Bill,
I’ve watched your show on and off over the years, often nodding my head in agreement and infrequently shaking my head in disagreement. In the few times I’ve disagreed I at least thought you put forth an intelligent, thought provoking argument that left me thinking about the topic in a new light. This can not be said of your Impact Segment on July 24th regarding gun control. To call some of the points you made (while yelling at your guest) “inaccurate” would be putting it lightly. The following is a brief list of corrections for the most egregious falsehoods you shouted incoherently during the program . . .
- James Holmes did not posses a fully automatic firearm…or even an AK47 (semi or full auto). He had one Remington 870 (12 gauge pump shotgun), a Smith and Wesson AR-15 (semi-auto) and two Glock .40 caliber pistols (semi-auto).
- Fully automatic weapons (machine guns) already have mandatory registration with the BATFE (since 1934 with the National Firearms Act)) and the manufacture of them for civilian purchase have been banned since 1986 (with the Firearms Owners Protection Act). Read that one more time…. you’re calling for registration of a class of firearms that already require registration. Or is there some kind of double registration that’s supposed to stop people who don’t follow the law from breaking the law? Is this double registration like double, secret probation?
- Transferring any NFA item (including machine guns) from one individual to another is heavily regulated and requires a $200 tax stamp ($5 for AOW’s). Individuals must get a signature from their chief law enforcement officer, pass an FBI background check, submit profile pictures, and submit fingerprints. Transfer times are increasing and are taking in excess of 6 months by the BATFE. The laws that govern this are at the federal level and there are no exceptions for the location of the transfer (even gun shows).
- Jim Holmes purchased ~6,000 rounds of ammunition. Most of the time you stated it was 60,000 rounds (and at one point said 16,000). Most of the time you were off by a factor of 10….or roughly $30,000 worth of ammunition.
- Your criteria for registration and subsequent “checking up by the FBI” (I think you really mean BATFE) would flag tens if not hundreds of thousands of individuals. The BATFE can’t even keep up with the paperwork on NFA transfers as it stands today….it would be physically impossible for them to physically check up on a fraction of the law abiding individuals you’re asking for. Not to mention that there’s been zero indication that Jim Holmes would have been flagged for suspicious activity by either the FBI or BATFE.
- Any suggestion that making firearms inaccessible to Jim Holmes—a man that left dozens of home made grenades as booby traps in his apartment—would have prevented this tragedy is absurd. It’s almost as absurd as listening to people who think banning so called “high capacity” magazines would have stopped events like Columbine, which was carried out using “high capacity” magazines that were banned at the time.
I really want to continue my list, but I don’t think it would serve any purpose. Bottom line: you have no idea what you’re talking about in regards to firearms.
You called for registration of firearms that already require it, confusing the types of weapons used, making up terms for classifications of firearms that don’t exist (or inaccurately describe the weapons used), absurdly inflating the number of rounds purchased and making a general fool of yourself yelling at your guest when you are dead wrong on all of your points.
Your arguments seemed to be more of a mixture of populace, knee jerk hysteria and general media inaccuracies. Do yourself and your viewers a favor: contact a lawyer that specializes in firearms before you speak on this subject again.
Sincerely,
-Eric