BELLEVUE, WA – A recently published list of the “Top Ten States†that export guns used in crime was obviously meant to promote increased restrictions on gun sales, but an analysis of the states listed more clearly demonstrates that such laws don’t work, said Joe Waldron, executive director of the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms.
The anti-gun Americans for Gun Safety listed Virginia, Georgia, California, Florida, Texas, Mississippi, Ohio, Indiana, North Carolina and Alabama, in that order, as the worst ten states for “exporting†guns later found to be used in crimes.
But Waldron quickly noted that at least three of those states have in place the kind of restrictive gun laws promoted by anti-gun groups as framework legislation to keep guns out of criminal hands. Virginia—rated first on the Top Ten list—has had a one-gun-a-month law on the books for eight years. California, in third place, requires all gun sales to go through a licensed dealer, so there is a background check performed. In ninth place, North Carolina requires a permit, issued by a sheriff following a background check, for every handgun sale.
“Those laws, in combination, are intended to prevent gun trafficking or identify gun trafficking, and they haven’t worked,†Waldron noted. “If such laws don’t work in those three states, why would anyone other than a snake oil salesman suggest they might work in the other seven on that ‘Ten Worst’ list, or for that matter, any of the 47 other states?
“Of course,†Waldron continued, “anti-gunners overlook these nagging little details in their push for more restrictive gun laws. Their own list puts the lie to arguments that their panacea gun law proposals would stop or reduce gun crime, and prevent criminal access to firearms. All their proposed laws are really designed to do is further restrict the firearms rights of law-abiding citizens, and turn more legal gun owners into paperwork felons.â€