Criminals ignore stiff gun laws anyway

PHOTOGRAPHER: Letters to the Editor

The anti-gun crowd is frantic about concealed carry reciprocity. Calm down. The nice folks in “permit-less” Vermont are not gathered at the border waiting to invade New York with guns blazing. This paranoia is illogical and wasteful.

Any gun purchase anywhere from a licensed seller must pass a National Instant Criminal Background check (NICS). There are 10 good reasons someone is placed in this system.

It’s not permitted individuals who are visiting mayhem on their fellow citizens. They have passed an NICS background check and state screening (regardless of how onerous, like New York’s SAFE Act, or how lax, like Vermont’s).

They carry to protect themselves and their loved ones. They support reciprocity in order to do likewise nationally without being criminalized. It is not so they can kill people in other states.

I have owned firearms for hunting, shooting sports and personal protection for over 60 years. I, too, am horrified at the gun violence I read about daily. It’s thugs and psychotics possessing illegal firearms who are responsible.

Why waste energy promoting laws that make it difficult for law-abiding citizens to possess firearms? Redirect it toward keeping guns out of the hands of those who should not. I support that.

Ensure incompetent bureaucrats keep NICS up to date. (Think U.S. Air Force and Devin Kelley in Texas.) Stiffen sentences for gun crimes. Put malefactors away for a long time. (For good?) Lobby for funds to identify and treat mental illness. Address domestic abuse.

Here’s a tip: If national reciprocity becomes law, you aren’t going to get shot by someone from another state with a legally concealed firearm. It’s the thug or psychotic with an illegal firearm who lives around the corner who is going to shoot you.

George Nigriny

Scotia