If ‘No One Wants to Take Our Guns,’ Stop Saying the Opposite

Almost immediately after the 2017 Las Vegas shooting came the calls for “common sense” gun control. The quest almost always begins with a reassurance that “no one wants to take away your guns.”

The memo was not read by everyone.

Nelson Shields, founder of Handgun Control, Inc., the organization that became the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, in a 1976 interview could not have been more clear about his group’s goals: “Our ultimate goal — total control of handguns in the United States — is going to take time. I estimate it will take between seven and ten years. First, we need to reduce the number of handguns produced in this country. Registering handguns is the second issue. And the final problem is to make the possession of all handguns and all handgun ammunition — except for the military, policemen, licensed security guards, licensed sporting clubs, and licensed gun collectors — totally illegal.”

A 1993 survey revealed that a Los Angeles Times editorial called for the repeal of the Second Amendment: “You will not feel safe, your children will not be safe, until there are almost no guns on the streets and in homes. All guns are prohibited, not even those owned by police officers or qualified collectors. As a nation we must move towards a different model that prohibits private citizens from possessing firearms unless there is a compelling reason to. Americans need to be honest about guns. We cannot manage them. They are not ours. They can kill our children as well. They must be eliminated. Period.”

Now, let’s fast-forward to Las Vegas. The Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson called for a gun “buyback”: “A real gun debate has to look at that fact: 300 million guns. You should also look at the gun buying process in Australia. The Supreme Court says gun control can be allowed. It would be a significant change if Congress decided that long guns, automatic assault rifles… and other military-style weapons were not something citizens should have. We will buy their back from the police and military. … And that’s what the debate ought to be.”

Recall that Hillary Clinton, during the 2016 election, also gushed over the allegedly successful Australian gun buyback program: “Australia had a huge mass killing about 20, 25 years ago. Canada and the U.K. did it as well. They responded by passing stricter gun laws. … The Australian government as part of trying to clamp down on the availability of automatic weapons, offered a good price for buying hundreds of thousands of guns and basically clamped down going forward, in terms of having more of a background check approach — more of a permitting approach.”

It is true that Australia banned self-loading semi-automatic rifles and self-loading shotguns over twenty years ago. The government offered up to a one-year grace period during which it would buy back the banned firearms at preset “market value” prices, financed by a tax on health insurance. The ban on the possession of banned weapons could lead to severe penalties and even imprisonment.

But did Australia’s gun buyback program reduce violent gun crime?

John Lott, Crime Prevention Research Center says no. “Their firearms homicide rate,” said Lott, “had been falling for a decade prior to the buyback. After the buyback, it continued to decline at the same pace. The drop was not sudden, it was steady and continued even after gun ownership returned to the previous levels. After the buyback, the rate of armed robbery rose within the first five year. After another 10 years, the rate had fallen to pre-buyback levels.”

The near-term “common sense” goal of the gun controllers is to ban the “bump stock” that enabled the shooter to turn a semi-automatic into a fully automatic weapon. Even though there were many mass shootings across America in recent years, Stephen Paddock is the only victim to have used a machine guns. And where was this “common sense” when then-President Barack Obama’s ATF approved the bump stock, pronouncing it a part, not a weapon? California is home to some of the strictest gun laws in America, but it has also experienced many mass shootings. 14 people were killed in San Bernardino in 2015.

However, this does not mean that it is impossible to do a Las Vegas style shooting. Private actors will do most of the work. Steve Wynn (owner of the Las Vegas Hotel/Casino) stated that additional security measures were in place at his Vegas resorts.

The “common sense” goal of many “gun control activists” is not a ban on this or that feature but a ban on civilian ownership of guns. You can ask them. Los Angeles Times.

Larry Elder is an author best-seller and a national syndicated radio talk-show presenter. To find out more about Larry Elder, or become an “Elderado,” visit www.LarryElder.com. Follow Larry @larryelder on Twitter.