11 September 2019
Fox News
1211 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10036
Attention:__________
Dear ______________;
As a longtime Fox News viewer, I beseech you to please get someone knowledgeable on the Second Amendment and firearms to educate Fox on-air personalities. You guys are more accurate than most but often repeat things that are not true (like machine guns are illegal) or allow guests to say things that are not true or half true because you don’t have all the facts. When this happens, many millions of people are further misinformed instead of being informed. The most important unreported news item is about Universal Background Checks.
- Universal Background Check laws WILL NOT WORK WITHOUT 100% FIREARMS REGISTRATION.
A Justice Department study commissioned by President Obama stated Universal Background Checks will not work without Universal Firearms Registration. How will you know an illegal transfer has occurred unless you know who currently owns every firearm in the country, all 400 million of them? Firearms registration would be a hard sell as it’s a well-known, historical fact registration is the first step in confiscation. Democrats are already talking about confiscation. Strangely enough, Canada repealed its gun registration law after 14 years and a cost of $2.7 billion because the law was never credited with solving or preventing a single crime! Also, felons aren’t required to register their weapons since that would be self-incrimination!
There second major flaw in UBC’s is the definition of firearm transfer. Some States define a transfer as when one individual sells a firearm to another. But many States that already have UBC’s define a transfer as any time a firearm changes hands. If you’re on the range and hand your buddy your new pistol to try out, that would be considered an illegal transfer. If you’re in a gun shop and the dealer hands you a rifle to look at (legal transfer) and you hand it to your buddy to get his opinion, that would be an illegal transfer.
A local pastor in Oregon spent $1000 on raffle tickets to win an AR-15 so he could make a political statement by destroying it. After he won, he gave the gun to a neighbor to safely store in his gun safe until he could arrange his gun destroying event. Under Oregon’s UBC law, this was an illegal transfer. Strangely enough, even though the man clearly broke the law, he was not charged.
UBC laws require a background check for ALL firearms transfers. Under this system, if you want to sell a firearm to your neighbor, you both have to go to a local firearms dealer, pay him $20 – $30 to do the paperwork and call in the background check. This will only affect law-abiding citizens. Criminals normally do not want records showing they legally transferred a firearm they used in a crime.
Sincerely,
ALLAN L. PERKINS
Sergeant Major
U.S. Army (Retired)
Additional Pertinent Information to the Gun Control Debate
Machine guns are legal. So are sawed-off shotguns, short barreled rifles, suppressors (silencers), and hand grenades (destructive devices). There are civilians that actually own armored vehicles and tanks with operational main guns, what you would call a cannon. These items are legal under the National Firearms Act of 1934. You fill out a form, pay a $200 tax, undergo an extreme background check and “Bam”, you can own a machine gun. Do a Google search on “Knob Creek Range Machine Gun Shoot Videos”. You’ll be amazed. Better yet, come see one. Next shoot is 11-12 Oct 2019. Would make a great segment for your show. See you there.
Illegal Guns. This is a term that is never used correctly. The only illegal guns in our country are ones controlled by the National Firearms Act that are not registered with the ATF or those manufactured or assembled by someone not licensed to do so. When the term illegal guns is used, it is usually in reference to guns in possession of criminals or felons. When a felon is caught with a gun, he is not charged with having an illegal gun. He is charged with being a felon in possession of a gun. It’s the possession that’s illegal, not the gun. If a felon steals my legal gun, does it become illegal? It the police catch him and return my gun, does it revert to its former legal status? It’s the criminal possession that’s illegal, not the gun. Liberals and the un-informed like to use the term illegal guns to put the onus on the gun, not the person who is actually committing a crime.
To show her support for banning “Assault Weapons”, a Virginia Democrat running for a Congressional seat made a video of herself destroying an AR-15. The first thing she did was cut off half of the barrel. Doing this created an actual illegal gun, a short barreled rifle not registered with the ATF. Even though there was video evidence of her crime, she was not charged.
Who needs an AR-15? According to the Founding Fathers and the Supreme Court “All adult male inhabitants”. This was their definition of Militia. In the 1939 Supreme Court Case of U.S. vs. Miller, the Court upheld that the Militia consist of citizens, citizens are expected to appear bearing arms and the arms will be of the kind in common use at the time. Note “in common use at the time.” Currently, the most commonly used military weapons today are actual Assault Rifles with the nearest available civilian equivalent being semi-auto versions of the same weapon. And the standard issue magazine for the M16/AR15 is the 30-round magazine.
