On Guns

There have been a few articles recently about guns rights issues in the states. Frankly, I find them all baffling. The most recent battles are about absurd laws that would ban (or allow) concealed weapons in coffee shops. And a while back there was a big war over guns on Amtrak trains. For the life of me, I can't understand the emotion over this.

When we are fighting over gun restrictions, it seems to me the fights should be over assault rifles, loopholes (like straw purchases) that allow illegal guns to get into the hands of criminals - especially in our cities - and data sharing between the federal government (ATF) and local police. This is where there we could have the most impact on very serious problem of criminal use of guns in our country.

It seems to me that there should a moderate guns rights lobby group to counter the seemingly anything goes policy of the NRA. The group would promote the ability of private citizens to carry guns (concealed if they please) and would only call for some basic background checks. This guns rights group though would also look for ways to prevent criminal from getting and using guns and push for (or not oppose) a ban on assault weapons.

A group like this could give an out to moderate democrats in more conservative districts / states. It would show they promote individual guns rights in reasonable circumstances but do not support the more extremist positions of the NRA. Unfortunately it seems that there is only the NRA or no one. And this leads to silly debates about guns in Starbucks instead of real and public debates about how criminals get guns.