September 27, 2000

Column
By Adam Fouche
The Jackson Herald
September 27, 2000

Gun control or Constitutional theft?
Here we go again.
Sensing discord among constituents, our kind and caring politicians on Capitol Hill in D.C. have taken it upon themselves to search for ways to control guns in this country.
Beware.
Though they will present you with many neat little gun control packages wrapped in colorful paper with a pretty little red bow on top, the surprise inside will shock you.
Their latest ingenious idea, gun locks, has been the topic of much debate around the country.
Maybe, to you, mandatory gun locks seem like a good idea. After all, it seems to be a good solution to the problem. Lock the triggers on guns and they won't fire. Correct?
Well, they won't do any good.
Gun locks, in theory, will keep kids from getting their hands on guns and becoming another sad statistic. My question is, why do these kids have access to the guns in the first place?
The same parents who leave their guns within the reach of children will be the same ones who take the locks off once they get home.
The people who do use the locks will be the ones who are raped or beaten or robbed or killed because they dropped the key to their gun lock as they were panicking to unlock it.
Gun locks are nothing more than a veiled political attempt to make our congressmen, senators and president look like they are trying to solve the problem. They aren't solving anything except their way to get re-elected.
Don't be fooled.
And why, in the first place, has the gun industry come under fire?
I'm not insensitive to the issue. I think it is tragic that kids needlessly die by the bullets of accidental gunshots. And it's tragic that people are murdered by guns.
However, are not kids also needlessly killed by reckless, unattentive and drunk drivers?
Where are all the advocates when a 4-year-old dies because some businessman is too busy talking on his cell phone to pay attention to the road?
Or what about the family killed when someone too occupied with the passengers in his truck pulls out in front of their mini-van?
I'd like to see some car control. I'd like to see tougher licensing of drivers. I'd like to see more restrictions on what you can do when you're driving.
But back to the issue at hand. Ownership of guns is a Constitutional right.
Wait, I can hear someone screaming now. A handful of you are no doubt think that requiring gun locks is not a limit to our Constitutional right.
Let's be hypothetical for a minute. Let's pretend you are right.
I concede to the government the ability to force me to lock my guns at home. Pretty soon, they require I give them a list of all the guns I own. Then they decide to outlaw everything but guns that fire .22-caliber ammunition.
And if we give them one Constitutional right, they'll take another one.
After taking away my guns, they'll decide to put a government censor standing over my shoulder here at the paper. Sure, he'll let us run the paper and he'll let us own it. He'll even let us write in it.
But he'll put a "lock" on our ability so that we can't just say anything.
Give them your guns, and they'll take your speech; they'll take your religion; and they'll take your freedom.
So let me ask you this, is it just gun control or is it Constitutional theft?
Adam Fouche is a reporter for MainStreet Newspapers. His e-mail address is fouche@nbank.net.

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