Mayor Bloomberg is being disingenuous. There is no “middle ground” on guns to be found. His “reasonable restrictions” are nothing but an attempt to get the camel’s nose back under the tent.
Keeping criminals from getting and using guns is impossible. Even the most repressive of police states can’t achieve that despite draconian laws and Stalinesque police powers. Criminals ignore laws. That’s what makes them criminals.
There is no “gun-show loophole”. The same rules apply to all private sales regardless of whether they take place in the parking lot of a gun show between strangers or in the dining room of a family home where a grandmother sells her purse gun to her adult granddaughter before entering a nursing home.
Guns in the hands of honest, law-abiding citizens decrease crime, not increase it. “Gun control” laws are nothing but an empty, feel-good smokescreen to distract people from the real issue of solving crimes and punishing criminals. If Mayor Bloomberg actually wanted to reduce crime he’d end the catch-and-release-policing that puts offenders right back on the street without having seriously inconvenienced them, much less punished them.
If he wanted to chop crime to the lowest practical levels permitted by human nature he’d put time and money equivalent to all he’s put into his “gun control” efforts into providing a gun and a firearms safety course to every sane, adult, non-felon in his city. It wouldn’t be all that expensive – widely-used models such as the Taurus 85 revolver in .38special and the Bersa Thunder semi-auto in .380 are available new for $300 or less and many NRA instructors would undoubtedly be willing to spend some time volunteering in NYC if their expenses were paid. It's likely that wealthy donors concerned about reducing crime would assist with the funding too.
Instead of imagining a world without guns try imagining a world without helpless victims.
