When Locking Up Guns Isn't 'Common Sense'

Somewhere along the way, a new gun owner is typically going to get two pieces of advice. One is to get some training. The other is to have some way to lock their guns up when not in use. They might get that last one while undergoing some training, but they're likely to get it.

And, in truth, it's sound advice. Keeping a firearm locked up when you're not using it helps to keep unauthorized hands from messing with it when you're not around. Doing so is common sense.

But, for Texas Democratic Senate nominee James Talarico, there's "common sense," then there's actual common sense.

During an appearance on the Unity Over Division podcast, U.S. Senate candidate James Talarico (D) suggested it was “common sense” to mandate how guns are stored in homes and to ban private sales.

Talarico said, “I am a believer in the Second Amendment. I don’t pick and choose between the Bill of Rights, I believe in the Second Amendment just as much as I believe in the first.”

He went on to state his conviction that you need to get a permit to exercise the First Amendment right to assemble, then outlined gun controls that he described as “common sense.”

Talarico said, “We’ve got to make sure that we’ve got safe storage laws and background checks so that we’re keeping everybody safe.”

First, let's understand that I'm not going to discuss a lot about any "common sense" as it relates to banning private sales because that's not common sense, that's absolute stupidity. Criminals don't obey gun laws as it is, and black market sales will not be impacted in any way, shape, or form by universal background checks. Multiple states have them, and guess what? Nothing's changed. It's not common sense unless you're someone whose school-provided ride to the campus used a whole lot less steel than everyone else's.

Now, the whole thing about a permit to assemble is a gross misrepresentation of what that is about. It's not a permission slip to assemble. You can assemble on private property without a permit, even. The permit is merely about making sure the government knows to handle the logistics of the disruption. That's it. If I've got a big patch of open land in the middle of the city, and I grant permission for someone to hold a protest on that property with minimal impact to things like traffic, then most places won't require a permit because it's their First Amendment right to assemble, and what we do on private property is none of their business.

Now, let's talk about mandating how guns are stored. I've just advocated for proper storage procedures, right? I've said they're common sense, right?

Absolutely, but mandating them is something else entirely.

Mandating that I secure my guns in a particular way and at particular times takes away the basic freedoms I have, including the freedom to determine what my needs and the needs of my family are. How does the state define "in use," for example? Is a gun in the nightstand while I sleep "in use" in such an instance? Or does it only count if it's physically on my person? I can churn out scenarios all day long, all examples of where a gun might need to be considered "in use," but when the state might have already decided doesn't count.

I'm sorry, but if I have to go to prison for a couple of years because I made sure my daughter was able to protect herself, it's a small price to pay, but no one should have to pay it.

The idea that the government can successfully mandate storage while still respecting people's right to defend themselves isn't "common sense" any more than dousing yourself in gasoline before lighting a cigarette is "common sense." You simply can't, if for no other reason than you put a barrier between them and their gun at a time when seconds count, and fine motor skills tend to be lacking.

Securing guns when you don't need them is common sense. Mandating they be secured except when the state decides you should have access is the opposite of that.

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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