Our Positions
The Liberal Gun Club (or LGC) believes first and foremost in the importance and necessity of the Second Amendment of the constitution of the United Sates. We will not support any proposed legislation which restricts the ability of Americans to acquire, keep, bear, and use firearms for sporting purposes, self defense, or the defense of our civil liberties, excepting wherein the legislation will have a demonstrable and effective impact on gun crime – or protect our environment in critical ways – and without undue impact on the liberties as outlined above.
Specifically:
- We believe that the most important job of any firearms organization is to provide education and training to its members and to the public on the safe use of firearms.
- We believe that one of the most important tools in the fight against crime, including gun crime, is to target the root causes of crime: poverty, lack of education, lack of enough properly equipped/trained police and illegal drug trafficking.
- We believe that informed policy decisions can only come from having a comprehensive understanding of the facts. Therefore, we strongly support increasing the quality and quantity of data regarding gun crimes.
- We believe that more effort needs to be made to keep firearms out of the hands of convicted domestic abusers, sex crime offenders or other violent felonious criminals. Part of this effort needs to be a revamping of the NICS background check system. We believe that the NICS will only be effective when states share their internal data with each other to be used as part of the NICS check. The NICS system needs to be more cooperative and comprehensive.
- We believe that the vast majority of gun show sellers and purchasers are operating within the law. However, we are also very aware of parties whose primary business is the sale of firearms at gun shows but operate as “private sellers” to avoid FFL requirements such as background checks. To minimize the presence of these dealers, and to continue to allow actual private collectors to buy and sell at gun shows, we propose three changes in the way gun shows operate. 1) Private sellers need to be clearly labeled as such. 2) Restrict private sellers to less than thirty firearms for sale in any one show. 3) Any seller who has more than thirty firearms for sale at any one show must operate as an FFL.
- We believe in increased mandatory jail time for people convicted of crimes involving firearms.
- We do not believe that firearms should be outlawed solely on appearance but on function (e.g., “Assault Style Weapons”)
- We believe that lead based rounds should be used with caution in obtaining game meat. If one frequently consumes game meat harvested by firearm we suggest, at the least, not grinding the meat – and preferably switching to a lead-free round.
On The “Assault Weapons Ban”:
The National Institute of Justice’s research on the effectiveness of the Federal Assault Weapons Ban had these interesting facts:
- The banned guns (assault weapons {AW}) and magazines (large capacity magazines {LCM}) were used in up to a quarter of gun crimes prior to the ban.
- The ban”s success in reducing the use of AWs and LCMs was mixed
- AW usage dropped
- LCM usage increased, the researchers argue that this is because of a huge stockpile of exempted pre-ban LCMs - While they don’t think continuing the ban would have resulted in significant drops in crime, they do argue that it would result in fewer victims
- attacks with LCMs and AWs result in more shots fired, more persons hit, and more wounds inflicted per victim than do attacks with other firearms
While gun crime attributed to AWs and LCMs was only about 25% prior to the ban, these crimes tended to be especially violent. For example, in 1989 a man armed with an AK-47 killed 5 children, wounded 30 others and then shot himself at an elementary school in California. He was able to fire 100 shots in only a couple of minutes. People who want to see an AWB believe that by making these types of weapons harder to acquire, horrific violence like this could be minimized. Please visit the authors website to read the reports and form your own opinion.
Most assault style weapons are no more than common rifles that are visually modified to appear ‘assualt-like’. The biggest advantage that many firearms like the AR-15 and AK-47 have is the abundance of large capacity magazines. Drum magazines that hold 100 rounds are easily found and obtained with a quick Google search. As indicated above, it was not AWs that increased the likelihood of injuries and death during a crime but the presence of LCMs. We believe that, while citizens have the right to own LCMs, they pose an increased threat to the safety of the general public. As such, we propose a solution that we feel both sides of this debate should find satisfactory. We believe that LCM magazines (in our definition, magazines that are capable of holding greater than 20 rounds) should be sold in the same manner as any handgun – through an FFL after a NICS check.
On Gun Control In General:
It is our belief that while we have the right to keep and bear arms responsibly, when that right begins to encroach on the rights of others it needs to be held in check. Our positions represent small ways we can help to minimize how our right to bear arms affects others – and possibly minimize the impact of attempts to use firearms criminally. An individual is still allowed to buy arms as part of our ideal collective Militia but they might have to wait a little bit while we make sure they are not already wanted for a deadly crime. For more on this topic see our section “On the Second Amendment”.
None of our proposed regulations would impede legal ownership of guns in any significant way. We encourage you to educate yourself as much as possible regarding your weapon and your rights and responsibilities regarding its use. With 192 million firearms in America (65 million handguns) owned by 25% of the population, with 40% of the households owning at least one firearm, this is a matter that has the potential to affect all of us – firearms owners or not. Please take the time to learn more about this issue so that you can make an informed decision. Happy Shooting!
