the Brady Campaign.

I am in favor of any and all of the following:

!. Gun buy- back programs, where gun owners are paid cash for turning in guns to police departments with no questions asked about the provenance of the gun;

2. Licensing requirements, limiting the persons eligible to own guns, excluding minors, those with criminal records or proven mental disabilities, and limiting the quantity of firearms to be owned by any person;

3. Waiting periods, requiring a wait of 7-10 days after a license is required before any weapon may be purchased, as well as  a waiting period between registration of a particular gun and possession of it;

4. Registration of every firearm by every owner;

5. Imposition of a significant tax on the sale of weapons and ammunition to help pay for the registration process, as well as the necessity of additional police support when violent acts are committed;

6. All persons purchasing guns must complete a gun safety course, at their own cost, prior to receiving the weapon.

7. Statutes should be enacted to provide that gun owners be strictly liable for any harm caused by the gun, if the gun is stolen, misplaced, or improperly secured. Mandatory prison sentences for adults whose guns are used in accidental or intentional shootings by children.

7. Manufacture of guns should be phased out and diverted to other types of production, including alternative energy such as residential wind turbines. Tax incentives could facilitate this, funded by the revenue generated from the tax on guns and ammunition there are approximately 300 million firearms owned by civilians in the United States as of 2010, and 100 million of these are handguns. Michael Bouchard, Assistant Director/Field Operations of ATF, estimates that 5,000 gun shows take place each year in the United States. We don%u2019t need more guns.

8. Transfers and sales of guns between private owners must be documented.

The NRA cannot be allowed to intimidate the majority of citizens who are appalled and disgusted with hunters and criminals carrying weapons. There are currently 4.3 million members of the NRA, therefore 295.7 million citizens who are NOT members of the NRA. If you are unwilling or unable to prohibit or limit hunting, you can still prohibit handguns, assault weapons, and anything other than hunting shotguns. The Second Amendment was never intended to allow the widespread violence that has become the shame of our country. Your state has no need for an organized militia to protect its citizens, no need to go to battle with savages or enemies on our shores.

Self defense or protection is not a valid excuse, as recent studies have shown that guns increase the likelihood that not only the gun owner will be shot, but also that innocent bystanders will be shot. Gun owners who keep a gun in their homes are four times more likely to cause an accidental shooting than they are to use the gun in self-defense. Columbine and every school shooting for the past 12 years could have been prevented if guns were not so easily and cheaply accessible. For most of these massacres, children had access to weapons legally owned by their fathers, who thought their weapons were adequately secured and their sons effectively prevented from such misuse.  They were wrong, and we have all paid the price.  

We don%u2019t have to tolerate this. We can eliminate the possibility by eliminating the accessibility of the weapons.  Without firearms, violent perpetrators will be unable to inflict the quality of harm to the quantity of victims, but rather will be limited to the reach and power of their fists.

Please support H.R. 308  and H.R. 263, as well as a significant tax on the sale of all guns and ammunition.