Missoula City Council poised to tackle gun control

Missoula City Council poised to tackle gun control | Missoula Local News - NBCMontana.com:
(September 24, 2015)

An ordinance under consideration by the Missoula City Council is taking heavy fire from gun rights advocates.
Sponsored by Council Members Bryan von Lossberg, Marilyn Marler and Emily Bently, the draft ordinance aims to close a loophole that allows private transactions and gun transfers to happen without a background check. Licensed firearms dealers are required to run a check on gun buyers, but there is no federal or state law that requires the same check for private parties.

(H/T: The War On Guns)

We just suffered through this kind of  bastard legislation in Oregon, and I hope that the good folks in Missoula (and Montana in general) will find the wisdom to give the ordinance the sound trouncing it so richly deserves.

Why?

Well, not just because (a) criminals will not observe it; and not just because (b) it will make criminals of honest citizens who recognize the ordinance for the intrusive kind of needless governmental oversight it is, and refuse to comply with it.   These are only third level reasons why this kind of ordinance (or "law") is to be avoided.

The real problem is that it is tantamount to Registration ... which is the first step toward confiscation of private firearms, and that's the reason why it seems to attractive to liberals ("They Who Do Not Want To Take Your Guns").   The only way the law can be enforced is if they register the serial number of the firearm, and enter it into a database. That way every change of ownership can be traced.  

Just in case they want to .. oh, I don't know ... check up on you from time to time to see if you still have the gun you bought.  And if you can't produce it, and if you haven't filed a report of stolen property, then you the buyer will be fined ... or jailed.  Because you have obviously sold the gun, but didn't follow the "ordinance", so you are now a criminal.

What if you sold a gun and it is later used in a felony?  Well, you sold the gun to a felon; that makes you and accomplice before the fact.  You must know that there is a movement afoot to enact laws which make a seller liable for 'bad actions' involving a firearm which you have sold.  Even though you followed the law as best you could (more on that later), and should not be liable for the bad-actions of the buyer --- you might just end up doing hard time in the pokey for not insuring that you are selling to an "honest person".

These are some of the secondary reasons why this is a Bad Law.

Lets talk about the PRIMARY reason why this is a not-good thing:  it is registration, which leads to confiscation.   And brother, if Big Brother knows you have a gun, he can take it away from you or throw you in jail (see above) .. or both.

So what do you, as the seller, need to do to obey the law?  Why, you do an NICS  (National Instant Check System) check on the buyer.

Just one problem:  Only licensed dealers are authorized to use the NICS system.  So you and your buyer need to traipse before a dealer (in person) and have him run the check.  For which he will charge you something between $40 and $100 dollars .... and plan on the $100 charge, okay?



HYPOTHETICAL SITUATION:

Let's say you're working for The Man, fixing his fence line to keep your boss's cattle where they belong.  You've got an old Ruger rifle that you don't use, but Harry (who's running sheep on the other side of the fence) has a problem with coyotes; they're taking too many of his lambs.  He wants to buy your Ruger to chase off the coyotes.  So you agree to sell your Ruger to Harry for $50, which he has and which you need more than you need the rifle.

You have to go to a dealer to complete the deal, even though you've known Harry for 20 years and you know he's okay, even if he does run sheep.

Don't have a dealer in the badlands of Montana?  Sorry, Charley ... not OUR problem!
You'll have to take a day off work to drive into town (both of you) to find a dealer?
 Are you some kind of commie that won't do what it takes to obey the law?

What?  You can't afford to lose a day of work?  Not OUR problem if the fences go down and the cattle stray; or the coyotes get in Harry's flock and take two or three lambs

So the cost of the gun will not only be the $50 you agreed on for ... say ... that broke-dick Ruger  rifle, but twice that amount to pay the licensed dealer to run the NICS check, plus time lost from work, plus gas and another half-day to round up the strays and fix the fence.  And find a bummer lamb for that ewe that doesn't have a lamb to nurse, and she's hurting.

That's tough.  But it gets worse if you do NOT register the sale!

So after all that work, your buddy Harry runs into hard times and has to sell the broke-dick Ruger to get through the next week.  And somewhere down the line (because these folks aren't going to spend $100 to make $50) that damned Ruger is going to show up on another NICS transaction and everyone who was in the chain of ownership is going to spend a few days in the county pokey while the Sheriff tries to get this whole mess straighten out.

Or maybe that Ruger is used in commission of a felony.  You didn't register the sale?  If you bought that rifle new, there's a record in the Dealer's files, and the Feds can prove that you committed a crime of not following the 'ordinance' .. which was only a darn inconvenience before, but now you have real troubles!

See what I mean?

There's no good reason for this law, it won't stop the bad guys.
But it can damn sure make a criminal of an honest man; one who just can't see any reason why he should muck up his life for a couple of days just to satisfy a law that some folks in the city made up for no good reason.

You can't hurt a crook here; you can only hurt an honest man.