\u201cThere is no doubt in my mind that millions of lives could have been saved if the people were not \u2018brainwashed\u2019 about gun ownership and had been well armed. \u2026 Gun haters always want to forget the Warsaw Ghetto uprising, which is a perfect example of how a ragtag, half-starved group of Jews took 10 handguns and made asses out of the Nazis.\u201d \u2014 Theodore Haas, Dachau survivor.<\/p>\n
When tragedy strikes, it\u2019s human nature to look for ways to prevent the same thing from happening in the future. For example, the March 2021 shooting at a King Soopers in Boulder, prompted lawmakers to introduce and pass three new gun laws in Colorado.<\/p>\n
Indeed, one of those laws, HB21-1298 \u201cExpand Firearm Transfer Background Check Requirements<\/a>,\u201d went into effect on June 29, and is specifically designed to \u201caddress the epidemic of gun violence we have seen in Colorado,\u201d said bill sponsor Sen. Julie Gonzales, D-Denver.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Under existing federal law, if a background check doesn\u2019t come back after three days, gun dealers can transfer a firearm to another person. However, HB 1298 undoes this and requires gun dealers to get approval \u2014 no matter how long it takes \u2014 before transferring a gun.<\/p>\n Additionally, before the enactment of HB 1298, when a background check resulted in denying someone a firearm transfer, they could appeal the decision, and the Colorado Bureau of Investigation was required to review that person\u2019s background records and render a final decision within 30 days. HB 1298 changes that 30-day deadline to 60 days and allows for indefinite denial in certain instances.<\/p>\n Finally, HB 1298 adds\u00a011 misdemeanors<\/a>\u00a0the list of background check disqualifiers and makes it so those convicted of these misdemeanors can\u2019t purchase or possess a gun for five years from the date of conviction.<\/p>\n The above doesn\u2019t sound too onerous, but let\u2019s remember that this law is one of three\u00a0new gun control measures<\/a>\u00a0passed as a result of the Boulder shooting. So, the question is, will it reduce mass shootings?<\/p>\n According to gun control advocacy group Giffords Law Center\u2019s\u00a0Annual Gun Law Scorecard<\/a>, California has the nation\u2019s strongest gun laws and is front-and-center when it comes to gun safety. In fact, it\u2019s earned a coveted \u201cA\u201d ranking by Giffords. Shockingly, California also ranks first when it comes to mass shootings \u2014 between 1982 and May 2021, there were 22 mass shootings in California, according to\u00a0Statista<\/a>. For context, Florida came in second with 12 mass shootings.<\/p>\n And before you start to blame the above on lax gun laws between 1982 and May 2021, it\u2019s important to note that California began enacting gun control measures in 1863. And even with all these measures, a gunman still killed nine people on May 26, 2021, in San Jose, California.<\/p>\n Gun control advocates are quick to point out that states with stricter gun regulations have less gun violence. And they\u2019re right. When it comes to firearm mortality, the states with strict gun regulations fare better, in general, than states with lax laws. For example, Massachusetts has an A- Giffords rating, and the lowest firearm deaths at 3.4 deaths per 100,000 people in 2019, according to\u00a0the CDC\u2019s latest available data<\/a>. By comparison, Alaska has an F Giffords rating and the highest firearm deaths at 24.4 deaths per 100,000 people in 2019.<\/p>\n When taken at face value, the above seems to corroborate gun regulations reducing gun violence. But it\u2019s essential to go deeper and look at what the statistics mean when they say, \u201cgun violence.\u201d<\/p>\n Let\u2019s start with Massachusetts. In 2019, there were 247 gun deaths in Massachusetts, according to the latest available data from\u00a0The Educational Fund to Stop Gun Violence<\/a>\u00a0(EFSGV). However, 95 of those gun deaths were due to homicide. One hundred forty-two were due to suicide. In Alaska, there were 179 gun deaths in 2019. Fifty-one of those were due to homicide, while 117 were due to suicide.<\/p>\n Let\u2019s look at another example. In 2019, Illinois earned an A- from Giffords and had 10.4 firearm deaths per 100,000 people. Maine earned an F and had 11.5 firearm deaths per 100,000 people. However, in Illinois, there were 1,367 gun deaths in 2019 \u2013homicide accounted for 791 of those, while 540 were due to suicide. By comparison, in Maine, there were 163 gun deaths in 2019. Thirteen were due to homicide, while 144 were due to suicide.<\/p>\n What does this tell us? First, when someone says, \u201cgun violence,\u201d they aren\u2019t just talking about homicides and mass shootings \u2014 most gun deaths are the result of suicide, not homicide. In fact, over 60 percent of gun deaths are from suicide, while only 35 percent are due to homicide,\u00a0according to EFSGV<\/a>.<\/p>\n Second, lax gun laws don\u2019t equal more homicides. To put it bluntly, criminals still get guns and use them to murder in states where it\u2019s harder to obtain guns \u2014 Illinois, with its A- rating, has the 13th<\/sup>\u00a0highest firearm homicide rate in the U.S, according to\u00a0EFSGV<\/a>. In Maine, a state with lax gun regulations, less than 10 percent of gun deaths were due to homicides in 2019 \u2014 the rate is so low that the CDC considers it \u201cstatistically unreliable\u201d and doesn\u2019t calculate it against other states.<\/p>\n To put it another way, in states with strict gun regulations there are fewer gun-related suicide deaths, and therefore less overall gun violence, but gun violence due to criminal activity isn\u2019t deterred by strict gun regulations.<\/p>\n Consequently, gun regulations prevent law-abiding citizens from obtaining a gun, and thus help avert gun-related suicides, but they don\u2019t stop criminals from getting firearms and committing homicides and mass shootings.<\/p>\n Reducing gun-related suicides is an admirable and worthy goal. But that\u2019s not why lawmakers passed HB 1298.<\/p>\n HB 1298 was passed in the wake of the Boulder shooting and advertised as reducing criminal gun violence. It won\u2019t.<\/p>\n As\u00a0written before<\/a>, according to the latest research from James Alan Fox, Lipman Family Professor Criminology, Law, and Public Policy, \u201cIn terms of mass killers, these are very determined individuals, very difficult people to stop. \u2026 And oftentimes they will get the gun or get the weapon that they need regardless of what roadblocks you put in their path.\u201d<\/p>\n The 2nd<\/sup>\u00a0Amendment allows citizens to not only arm themselves against criminals but also to be a force against tyrannical governments. Unfortunately, some lawmakers use tragedies to push their agenda and misrepresent gun violence statistics so that people believe access to guns causes criminal activity.<\/p>\n HB 1298 and the other gun laws that passed do nothing more than curtail law-abiding citizens\u2019 access to firearms and continue to erode our 2nd<\/sup>\u00a0Amendment rights.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Well, the people that voted for the proggie politicians who came up with this law are the expatriates from states that were turned into cesspools by the proggie politicians they voted for there. It Just Got Harder for Law-Abiding Citizens to Buy a Gun in Colorado \u201cThere is no doubt in my mind that millions … Continue reading “”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-70462","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-crap-for-brains","category-rkba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70462","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=70462"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70462\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":70466,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70462\/revisions\/70466"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=70462"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=70462"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=70462"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}HB 1298<\/strong><\/h3>\n
Will it Work?<\/strong><\/h3>\n
How Gun Statistics are Twisted<\/strong><\/h3>\n
![\"Gun](\"https:\/\/themaverickobserver.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/Table-Gun-Death-Breakdown-Katie-Spence.jpg\")
Where This Leaves Us<\/strong><\/h3>\n