The fact that guns are being smuggled out of the United States and into Mexico is a problem. It's not the problem the anti-gunners like to pretend it is, as if we could snap our fingers and suddenly Mexico would be a safe, welcoming place with no violence at all. I mean, the cartels are getting heavy machine guns and rocket launchers, and it's not from Bubba's Guns and Tackle.
But smuggling is still something that needs to be addressed. It's not that I don't think Mexicans should have guns; it's that I think guns being sold in American gun stores should remain available for purchase by people who live in the United States. Mexicans should have more access of guns sold there.
So yeah, I'm willing to talk on bills to address smuggling, and in Texas, there was a glimmer of common ground. Unfortunately, it seems that some have managed to take the wrong lessons from that glimmer.
However, advocates for gun safety measures see some reasons for hope. Last session, Republican state Rep. Ryan Guillen authored a bill designed to prohibit ammunition smuggling to Mexico. It passed the House 126 to 10, with zero House Republicans voting against it. It didn’t make it to the Senate floor for a vote before the clock ran out. “The nature of the Texas Legislature is designed for legislation to fail, not pass,” said Roger Garza, the Texas state director for Giffords, a national gun safety organization. It sounds contradictory, but that’s exactly why he sees promise in smuggling-related gun safety legislation like last session’s failed bill. “It is not unusual for nearly every successful measure brought at the Texas Capitol to take multiple legislative sessions to become law,” Garza said.
For some gun safety advocates, the main goal of legislation is, curiously, not really legislative. John Lindsay-Poland, founder of the Stop U.S. Arms to Mexico Project, explained that he doesn’t expect gun control measures to become law in Texas, but he does see potential for cultural change. Because stats show both American and Mexican criminals use certain weapons and weapon accessories more than others, he believes Texas communities can pressure gun dealers to stop selling their most dangerous products. He said that filed legislation, even if it doesn’t become law, might help raise awareness about gun smuggling and turn up the heat on a cultural level.
Eckhardt sees things similarly: “Social messaging around intentions could ask, ‘Who are the good guys with guns?’ I’m pretty sure most would say that those who sell semi-automatics and pretend not to know where they’re going are not the good guys.”
Semi-automatics are the most popular type of firearm action in the country. Most handguns sold today are semi-automatic, and most rifles are as well. While pump-actions and double-barreled shotguns are still a good share of that particular market, semi-automatic shotguns are also very popular.
In other words, semi-automatic firearms are everywhere, and there's a very good probability that most of the people selling them legitimately believe they're selling to lawful buyers, even when it is a straw purchase. Most of them, however, aren't any such thing. Every gun they're trying to demonize, to try and pressure gun stores to stop selling, are the guns that gun buyers are clamoring for.
The fact that they don't understand that is evidence that they don't understand anything beyond what Everytown or Giffords feeds them.
I love the idea of working to prevent smuggling across the southern border. The idea that somehow depriving gun buyers of the weapons they actually want is a dealbreaker, though.
The fact that they can't grok that is why common ground on guns is virtually impossible.
Editor’s Note: The radical left will stop at nothing to enact their radical gun control agenda and strip us of our Second Amendment rights.
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