PA Bill Number: SB945
Title: Consolidating the act of August 9, 1955 (P.L.323, No.130), known as The County Code; and making repeals.
Description: Consolidating the act of August 9, 1955 (P.L.323, No.130), known as The County Code; and making repeals. ...
Last Action: Third consideration and final passage (199-0)
Last Action Date: Apr 17, 2024
FOAC Commentary: Beware the false appeal of gun background checks :: 05/26/2016
If you read a recent PennLive opinion piece about gun background checks by Shira Goodman of CeaseFire Pa., you were treated to another episode the false and misleading narrative that so often is spouted by that organization.
It's long past due to 'Look Behind the Curtain' of the Wizard of Oz like mentality clouding reason and logic and expose the 'False Promise of Background Checks'!
In 2014 the Pennsylvania Instant Check System (PICS) issued 13,178 denials to firearms purchasers. A whopping number of criminals RIGHT??
What Ms. Goodman hopes you do 'not' look at is the 'real' gauge of these numbers – there were only 4,154 investigations, 782 arrests and 'only 367' of these so-called 'criminals' were successfully prosecuted and convicted!
Incredibly, only '4', yes that is only FOUR, were referred to the federal agency, BATFE, for prosecution! How can that be you ask, isn't even the 'attempt', by a prohibited person (criminal) to purchase a firearm a crime?
Yes it is, but Ms. Goodman ignores the 'false positives' by a system that falsely denies the exercise of Constitutional Rights.
Many of those initial denials are subsequently overturned meaning that citizens were "denied the exercise of a constitutional right'."
So one question you should consider is the system we now have worth the $120 million-plus we have, as Pennsylvanians and gun owners, paid since 1998?
Should we expand it even more or is it possible that there is a more underhanded reason behind this "quest" of anti-gun groups?
Let's examine the supposed problem, rifles and shotguns used in violent crime.
In examining the FBI Uniform Crime Reports on Weapons used in crime it shows that in PA for 2014 there were 8 rifles and 14 shotguns used in homicides and yet there were 63 knives or cutting instruments used.
In fact, from 2013 to 2014 the use of rifles and shotguns in homicide (sold without mandatory background checks went down by almost 50 percent in one year).
By Ms. Goodman's logic should we not focus on knives more since they are used more in homicide?
Harrisburg police are looking for a suspect seen shooting at another man Sunday evening in the 1000 block of South 18th Street.
This is what England did after they banned virtually all guns and found that knives were being used in homicides and now pointed knives are controlled heavily in England.
As an aside, firearms are still a problem in English crime but it's just the criminals who have them now.
So what is the real push behind this?
According to a 2013 memo from the Justice Department, this concept of mandatory background checks will 'require' the registration of "all" gun owners.
This is a major goal of gun control groups since their inception.
We have had background checks in Pennsylvania for all handguns since 1931 and yet the vast majority of all violent firearms related crime in Pennsylvania is with handguns bought originally through the current background check system that has cost us hundreds of millions of dollars now.
Another point to consider is what is the actual time to crime for when firearms are purchased until they are used in crime?
The federal agency, BATFE, says that in Pennsylvania it is 10.98 years from purchase to crime.
So Ms. Goodman's fawning over the effectiveness of 'closing the loophole on background checks' is misplaced and inaccurate at best.
In March 2013, PoliceOne.com surveyed 15,000 law enforcement professionals and found that the overall attitude of law enforcement is strongly anti-gun legislation and pro-gun rights, with the belief that an armed citizenry is effective in stopping crime.
In this survey only 10 percent of law enforcement officers agreed with CeaseFire PA and Ms. Goodman in ending the private transfer of firearms.
Additionally, more than 70 percent disagreed with tracking sales and registration of firearms ownership.
Not a ringing endorsement for the concepts espoused by the gun control groups and certain politicians such as York Mayor Kim Bracey.
Ms. Goodman has made unsupported claims regarding police officers as the justification for passing mandatory background checks.
Using the deaths of these officers in this way is underhanded at best as many police officers, killed in the line of duty, would be alive today if the courts had not plea-bargained away prior gun charges from the killers.
Unfortunately, murder and violent crime 'is' a metropolitan, big city problem. Failures to prosecute criminals in possession of firearms for violation of 'current' PA Firearms laws are all too common and these criminals go on to commit other serious crimes.
In examining violent crime in Pennsylvania, if we take the six largest cities crime stats out of the state violent crime totals, violent crime drops by almost 50 percent for the entire rest of the state while these cities only comprise 18 percent of the statewide population.
So will Ms. Goodman's and CeaseFire PA's supported solution, closing loopholes, do 'anything' to change or reduce violence with firearms 'or' deter criminals?
Not at all.
Just examine California (mandatory firearm checks/remember San Bernardino), Colorado (mandatory firearm checks) and the others and look at their crime rates, and it will readily become evident that advocates for this mandatory firearm checks are not recommending appropriate or effective public policy measures just 'more expensive gun control' at the expense of the truth.
In 2007, Philadelphia Chief of Detectives Joe Fox wrote, "We refuse to hold people accountable for their actions and constantly make excuses for their inexcusable behavior. The incessant cry for tougher gun laws is a good example. Until we're ready to strictly enforce the current laws there is no reason for tougher ones."
We agree.
Kim Stolfer is the president of Firearms Owners Against Crime. He writes from Allegheny County.
http://www.pennlive.com/opinion/2016/05/beware_the_false_appeal_of_gun.html
