I'm still taking a break from blogging to study for law school finals, but this is an article I just had to share from GunGuys.com. Guns are violent weapons that have no purpose other than to kill human beings. "Gun shows" provide an easy source for people to buy guns so that they can kill people with them. Note how the article points out that every 2 years as many Americans die from gun violence as died in the entire Vietnam war. Quite frankly, it's disgusting that anyone would be advocating the spread of these vile killing machines. What Would Jesus Pack? Gun Shows are Wellsprings of Illegal Weapons Can you feel the tide turning in this nation against guns? It is. For far too long, the NRA has held sway over the debate, and tried to convince America that it needed guns, that it needed the death and destruction that they rain down on the country. But now it seems that every day someone else is realizing that weapons are trouble, is understanding just how widespread the danger of firearms is. Today, it’s Steve Bailey, columnist for the Boston Globe. He’s written a terrifically scathing editorial about gun shows, those “secondary markets” for firearms where a background check is almost never required, and waiting periods are simply laughed at. He went to a show, and what he wrote about it is must-read stuff. In the manic environment of the first shopping weekend after Thanksgiving, the competition was fierce. We hesitated and lost out on a lovely, slightly used grenade launcher, bargain priced in tax-free New Hampshire at $190. Not to worry. The dozens of dealers at the Fireside Inn gun show came well armed. Andrew Heggie, a Randolph police officer, spotted a Bushmaster, similar to the rifle he carried in two tours of duty in Afghanistan. And he found an AK-47, the same gun the enemy carried. There were military sniper rifles and an M-16-type ‘’machine pistol” capable of firing off 100 rounds before reloading — the kind of gun only an angry high school student could love. Saturday night specials were cheap and plentiful. In the end, we settled on a .38-caliber revolver, a trashy little thing popular with thugs in cities like Boston. Made by Connecticut’s Charter 2000 Inc. in New England’s ‘’Gun Valley,” the revolver retails for $349, but my fellow New Hampshire shopper, Walter Belair, picked it up, cash and carry, for just $240. It took Belair, a former prison guard, less than 20 minutes to fill out the federal forms and get approved over the phone. It took me longer to buy a refrigerator at Sears a few weeks ago. But this is New Hampshire, the ‘’Live Free or Die” state, where no gun license is required, and there is no limit on what a resident can buy. ‘’I can buy all the guns I want,” Belair says. And he could sell his new .38 down the street, too, no questions asked. That’s what buying guns is like in this country. Is there any doubt that we need stricter gun laws? Not in our minds, and not in Steve’s either. But who’s to blame for the lax laws we have now? Dramatically reducing the flow of illegal guns would be a relatively straightforward matter if it were not for the lunatic gun lobby and its political enablers. What is needed is uniform national gun laws that require background checks for all gun purchases whether from licensed dealers or from private individuals. In addition, we need to limit gun purchases for individuals to one per month, a policy that has proven effective in Virginia. Question: How many legitimate buyers need more than a dozen guns a year? Exactly what we’ve been saying all along. One-gun-a-month inconveniences no one. It’s a simple, effective law to limit gun purchases, and yet the NRA is whining and barking against it to no end. The newspaper loophole is an open invitation for criminals to get guns, and it should have been closed years ago. The gun immunity bill was a blatant piece of special interest legislation, and the passage of it is a slap in the face to victims of gun violence everywhere. Thirty thousand people a year — 82 a day — are killed by guns every year in this country. Every two years more Americans die of firearms than all the American soldiers killed in eight years in Vietnam. And yet there is more accountability for dog owners than gun owners; at least dog owners have to have a license. ‘’If there were white kids in the suburbs dying, we would end gun trafficking,” says Heggie, the Randolph cop. Nationally there are 45 gun shows scheduled for next weekend alone, according to the Big Show Journal, a trade magazine. If you missed last weekend’s show in West Lebanon, you’ll have another chance before Christmas on Dec. 17 and 18 at the Rockingham Race Park in Salem. And there are four more New Hampshire shows before spring ends. Children under 12 are admitted free. The tide is turning against weapons. Americans everywhere are speaking out against gun violence– we can only hope and pray that lawmakers will start listening. Source: gunguys.com