Foreign Policy by the NRA? The Prospect of Gingrich and Bolton.

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9. Why should we give the GOP the opportunity to use gun control as a wedge issue..

80,000,000 people are estimated to own firearms in our nation and it's well known that gun owners show up at the polls to vote.

Our party has been shooting itself in the foot for years by backing draconian gun control and we have lost many close elections over this issue. Your idea of limiting the number of firearms that a person can own would prove to be a total disaster and would guarantee losses in future elections. Look at how the Republicans were successfully able to use the assault weapons ban in past elections and your idea would have even far worse results.

In my opinion, Obama has followed a wise path on control. He does favor some improvements to the NICS background check but has never proposed another assault weapons ban or any other useless "feel good" laws. Even so, many gun owners distrust him and will refuse to vote for him in the next election.

No matter how you try to ignore it, the crime rate has fallen significantly in the United States in the last decade despite the sun setting of the assault weapons ban and the enormous increase in the sale of firearms to civilians.

I suspect that you favor the incremental approach to eventually banning all firearms. You feel it would be reasonable to limit a person's collection to a certain number. Let’s suppose that number is five. You would say that would allow a person to own two handguns, a shotgun and two rifles or other such combinations. You would argue that a person should be happy with that number.

How exactly would that reduce the problem of gun violence? I own over twenty firearms and compared to many gun owners I have a small collection. None of my firearms has ever been misused for a criminal purpose. In fact they have never been used to shoot any living creature. I've probably punched well over 250,000 holes in paper targets over the years. How has this endangered anyone?

However a criminal with just one firearm can cause a tragedy. Wouldn't it make far more sense to focus attention on criminals rather than honest people like me and the many shooters I have known and shot with on different ranges?

One big drawback to your idea is that it would probably require the registration of all firearms. Even the much less gun friendly nation of Canada has had significant problems with their gun registration program. The chances of passing nationwide gun registration in the United States are zero to none and even if a miracle happened and it was passed, a high percentage of gun owners would simply refuse to register their weapons. Would you have police swat teams invade houses to confiscate firearms? If so, you might foster a insurrection that would tear our nation apart.

Suppose a politician campaigned on your idea of limiting firearms. That might seem to be a really good idea to those who don't own firearms or those who have little understanding of the shooting sports and of course those who fear gun owners. It might be a winning issue in New York City or Chicago but it would never fly in many other urban and rural areas in gun friendly states. I and many other gun owners have a significant amount of money invested in our firearms and if we felt that we would be required to get rid of a significant portion of our collections, you can damn well bet that we would vote against any politician who even mentioned such an idea. We WOULD show up to vote!!!

God forbid that a Presidential candidate would embrace such an idea. Many experts feel Al Gore would have won the election without the fiasco that occurred in Florida if only he would have won Tennessee, his own home state. Some feel that his views on gun control might have cost him the election in Tennessee. There was only a difference of 80,000 votes between Gore and Bush in that state. That easily could have been the votes cast by gun owners.

Despite gallant efforts the gun control advocates have been unable to stop the "shall issue" concealed carry laws that have swept across our nation. One look at this map should show just how hard it would be to limit the number of guns a person can own. Only a small percentage of people actually get carry permits. In Florida the figure is about 6% of eligible adults and Florida has had "shall issue" concealed carry for 24 years and has a higher percentage of licensed people than most other states with the same law. It should be easier to get people to vote against a concealed carry law that allows people to carry handguns in public than it would be to get them to vote for your scheme.