Second Amendment Rights and Responsible Gun Ownership
12.05.2009
I support the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, preserving the right that has existed since colonial days to bear arms. At the same time I endorse Congressional action to shut down the illegal trafficking in guns that puts deadly weapons in the hands of criminals and juveniles.
Having an ancestor whose payment for American Revolutionary War service was a land grant in Pike County, Ohio and with deep roots in rural and southeast Ohio, I fully appreciate the long history and fundamental importance of responsible gun ownership for hunting and protection. I will not support laws that take guns away from Ohioans who acquire them lawfully and use them responsibly.
As a former felony court judge in Columbus, Ohio, however, I am painfully aware of the devastation caused by rampant gun violence in our urban areas. On an average day in our country, guns are used to kill over 80 people, to injure almost 300 more, and to commit approximately 3,000 crimes. Over 1,000 Ohioans are killed by gun violence each year, more than half of them murder victims, and the vast majority of those murders are committed by felons and juveniles who have no legal right to own a gun.
We can and must stem the tide of illegal gun trafficking that puts guns into the hands of criminals and young people. Eighty percent of guns recovered in crime investigations were obtained by perpetrators illegally. We can prevent criminals and juveniles from obtaining guns if we take strong steps to cut off the illegal flow of guns to criminals at the source.
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) identifies three common ways that guns move from legal distribution channels to the criminal market: illegal transactions by a small percentage of licensed gun dealers who engage in corrupt activities, straw purchasers hired by trafficking rings or acting on behalf of prohibited purchasers, and sales at gun shows or in private transactions that are exempt from licensing and background check requirements. Ohio has been especially highlighted for problems relating to illegal sales of guns at gun shows. We must do better.
Congress should take action to correct misguided federal policies that have allowed illegal trafficking in guns to flourish. There are three immediate steps that can be taken to improve the enforcement of existing laws against gun traffickers:
* End the practice of adding the Tiahrt Amendment to the annual funding bills for the Department of Justice. These provisions have prevented the ATF from releasing aggregate crime gun trace statistics to local police departments, researchers, policymakers and public safety advocates since 2003. Such statistics are vital to understanding the operation of the pipeline that supplies guns illegally to criminals, and a majority of prominent law enforcement associations oppose the Tiahrt Amendments as a serious threat to public safety.
* Authorize an increase in the number of ATF agents from the current insufficient level of just 2,500 for the entire nation, and permit more than the present limit of one unannounced inspection of a gun dealer in any 12-month period. These unreasonable constraints have made it increasingly difficult for the ATF to revoke the licenses of gun dealers who engage in illegal or dangerous sales.
* Insure that law enforcement officials have the records they need to track down illegal gun traffickers by permitting the ATF to establish a database of retail firearms sales, requiring private gun sellers to keep a paper trail of gun transactions, and directing federal authorities who currently destroy criminal background check records within 24 hours to retain them for at least six months. The General Accounting Office has determined that the Bush-era policy of destroying criminal background check records endangers public safety, and yet the policy has been allowed to continue.
In addition to calling for these steps to enable law enforcement agents to track guns involved in crime back to the source and prosecute gun traffickers, a comprehensive strategy is needed to focus attention and resources on stopping the flow of guns to criminals and juveniles. This strategy should include educating the public on the need to trace guns involved in crime back to their source, and improving existing gun laws by closing the gun show loophole in the law requiring background checks for gun sales, improving gun dealer accountability and practices, and deterring straw purchases of guns.
For too long, the conventional approach to gun violence has tended to ignore the source of the guns and to focus solely on punishing the shooter. This narrow focus emboldens unscrupulous gun traffickers to continue operating in the shadows, funneling more and more guns to those who cannot lawfully purchase them and perpetuating the tragic epidemic of gun violence and hurting the rights of those law abiding citizens to protect themselves and to lawfully hunt. I am convinced that we can preserve the Second Amendment and responsibly and safely do so, protecting our children, our families and our law enforcement personnel and our communities.
