On this subject, the following article appeared in the Sunday, Feb 28 edition of the Huntsville Times:
Senate gun vote makes it easier for nut cases
Sunday, February 28, 2010
Huntsville Times
Sports Columnist Mark McCarter
From two short stories in our Friday paper, just a page apart:
"The Alabama Senate has passed legislation that would make it easier for people to keep guns in their cars."
"A vehicle parked at a home ... was burglarized between 6 p.m. Feb. 1 and 2 p.m. Wednesday. A Smith & Wesson .38 caliber handgun was stolen."
The first story tells us that the our state Senate won't permit businesses to establish rules that prevent employees having guns locked in their cars.
The second tells us that a gun was stolen from a car at someone's home, at some time during a 24-day period. If I'm missing two quarters and a nickel from my console change tray, I notice it the next day. But it's maybe 24 days and you don't know your gun is gone?
You might remember some slightly bigger stories in recent newspapers.
For instance, the one about a 15-year-old boy who brings a gun to school and murders a fellow student.
Or the one about a professor stripped of tenure who comes into the workplace with a gun and kills three co-workers.
There's a more delicate, diplomatic way to put this, I know, but here's the deal:
We have more nutjobs in the world than ever before. We have more stressed-out employees, on edge in a tenuous economy, than ever before. Still, hey, let people hide guns in their cars.
The bill in the Alabama Senate was sold by Sen. Roger Bedford, D-Russellville, and it passed 26-2.
"This vote is about one thing only: Do you support Second Amendment rights?" he told his colleagues.
A cynic would say it's about this thing, too: It's an election year.
And the National Rifle Association, of which Bedford is a member, is a generous donor to election campaigns, including Bedford's.
I'm a big fan of the U.S. Constitution, even if that "well-regulated militia" part before we get to "right to bear arms" is outdated. I don't happen to believe that having sensible gun control laws equates to "you can never hunt deer again."
I'm a bigger fan of common sense.
There's a right to bear arms.
There are also rights for employers to make their rules and establish a safe workplace.
Does a gun locked away in a car really provide protection? From what? A mugger using a walker?
Or does it make it easier for somebody who's angry, insane, insulted or a combination of the above to pop open the glove compartment, grab the gun and cause problems?
And what a bonus a gun in the car can be for thieves who thought they were just getting a CD player, a set of golf clubs or a joyride.
Studies show that approximately 25 percent of gun-related crimes involve stolen weapons. And that 25 to 30 percent of stolen weapons are from vehicle break-ins.
There was another short story in our paper that ran last summer. A Mobile police officer named Brandon Sigler was shot and killed. Richard Hollingsworth shot him with a weapon that had been stolen from a deputy's car.
Maybe its just me, but there's an even older bit of legislation than the Constitution.
"Thou shalt not kill."
So why does it seem like we keep making it easier to do so?
I got ticked off when I read it so I wrote him this note immediately:
Mr. Mark McCarter
The Huntsville Times
Sir:
I must protest your Sunday, February 28, 2010 column in The Huntsville Times entitled "Senate gun vote makes it easier for nut cases." This column, regarding the recent passage by the Alabama Senate of SB360 that would permit licensed gun owners to maintain weapons in their locked cars while at work, is supremely insulting of your readership as it contains nothing more than unsubstantiated prejudice.
As you must surely be aware, reliable gun crime trace data is only available through the ATF's National Tracing Center which provides original-purchase information to local law enforcement agencies upon their request & with the recovery of a gun used in a crime. This original-purchase information is provided to the ATF by federally licensed gun dealers (FFL's) at the time the new gun is first purchased by a citizen. The ATF has no means of tracking the path of any gun after the first FFL transfer. Only the investigating law enforcement agency can do that following a crime, and beginning with the original purchase info provided by the ATF following a Trace Request. Following gun crimes, local law enforcement agencies normally do not conduct a detailed trace of the path of a gun from original purchaser to suspect because that is an extremely laborous and time-consuming process. And those that do conduct this investigation do not (and have no reason to) report their results back to the ATF for national compilation.
Therefore your statement that ". . . 25 to 30 percent of stolen weapons are from vehicle break-ins." is either (a) based on colloquial and totally spurious data disseminated only to serve a gun-control agenda, or (b) fabricated from your own prejudiced imagination or faulty recollection and research. I have researched this subject to some considerable degree and if you can substantiate this data with reliable investigation, I would be most pleased and appreciative to review same as I have been unable to locate it. Statements of opinion such as your column represents should be relegated to the editorial page, where one need not be troubled by the facts. To do otherwise trivializes the discipline of journalism and insults your readership.
I consider SB360 to be a reasonable application of our Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms. It is wholly unreasonable to expect an individual to stop before entering his employers parking lot and off-load his legally-carried weapon. That is simply nonsensical. I certainly would support regulations that inflict a heavy penalty on those who inadequately secure weapons in their vehicles, thus facilitating theft by criminals or the insane. However, your suggestion merely perpetuates the philosophy that the law-abiding citizen should always remain at the mercy of the criminal.
I find it insulting, dangerous and unconstitutional.
Sincerely,