What these puppies fail to recognize is the simple notion that much of the proposed legislation on gun safety is in fact a very specific, direct, and focused attempt to reduce gun violece IN ALL COMMUNITIES of the United States…including those in urban communities where gang gun violence is without question a major problem.

For instance…the specific proposed legislation requiring backround checks on ALL purchases of firearms including purchases at gun shows (a measure opposed by many on the right)is a very specific attempt to limit the availability of firearms to ALL individuals with criminal backrounds. This would include limiting the availablity of guns to gang members.

Under the current laws a gang member with a criminal backround can walk into a gun show and legally purchase multiple firearms without any backround check. Here are some pesky facts about gun shows purchases by ATF:

In 2000, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) published the “Following the Gun” report.[18] The ATF analyzed more than 1,530 trafficking investigations over a two-and-a-half-year period and found gun shows to be the second leading source of illegally diverted guns in the nation. “Straw purchasing was the most common channel in trafficking investigations.”[19] These investigations involved a total of 84,128 firearms that had been diverted from legal to illegal commerce. All told, the report identified more than 26,000 firearms that had been illegally trafficked through gun shows in 212 separate investigations. The report stated that: “A prior review of ATF gun show investigations shows that prohibited persons, such as convicted felons and juveniles, do personally buy firearms at gun shows and gun shows are sources of firearms that are trafficked to such prohibited persons. The gun show review found that firearms were diverted at and through gun shows by straw purchasers, unregulated private sellers, and licensed dealers. Felons were associated with selling or purchasing firearms in 46 percent of the gun show investigations. Firearms that were illegally diverted at or through gun shows were recovered in subsequent crimes, including homicide and robbery, in more than a third of the gun show investigations.”

26 thousand firearms purchased at gun shows… were used for illegal activities by criminals. Those illegal activities include the use of guns by gang members. The proposed legislation on requiring backround checks on all purchases is a direct attempt to limit the availibility of guns to all criminals…including gang members.

Another thoughtless and predictable retort by the right will undoubtedly be, “tell me again how criminals follow laws”… and while there is a shred of logic to this argument… my retort to them in this specific case is, “Tell me why you are 100% complicit and willing to sell over 28,00 firearms to known criminals…and if there was a way to make it more difficult for those 28,000 guns to be purchased by criminals…why would you vehemently oppose that legislation’?

Using the logic of the right the only conclusion I can come to is those on the right must support the use of guns by gangs.