I am old enough to remember when anyone old enough could walk in and purchase any gun. We did not have mass shootings. We had disciplined children and faith and church going and personal responsibility. The mental ill were treated and if necessary locked up for their own good and for the good of everybody. The eroding of our nations humanity has come over the years and so called more background checks will not stop this. Mental health treatment is what is needed and yes, "locking up" people that need to be is the answer. Besides, when do criminals follow the law?

Only the law-abiding pay attention to the law - and they are not the ones involved in mass shootings. Nevertheless, I would support a requirement for background checks, provided there is an exception for transfers among immediate family members. Since almost all gun sales already require a background check, I don't believe this will accomplish much, but given the number of mass shootings recently, I believe it would be politically wise to agree to this one change. However, I would vehemently oppose any further restrictions, particularly the "red flag laws."

Red flag laws find an individual guilty of, and impose penalties for, a crime they have not committed, but which someone fears they might commit at some point in the future. Our Constitution does not permit penalties for something that an individual may or may not have thought about doing at some point in the future. Such a law would also be ripe for abuse. I can easily imagine an ex or a neighbor exacting revenge by falsely claiming that someone has threatened to open fire on a group of people.

I am also deeply concerned about any attempt to confiscate guns. I fear such a move would erupt into violence that would not be easily quelled.

A universal background check requirement for all sales would further infringe upon our Second Amendment rights. Furthermire most of the weapons used in past murders were purchased by people who passed the current background check requirements.

We already do background checks with running your information through the FBI. If you meant something else, then your question was too vague.

I think it`s time to ban all sales of military grade weapons that can fire 100 rounds in 30 seconds.

Australia did it. Enough already. We can keep our pistols, rifles, shotguns. I want to stop all sales of AK 47s at gun shows, stores in America.

I totally agree with Mary Miller's comments about today's society. That said, I believe that making background checks legal may catch or discourage those who would cause harm and I don't believe the background checks will endanger our Second amend rights.

99.9% of the time in order to purchase a gun you must pass a background check. That said, it's only the law abiding citizens who do so. If someone has idea's of causing mass harm by shooting up a school or church or Walmart, he/she isn't going to purchase that firearm legally. Let's face it, the left is striping out Nation of God, teaching our students that we are for the most part an evil Nation, talking them into Socialism, up until Trump most mothers had to work so kids got home and were on their own. If there were sports or extra curricular activities during the week the parents or parent was too tired to get up to go to church on Sunday so that got forgotten. So for a decade or more Christianity has been bypassed by sports in our Nation. So single family homes, no values being taught, it's no wonder we have an entire generation of children who are lost. They have a huge hole inside and don't know why. They keep trying to fill it up with video games, Facebook likes, fancy cell phones, where they text their friends instead of having a face to face conversation. How do you develop a meaningful relationship with someone through texting if you can't see their face, and get cues through their facial movements? So we have a generation of lonely children as well. Yes they say they have a ton of friends, but are any of their friends close enough to talk to if they have a personal problem? No they say they can't talk to their friends about that kind of stuff. So they keep trying to fill that empty hole up will material things until one day someone who isn't quite stable decides it's everybody else's fault because this generation can't accept responsibility and they find a way to through a guy who knows a guy and get a gun and some ammo and goes on a shooting spree because it's their fault that he feels so rotten.

The left by the way if you look real closely are make up of a lot of the same sort of characters. Adults who haven't grown up. They haven't learned how to take responsibility for their own actions, and worse yet, they are still living in a make believe world.

And just a side note, guns don't kill people, people kill people. So their idea of this mass striping of guns from law abiding citizens is not only ridiculous it totally goes against the second Amendment.

Thank you for reading my soap box

Barbara

Yes, I do support universal background checks for firearms purchases. According to the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, more than 90% of both gun owners and non-gun owners and 69% of NRA members also support comprehensive background checks.

However, the current federal gun legislation has loopholes which MUST be fixed to make background checks effective. These current federal laws EXEMPT unlicensed sellers from having to perform background checks. So people can purchase guns at gun shows, online (Armslist.com), or anyplace else that doesn’t require a federal dealer’s license, without concern of undergoing ANY background check whatsoever. An estimated 22% of gun owners acquired their most recent firearm without a background check - millions of guns. 80% of all firearms acquired for criminal purposes are obtained through transfers from unlicensed sellers.

When the federal background check was adopted in 1994, over 3 million people were legally prohibited from purchasing a gun or denied a permit to purchase. More than 35% of these denials involved people convicted of felony offenses. So the background checks have been effective.

