Dear President Obama and Members of the Untied States Congress,

I have heard a lot of talk about the desire for universal background checks.  As I understand it, the desire (mainly by the Left) is to make it such that every gun transfer, gift and sale, in the US must involve a background check of the recipient.  The idea is that this will prevent criminals from using individual gun sales to get guns they could not buy in stores.  The reality is that most criminals get guns from people they know, mostly other criminals, and when they do come from stores, they are straw purchased.  Activities rendering the NICS system irrelevant.

But in the wake of a number of high profile shootings, you feel like you have to do something.  So allow me to propose a universal background check compromise.  I lived in Illinois, which had a universal background check law, so I’m going to model this off that, plus some extra.  Keep in mind, that compromise means “you give up something to get something.”  Furthermore, this is not comprehensive, more details will need to be hashed out.

The Law

Here is what you get for universal background checks:

The PERMANENT transfer of a firearm, between two private parties, as a gift, sale, or inheritance must be accompanied by a NICS background check on the recipient.

This is null between immediate family members (parents, children, grandparents, siblings)

Private transfers must be conducted face-to-face.

A website will be created that allows the recipient to fill out a Form 4473 online, and the transferer to have access to the FBI NICS system.  Neither party has to go to a dealer (FFL) to have a face-to-face transfer processed.  No fee will be levied for access to the NICS website.

Private individuals cannot conduct third party transfers or receive firearms by mail.  Private parties cannot act as a stand-ins for dealers (FFLs).

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Here is what you give up to get it:

Interstate purchase of handguns through dealers.  If you can pass a NICS check for a handgun in your home state, you can pass it in any of the other 49 states, anywhere you can pass a NICS check you can buy a gun.

Short barrel rifles (SBR), short barrel shotguns (SBS), and suppressors are no longer NFA items.  Transfer can be conducted through a normal NICS check.  You can assemble one yourself at home – e.g., if you passed the NICS check for the AR lower, you can stick any upper you want on it, no problem.

The Hughes Amendment of the FOPA is repealed.

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Here is what I’d like to try to get you give up to get it:

A foundation for 50 state, national wide, concealed carry.

Allow gun owners whose “Safe Passage” protection in FOPA was violate to bring suit against the municipality or agency that violated the “Safe Passage” protection in federal court.

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If you want to add some onus to the right of gun ownership for law abiding citizens, you are going to have to take away some other onus.  There is no free lunch.

Yesterday I was on the phone with a dear old friend that just came out of back surgery. Like me, he turned the half century a while back and all the shit we did and youngins is coming due for payment, with interest.

The running joke is that the parts for our repair have been discontinued long ago and although the models might not be that old, we put some serious amount of miles through some even nastier roads. Wear and tear are a bitch.

We were the No Pain, No Gain Generation. The shit we did would scare the crap out of any X-t\Treme sportsman out there…and we were not doing for sport either, we were just simply being incredibly stupid and lucky not to died in the process. Yes, jumping and flipping on your cute mountain bike is cool, but I dare you to flip the finger in the face of a south american cop and live to tell about it (car chase included and we won.) Poking at a snake and trying to remember if slit eyes indicate poisonous or safe?  Wrangling a pissed off python because it snuck into your classroom on finals and you want to go home for the holidays. Going off-roading up a mountain at 2 in the morning, corralling your drunken friends (all 5 of them) shove them in the Landcruiser and go back down in the middle of a tropical thunderstorm (major pucker on that one.) Surviving collisions in cars, motorcycles, trucks. getting into a duct-tape-covered Cessna 172 with your friend who just got his license and wants to take you up as his first passenger. Telling a friend watching a military coup from his roof that the little particles of metal that just landed next to him are called shrapnel and they are designed to maim or kill your ass. We raced our cars past the 150 mph limit on tires designed for 80 mph without seat belts on vinyl-upholstered seats. And just for shit’s sake, we really got in the ocean to see if the rip current was really there or was it just BS from the authorities (Fell for that one three times.) You may ask why we did this (and more stuff I will not reveal) and the answer is simply, why not? We were invincible back then.

So we abused our bodies, took chances that were almost suicidal, got cut, broke shit, duct-taped it & carried on. We sang, we drank the wine (and rum both cheap and a lot) we loved & danced like fools, pledging our love to girls while fathers shot at us…with reason; it is a tad impolite to knock on the door a three am and sing an off-key and very much off-color serenade.

So now our bodies are saying “fuck you. time to pay the piper” and we find ourselves sedentary, enjoying watching other do things they categorize as dangerous with more protection than an Abrams tank and we naturally smirk. And if you ask us if we miss the old times and wish we could still do some adventurous stuff, we will say yes…

…but we regret nothing.

PS: Nope, that does not even begin to cover 1% of the crap we did. Some will never surface (we hope) and will take to our graves. Somehow we must give an image of respectability to the younger generations

And yes, cat does taste like chicken, so does python..

The corollary is: “Don’t f*** with old guys as they tire easy and will kill you quick.”

From Floridamemory.com

The handwritten part reads:
The above affair has just ended by Darling’s giving Judge Smith a most thorough thrashing – the Judge having first attracted him.

I checked on the Florida Statutes and found nothing forbidding dueling outright. And specially with the upcoming elections, I figure it would make for a very entertaining political season.

Just a thought… I know…we are civilized now.

<sigh> 😀

Not at all. His comments about Open Carriers have made the rounds down here in Florida and the reactions have been negative.

Mr. Williams,Based on our previous conversation I am not surprised you wrote this completely inaccurate blog piece. This is irresponsible “reporting” at its finest. You did not hesitate to call me previously so why did you not call me to get the facts before spewing this nonsense this time? Sadly, it absolutely mischaracterizes my statement and does a great disservice to all when junk like this is written. The Sarasota Hearld Tribune has stooped new a new low. This is not “reporting.”

Source: Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri attacks the messenger, or at least makes the attempt – The Gun Writer

I understand that you can make statements to a journo and he/she can write them out of context for impact. But if that is the case, take it out on the reporter, not on somebody making an appropriate comment about what was printed.

That alone was stupid and probably confirms that he said what he said in the right context.

[fbvideo link=”https://www.facebook.com/Oversight/videos/10153418211287517/” width=”500″ height=”400″ onlyvideo=”1″]

It is only 2:24 but full of goodness. Trey Gowdy lays it hard and heavy while the dumb DHS idiot does nothing but Barbie smile.

Hat Tip to Robert The K.

These are some screen captures I did over the week, but they really did not amount too much as to write a full post about them.

The good news is that they are so influential that they could only get 28,000 people to sign the online petition. The bad news is that there are 28,000 people who would rather see kids getting shot accidentally because of their beliefs.

“Weak government”… they make it sound like it is a bad thing.

Silly me. I did not know the United States was a democracy.