How History Might Have Been Different

Pistol Choices
What if they were Tauruses?

As I have reported before, when I shopping for my first handgun in 1992, I was at a gun store in Marietta, Georgia, and  had decided to buy a Taurus PT92, the Brazilian copy of the Beretta 92. However, when the clerk asked for my identification so he could run my background check, I discovered that, as an Alabama resident, I could not legally purchase a handgun in Georgia.

Why? Good question. The originators claimed it would cut down on gun trafficking by criminals, since they could not be sure that an out-of-state purchaser was legally allowed to by a gun. There was no easy way to run a background check on someone out of state in a reasonable length of time.

Given the improvements in communications since the law was first passed, and especially in light of the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, or NICS, this argument has become invalid.

And, finally, the courts have agreed, as a federal appeals court ruled today that disallowing interstate handgun sales through licensed FFL holders was unconstitutional under the Second Amendment.

This should mean that eventually, once the BATFE sends guidance to gun stores and FFL holders, we would be able to buy handguns through any FFL holder, no matter where it is located.

Now, given my penchant for Glocks (having bought, instead of the Taurus, a Glock 17, upon return to Alabama), how would my life be different today, had I bought the Taurus?

Would I have won free Tauruses in the Taurus Shooting Sports Foundation matches?Gunny and me

Whose pictures would I have in the office, if not the Gunny?

I can only wonder.

New Gun Control Idea

Remember – you heard it here first . . . .

In an article I read today about a proposed Federal ban on magazines of greater than 10 round capacity, proposed by Congresswoman Elizabeth Esty (D-Connecticut) who represents Newtown, Connecticut, I read this paragraph:

In the five minutes Esty took to explain her and her cohorts’ reasoning behind the bill she said, “Limiting high capacity magazines will save lives and we know this because it has.” She cited that 11 children escaped when Sandy Hook elementary school shooter XXXXXX* stopped to reload. However, the state attorney’s official report on the tragic incident states otherwise. The report says the children had a chance to escape a classroom when XXXXXX paused in his shooting because either the rifle malfunctioned or he had problems reloading—with no conclusion to the reason why XXXXXX stopped shooting.

(* As you know, I refuse to publicize the names of mass killers.)

The bold text is where I see a coming gun control effort – why not a law prohibiting reliable guns? As I see it, clearing malfunctions would be a lot more difficult than magazine changes, and, in the eyes of the gun control crowd, make us a lot safer.

The National Reliable Firearms Prevention Act should be coming by year end. Sponsors? I welcome your predictions.

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Just in case, we should all buy 1911’s. They would be compliant.