Proposed gun controls take rights from citizens

Re Pearce Godwin’s Jan. 18 letter on seeking common ground on gun controls:

Many inaccuracies were listed, and I would like to address them here. I agree we face a shared goal to reduce the loss of life, but if he wants to have an “honest” conversation, leave the statistics out. For every source he cites, I can find credible sources with differing stats. Statistics in this type of conversation are only meant to influence the reader. Let’s stick to solving the problem at hand.

First and foremost, let’s agree any information from the President is propaganda, and useless for any “honest” debate.

The letter say, “let’s start by getting the facts straight,” then goes into a diatribe mixing half truths, whole numbers, fractions, and percentages. The numbers have no sources listed, and the contentions are dubious at best. The very nature of the comment shows bias, and that he advocates the gun control point of view.

When CNN approached the NRA, they were only going to allow the NRA one question. The NRA knew this was no “honest” debate, and were being setup. This “fireside chat” was a hit piece designed by CNN and the administration.

He says we have to “close the loopholes around gun show and online sales”. There is no loophole. When you purchase a gun at a gun show, Federal firearm licensed gun dealers are required to perform a NICS background check. When you purchase a gun online, the gun is required to be sent to a FFL dealer, who perform a NICS background check when you pick it up. Private sales have always been regulated by the individual states. I have purchased a gun in all these circumstances, and have never encountered any “loophole”.

Mental Health is a recent narrative being used by some to advance gun control. This administration decided it would make a good distraction to advance their narrative on this issue. Many people are challenged with mental health issues, and very few are dangerous to society. To deny this group their Constitutional rights just to catch a few people is extreme overkill.

Suicide should not even be addressed in this conversation, and is used by this administration only to inflate the numbers to advance their gun control agenda.

In conclusion, even though he claims gun murders are one half the numbers we experienced in the ‘90s, gun control groups are now loudly demanding more. Any liberal program which produced a fraction of these numbers would be hailed as a major success by these same extremists.

Gun control groups want nothing but the complete confiscation of all guns. Many congressmen have been caught on “closed” mics, proving this is their desired goal. They know it can’t be done all at once, so they are attacking it piece by piece, state by state. They do not want to have an “honest” conversation, they want submission and confiscation.

The dirty secret this administration doesn’t want to address, is the major number of gun homicides that are committed in big cities by gang violence and criminals. None of this administration’s measures will protect the law-abiding citizens, or reduce violence. The only affect these measures will have is to deny all law-abiding citizens their Constitutional rights.

The law-abiding citizens in big cities are the ones most affected, they have no protection due to the liberal policies enacted by years of control in these areas.

This story was originally published January 25, 2016 at 9:30 AM with the headline "Proposed gun controls take rights from citizens."