Background check laws also help prevent guns from being diverted to the illegal gun market. States without universal background check laws export crime guns across state lines at s 30% higher rate than states that require background checks on all gun sales.

Like President Trump, I’d like to see the federal government give grants to states to allow individual states to implement some kind of red flag gun laws. These are gun violence protection laws that permit police or family members to petition a state court to order the temporary removal of firearms from a person who may present a danger to themselves or others. Petitioners must present evidence to the court on why the individual poses a threat to others or to himself or herself. After a full court hearing, the judge could order a gun ban that could last 3 months to one year.

Right now, 17 states and the District of Columbia have implemented red flag laws. These red flag laws were implemented particularly after Nikolas Cruz murdered 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. Cruz had made threats against students and the Sheriff’s office had received 45 calls or tips about Cruz, his brother or the family home. Police had visited Cruz’s home numerous times. Cruz had also attempted suicide, threatened to “shoot up the school”, and had stated that he intended to buy a gun. In spite of all these obvious warnings, Cruz was able to legally purchase a gun and passed a background check.

There are concerns about due process rights being undermined with red flag laws (Extreme Risk Protection Orders or ERPOs).

These are written into some state laws to meet those concerns:

The judge is required to issue an opinion explaining his decision to remove a person’s gun rights.

It must be shown that the subject poses a substantial risk to himself or to others.

Only the subject’s behavior exhibited during the past 12 months is taken into consideration.

There are criminal penalties for people who make false charges against gun owners.

I am in favor of President Trump doing something with red flag gun laws for all states, but the specifics of the laws should be decided at the individual state level.

My gun statistics were cited from Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence.

Ban the sale of AK47s and all military grade weapons.

To start I do not trust any stats coming from a organization or website that wants to disarm us. the Gifford Center is one of those. They make up numbers to scare people. Now to legally buy a gun from a licensed dealer you have to pass a background check. These dealers do not want to lose their license by selling to those that cannot pass the background check. There is no loophole at gunshows. Dealers still run background checks on those buying a gun. There may be individuals there selling a gun and many of them will only sell to someone with a concealed carry permit. Some will sell to anyone and those people usually have one gun they are selling. You do not have large numbers of people buying guns at gunshows with no background check. All a unviversal background check will change is requiring private sales to do a background check. now how will that be monitored?? Do you think criminals are going to do background checks when selling their stolen guns? Most responsible gun owners sell to those that have a concealed carry permit. Civilians cannot buy military grade weapons. They can buy weapons that LOOK like a military weapon but are semiauto not automatic. The AK47 that civilians are allowed to own are semiautomatic, not automatic. Red Flag laws do not have due process. Having your guns taken away first, with no notice is not due process. There have already been people killed when the police show up to take their guns. So a once law abiding citizen goes to defend himself and ends up dead. Where was the due process? Red flag laws are a horrible idea and will end up being used in retaliation for one. They also open to door to start removing guns from law abiding citizens for any reason. Now if law enforcement has already dealt with someone that has made violent threats, seems someone dropped the ball in flagging that person. They should be tagged and not allowed to buy a gun. If government agencies do not do their part of putting mental health info or deadly threats in the system to keep them from buying a gun, well they dropped the ball. Laws are only going to hurt law abiding citizens. Why does everyone want to go after law abiding citizens. They are not the problem. Criminals are the problem and they do not obey laws. We need stiffer penalties for violent crimes. Go after the criminals that break the law and leave law abiding citizens alone. We are not the problem. Why are not all drivers punished for those that drink and drive? Because you should not punish those that do right. You punish those that do wrong.

Well said, Jennifer Loveday!

Jennifer just wrote much of what I was going to add, so I need not repeat. She is absolutely correct about the lack of objectivity of the Giffiords' anti-gun organization. Their goal is to eliminate guns, not to keep people safe.

How many people do you you Know who lied about their ex to gain custody of the children? It's one time when normally honest people feel justified in lying to get what they want. So imagine the tales someone might tell to have that person's guns taken away. Promises to prosecute for false claims is meaningless, for how do you prove someone lied about conversations or actions they say occurred behind closed doors without witnesses? No one can prove that info is false, so there's little to stop vindictive exes.

Better treatment for the mentally ill seems to be the solution. We eliminated mandatory hospitalizations for severely ill patients in the name of "civil rights." So today we contemplate taking away the civil rights of law abiding citizens instead, in order to prevent crimes that are almost always committed by the mentally ill.

I am also deeply concerned about any attempt to confiscate guns. I fear such a move would erupt into violence that would not be easily quelled.

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I'm also concerned about any move to seize firearms. I am concerned that such a move will result in uncontrollable violence.

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