Cause and Effect: You're Not In Kansas Any More .. you're in MISSOURI

Missouri’s lax gun laws makes it too easy for criminals to be armed | The Kansas City Star:
(by Mary Sanchez, September 18, 2015)

MARY WRITES AN OP-ED BLAMING HONEST PEOPLE FOR ABUSE OF THE LAW BY DISHONEST PEOPLE!

The question is, how did a felon get the gun? Pretty easily in Missouri or Kentucky was the point made by Kentucky chapters for Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, which is affiliated with Everytown For Gun Safety. Both Missouri and Kentucky have lax gun laws. Even people with serious records wouldn’t be flagged during many  gun sales. ,,, Studies have indicated a connection between when Missouri repealed its gun permit system in 2007, eliminating background check requirements for private handgun sales, with a doubling of the number of guns winding up at crime scenes. Loosening up the rules for the good guys who want guns also loosens the rules for the bad guys who want guns. It’s that simple.

I question Mary Sanchz's statement that eliminating gun permits doubled the number of "guns ...at crime scenes".   Her statistics may in fact be accurate, but to ascribe that increased statistic to local (state) recognition of the Constitutional Rights of her fellow citizens is wrong-headed.

The rejoinder is obvious, and Ms. Sanchez meets that head-on.

Well, almost:
,,,

 And yet, calls for evaluating gun ownership are always met with a dismissive response. It’s the reply that says: Criminals don’t abide by the law anyway, so don’t bother thinking that gun regulation will affect them? But why make it easier for them? This is what the legislators fail to grasp. Their intention is to stoically protect the Second Amendment. They give credence to conspiracy theories that believe any tracking of guns sold or backgrounds checked will open the door to federal troops confiscating America’s firearms.

You cannot eliminate crime by punishing honest, respectable people.  The only effect is to turn them into, essentially, assumed criminals without any evidence that they have bad intentions.

Mary, you do have a Crime Problem in Missouri.  We've watched your state turn into a shooting gallery over the past several years.

But that isn't caused by the Constitution.  It's caused by societal factors which your state  is unable, to address.   Nobody is pointing the finger at you; we know that these societal ills are endemic to today's social environment, where we try to make it right for poor people by making it more difficult for people who don't share their problems. As in: people who own guns legally are responsible for the crimes caused by people who own guns illegal

Why do people who should not be allowed to buy guns from private persons still get to do so?  It's a two-part question:

1. People who have guns don't want their guns to be registered, because it leads to confiscation.  There's an entire huge body of discussion behind that, but it's still true ... historically.
2. People who own guns and sell them privately do NOT have access the the National Instant Check System, which registered gun dealers do. AND By The Way .. there is no such thing as an non-licensed dealer.  Not in America.   We're either a Dealer, or we're a Private Citizen.  Don't ask me why, I'm not sure .. it should be possible for a private person to call into the NICS system and ask if Joe Blow who wants to buy their gun is legally permitted to do so, but we can't.  So blame it on the NICS, on Congress, on the President ... blame it on the Bossa Nova, but don't blame it on honest private citizens. 

So why is there so much gun crime in Missouri today, if not because of private gun sales?

Single parent homes; low income; dearth of honest jobs; and an entire segment of society that thinks it's admirable to break the law because the criminals they see on the streets have expensive cars, while honest people have to walk to work.  (IF they can find work!)   These are the conditions which lead to violence .. they're not the cause of violence.

Neither is the possession of a firearm a cause of violence.  Still, it is not a "condition of violence", either.  Millions of people own firearms and do not break the law, do not harm their neighbors, do not undermine the economic viability of their neighborhood.

And your presumption of guilt without rational justification isn't helping, Mary.  You're just letting your emotions cloud your thinking.  You think that there's too much violence in your state, and you are correct.  But you also think it's because "It's Too Easy For Criminals To Be Armed".

You have made the rhetorical assumption that Cause and Effect can be determined by your outrage.  In truth, it's much, much more complicated than that.

By conflating gun violence with gun ownership, you not only do a disservice to the millions of law-abiding gun owners who do not deserve to be the object of your outrage, but you distract our attention to the true progenitors of violence in our neighborhoods, in our cities, in our states and in our country.