The Taos News

Background checks don’t work; ban ‘multimagaz­ine’ weapons

- By Ken O’Neil Ken O’Neil lives in Taos.

HERE WE GO AGAIN, this time with a price of 29 deaths. Let’s trot out the old “background check” mantra, a process that can be bypassed in so many ways. Psychiatri­c studies show that people with mental health issues are often on the receiving end of mayhem from others, rather than on the offensive.

One simple approach is to pass a law that prohibits the sale of any multimagaz­ine type of weapons, in any state in the Union. These weapons are designed for the battlefiel­d. They are not designed for target shooting, or competitiv­e events or any trampling on the Second Amendment, that sacred cow that is always brought up by the National Rifle Associatio­n.

It would be simple to enforce. Hunters can get their elk or deer. Sportsmen can participat­e in organized competitiv­e events. Licensing becomes simplified. A shotgun is a far safer weapon for home safety. And the Second Amendment remains sacred. The “losers” may contain a small group of those who require their machismo to be massaged from time to time.

If some person wishes to make mayhem on whatever target he or she decides must be eliminated from society, we, the people, will have a much higher survival rate, while the shooter’s survival rate drops dramatical­ly.

If our federal lawmakers find this too challengin­g, then state lawmakers can pass laws on a per state basis. Already we have different laws in individual states for the “open carry” policy, so please don’t tell me it can’t be done.

There are large numbers of law-abiding citizens out there who exercise their right to own a gun. Fair enough! To continue on a road of “background checks” as the answer seems doomed to failure for a lot of reasons: no guts in many or our lawmakers; hard to police the law; will not do away with multiple magazines, etc.

Should we have background checks for people to buy matches in case they start a forest fire?

The only parts of our society hurt by a law prohibitin­g the sale of all multimagaz­ine guns are the gun manufactur­ers and the NRA.

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