People forget the main reason for the Second Amendment. Our country had just finished a war against a tyrannical government which tried to gain advantage by disarming civilians. To protect against the rise of future over-reaching governments, the Founding Fathers insured the population would be armed at the same level as any troops the government could deploy.
Red Flag Laws. Under Red Flag Laws, firearms are removed from people identified as a risk to themselves or others. But the individual is left free to obtain other firearms illegally or obtain other means to cause death or destruction. Last year, 27% of the murders (4,146) and 49% of suicides (23,319) didn’t involve a firearm. All States already have Mental Inquest Warrants. At risk persons, after court action, are removed from their home and access to their firearms and detained pending a medical evaluation. Detained persons do not have access to illegal firearms or other means to cause death or destruction. Which is a better way to deal with at risk persons? One already exists. Could enforcing a Red Flag Law warrant against an at risk person push them over the edge and make them act? We’ve already seen one at risk person killed by police trying to serve a Red Flag warrant.
Gun Free Zones. Who really believes a person bent of mass murder would obey a law that says they can’t bring a firearm into a specific area? Or obey any law for that matter. Only the law-abiding obey the law. The real effect of Gun Free Zones is insuring people are unarmed and a mass shooters can get a high body count without facing armed adversaries. When confronted, many shooters retreat and commit suicide; they fear being taken alive. Most people haven’t heard of the Clackamas Town Center shooting. After killing two and wounding one, the AR-15 armed shooter ran into a concealed carry holder who pointed his firearm at the shooter. The shooter realized the Mall was no longer his private shooting gallery, retreated to a remote stairwell and shot himself. The CCDW holder didn’t fire. The mere presence of an armed defender facing the shooter ended the situation.
Gun Free Zones actually have the opposite effect from what was originally intended. The Colorado Theater Shooter, who opened fire at the premier of the Batman – Joker movie drove past two theater complex’s to get to a third theater. Why you ask. Because the first two theaters near his home were not designated Gun Free Zones. The third one was. He wanted a soft target where he knew there would be no one to shoot back. The Gun Free Zone designation provided this because law-abiding citizens obey the law. Thos bent on murder don’t.
Gun show loophole. Liberals would have you believe a gun show is a huge building full of unlicensed individuals selling firearms to anyone with the money, no background check involved. Actually, many of the sellers in a gun show do not sell firearms. They sell firearm and hunting related accessories. The majority of those selling firearms are licensed firearms dealers who don’t want to miss out on thousands of potential customers located in one spot. Interviews with prison inmates convicted of gun crimes have shown less than 1% (0.8%) got their gun from a gun show.
Driver’s license loophole. No one talks about this actual loophole. Many States are issuing drivers licenses to illegal (undocumented) immigrants. With a valid driver’s license to establish residency, they can go into any gun shop in the State issuing the license, lie on the ATF form saying they are a citizen and buy a firearm. The purchase will be approved as long as their name hasn’t been entered into the NICS database for committing a crime. No one seems concerned about this problem.
Current Background Check System. In 1968, the Gun Control Act of 1968 required background checks on all gun sales by licensed dealers. Checks are conducted through the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (which for some unknown reason is abbreviated NICS). Currently at the Federal level, background checks are not required for transfers between individuals. However, if an individual unknowingly sells a firearm to a prohibited person, the seller can be charged with a crime. That’s why most individuals limit their sales to family, friends, neighbors, fellow gun club members, known gun collectors, pawn shops and dealers. Or to people that have a Concealed Carry Permit which requires a current background check. Surveys of inmates doing time for gun crimes indicate only a small percentage of criminals acquired their firearm directly from an individual.
The only flaw in the current background check system is Federal Agencies and States that do not report all criminal information or disqualifying medical or mental health information to NICS. The shooter in the Texas Baptist Church shooting was able to buy a firearm because the Air Force did not forward information to NICS concerning the shooters history of domestic violence, a court martial, a conviction stemming from assaulting his wife and a dishonorable discharge; all disqualifying factors for purchasing a firearm.
The background check program, since its inception, has been credited with keeping 3 million prohibited persons from buying a firearm through a licensed dealer. When a person knowingly puts false information on the form to buy a firearm from a dealer, they have committed a Federal crime. So how many of this 3 million have been prosecuted? Virtually none. In the 2010-2012 timeframe, 72,600 applications for firearms purchase were denied based on the NICS background check. But only 62 were considered for prosecution and only 44 were actually prosecuted. When a person is not prosecuted, that leaves them free to pursue other illegal methods of obtaining a firearm.
