Lax local gun laws add up to a national tragedy

I read the response from your GOP readers that the liberal Democrats are responsible for the gun violence on our streets today (“Don’t blame GOP for criminals having guns,” April 6).

Criminals get guns illegally, that’s a given, but how do they get them? I’ve seen where they crash through a gun store wall with a stolen vehicle, but it doesn’t happen that often and they can only get a limited amount of guns. They also get them through burglaries, where a citizen thought they had their gun secure but didn’t. We have to look at the most common way these criminals get the guns. They are bought through “straw purchases” where a person that can legally purchase a gun will buy guns legally for the criminals, which is illegal but it’s usually a slap on the wrist if they get caught.

The bulk of the guns come from other states that don’t have very strict gun laws. Those states don’t require any background checks, especially at the thousands of gun shows around the country that one can go to on a weekly basis. There aren’t any enforceable background checks at most of these shows, and the people that attend the shows just to walk around the parking lot and sell their own guns; there is nothing to stop them from selling their guns straight into the criminals hands.

Until the entire nation, both Democrats and Republicans, get together and go against the gun manufacturers and the National Rifle Association with new laws that keep the guns out of the hands of criminals, and draw up laws (and enforce them) to keep “trigger pullers” off the streets until they need a walker to get around, things will never get better, they will only get worse. Keep the multi-offenders off the streets where they teach young children how to carry on their criminal activity.

As we can see, there’s more that enough blame to be given to both political parties. Yet the way they are at each others throats like a schoolboys fighting on the playground, I don’t have much hope for a change anytime soon.