Defensive Gun Use (DGU). In January 2013, on instruction from President Obama, the Center for Disease Control (CDC) was commissioned “to research causes and prevention of gun violence.” This study determined firearms are used for defensive purposes between 500,000 and 3 million times every year. Also, a commonly cited 1995 study by Gary Kleck and Marc Gertz estimated that between 2.1 and 2.5 million DGUs occur in the U.S. each year. What would have been the outcome of these 2-3 million encounters if the victim was unarmed?
A Defensive Gun Use Story. Here’s an example from the November 2014:
Dinah Burns was walking her dog on a path near an elementary school when two men approached her with a baseball bat. One of the men said, “You’re coming with us.” Burns asked what they wanted as she reached into her pocket. When the man with the baseball bat came toward her and raised the bat aggressively, Burns pulled out the firearm she carried. She pointed the gun at them and said, “I have this and I’m not afraid to use it.” Both assailants backed off immediately and fled the scene. Burns and her dog were left unharmed and no shots were fired. “I’m very thankful it turned out the way it did and hope it doesn’t happen again, but I will be prepared,“ Burns said. (The Daily Caller, Lancaster, Ohio, 8/30/14)
Important things to note:
- Ms. Burns did not pull her gun and empty the magazine at the two men just because they approached her with a baseball bat. They could have been on their way home from a baseball game. She waited until they “acted aggressively”.
- No shots were fired. The mere presence of a firearm ended the situation. This happens more often than Gun Control advocates would have you believe.
- If Ms. Burns’ path would have taken her across the school grounds, she would have been breaking the law (School Gun Free Zone) even though her only intent was to be able to defend herself against attack.
- In States that make concealed carry of a firearm difficult or impossible (California, New Jersey, etc.), Ms. Burns would have been beaten with a baseball bat, dragged into the bushes, robbed or worse.
How would this situation have turned out better for Ms. Burns if she were unarmed?
Litmus test for new gun laws. Before any new gun law is passed, it should be asked if this new law would have prevented any of the past mass shootings. This seems to be the driving force behind the current demand for new gun laws. If the new law won’t prevent mass shootings or crime in general, we don’t need it. We already have 20,000 firearm laws on the books that haven’t stopped gun crime. And the new law would actually have to prevent crime, not count on the criminal to comply with the law (like Gun Free Zones) or assume fear of punishment would keep criminals from violating the law because that never seems to work.
Terminology
Semi-automatic, automatic, fully automatic, and select-fire. A semi-automatic weapon fires one round (bullet) each time you pull the trigger. You have to release it and pull the trigger again to fire another round. Automatic and fully automatic are the same thing. The gun will continue to fire as long as the trigger is held back. Select-fire weapons are capable of both semi-automatic fire and automatic fire. There is no such thing as a fully-semi-automatic weapon even though the term has been used multiple times by uneducated newscasters.
Assault Rifle. This is a weapon with a specific definition. A rifle or carbine that: (1) uses an intermediate power cartridge, (2) is magazine fed and (3) is capable of both semi-automatic fire and automatic fire, a select-fire weapon. This is the choice of most army’s around the world.
Assault Weapon. There is no exact definition of assault weapon. The 50 States can have 50 different definitions. California has changed their definition multiple times to bring more firearms into the assault weapon category. A pending Florida law considers any semi-automatic, magazine-fed rifle as an assault weapon. This would include all “squirrel guns” that use low power, .22LR cartridge and an extremely slow to load tubular magazine.
The M-16 Weapon Series. This is series of weapons that are actual assault rifles capable of automatic fire. The civilian version of the M-16 has its own designation which is AR-15. It is only capable of semi-automatic fire and they cannot be readily converted to automatic fire. The AR-15 is not really a weapon of war – no Army has ever issued AR-15’s to its troops. The number of AR-15’s currently in civilian hands is estimated to be between five and ten million.
The AK-47 Weapon Series. This weapon is more confusing. There are many unique variations of the AK-47 and look-a-like weapons including AK-74, AKM and VZ-58. The AK type rifles as originally designed by the Soviet Union were assault rifles capable of automatic fire. However, nearly all (if not all) AK’s sold in the U.S. are semi-automatic only weapons. Many are made using Russian AK parts assembled on a new receiver that is incapable of automatic fire. But they are still called AK-47’s which can be confusing. It gives viewers the impression there are civilians out there with fully automatic AK-47’s. The correct identification would be semi-automatic AK-47.