We can reduce firearms injuries in the US by close to 80% while ensuring Second Amendment Rights and responsibilities are upheld. I am ready and willing to press the point: It is necessary that people who are well-educated about firearms be involved in the legislative process.
- We support comprehensive universal background checks and waiting periods for gun purchases.
- We support mental health and domestic violence exclusions.
- We propose and support a National Safe Storage Act which would provide gun owners with subsidized purchase of bio metric-capable gun safes, and to make safe storage the law, including specific clauses on storage and transport of firearms and ammunition. This would drastically reduce accidental firearm injuries and deaths.
The Wall Street Journal reported that the vast majority of school shootings (70%+) are perpetrated by adolescents using firearms acquired from their household or that of a friend. Over 70%.
This means that safe and proper storage could reduce access and school shootings by a staggering 70%.
- We support passing a Federal Training Standards Act: Federal training, qualification, and proficiency standards for firearms transport, storage, and use are needed. Federal standards should require that firearms owners are qualified and insured on the specific weapon system that they are purchasing. States still have rights, of course, but Federal policy is needed to standardize the system Nationally and protect the public.
- We support passing the Concealed Carry Licensure Standards Act, to require potential concealed carry licensees to pass an education and weapons specific employment course that includes qualification standards on a “shoot-or-do-not-shoot” course.
- We support passing a Semi-Automatic Weapons Training Act: Additional training course requirements for semi auto weapons including handling, operation, employment, and qualification standard.
With rigorous education, the above measures would reduce firearm injuries in the US by 80%. They do not infringe on a citizen’s rights to keep and bear arms and they do not disarm our “well-regulated citizen militia.”
These laws also do not impact licensed hunters. They only ensure that legal gun owners have the training necessary to use these weapons safely while preventing unwarranted access. We require training and licensing to drive vehicles, design a house, or even to cut hair. We can require the same for those (like myself) who choose to carry weapons.
Mandatory waiting periods are very effective at stopping suicide as well as crimes of passion/homicide. Studies show a waiting period of three days lowered the suicide rate by firearms by 17%.
preventing Domestic violence
Domestic violence is one of the strongest indicators of gun violence, with ⅓ murders of women (and 1/20 of men) being committed by intimate partners. That is why I strongly support the Violence Against Women Act. Convicted domestic abusers should not be legally allowed to own or purchase a firearm.
Lauren Boebert voted against it, making her stance clear: She does not care about women’s rights or safety. My opponent thinks that convicted domestic abusers should be able to own firearms – without any licensing or training.
Frequently this law is not correctly enforced, and convicted domestic violence offenders get around the laws.
practical gun safety measures
Democrats need representatives that understand firearms and how to effectively regulate them, instead of passing nonsensical, ineffective policy that enrages American gun owners while doing nothing to reduce gun violence.
The bottom line is this: feature bans do not reduce gun violence because they do not keep guns out of the hands of those that should not have them. Leadership in Congress must focus on effective gun legislation.
Let’s examine some statistics.
- The total breakdown of gun deaths in America: 60% suicide, 3% accidental, 37% murder. (Pew Research)
- Poverty always has been a strong indicator of gun violence among both minority and majority populations. (Bureau of Justice Statistics)
- Studies have shown that increased welfare spending can lead to a drop in gun violence. This study shows a 14% drop tied to increased welfare spending. Leadership incities like Chicago and Denver should pay attention to this study and ensure that low-income communities have what they need to put food on the table. (Scientific American)
- A Gun Storage Mandate is essential for stopping murders, but also suicides and accidental deaths (which account for most gun deaths). Storage reduces access and thereby reduces mass shootings and school shootings. A staggering 82% of youth suicides involve a firearm from the household or extended family. National Safe Storage Act, NOW! (Harvard)
- 40% of youth suicides involve firearms (because other suicide methods are frequently unsuccessful) (Society for Research in Child Development)
- The U.S. General Accounting Office estimated that 31% of accidental deaths caused by firearms might be prevented with the addition of two devices: a child-proof safety lock and a loaded chamber indicator. (Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Center for Violence Prevention)
A subsidy for gun storage is essential. Poverty has always been a strong indicator of gun violence and suicide (in both children and adults), so these households need safe gun storage more – while being less able to afford it.
Effective gun regulation should focus on suicide, reducing unwarranted access, and accidental deaths as well as homicide. This saves more lives and makes the regulation effective and appealing to gun owners.
Why assault weapons bans are ineffective
Laws on the books need to be effectively enforced and federally standardized.
I am a firearms enthusiast and over the years have become an expert in the field. I have been an enthusiast my entire life. I am a small arms instructor, a machine gun instructor, and a foreign weapons instructor. I can talk to folks about the particulars and gain their trust and confidence. Simply being knowledgeable about firearms breaks down many barriers.
I am ready and willing to press the point: It is necessary that people who know about firearms be involved in the legislative process.
Democrats historically have a well-deserved reputation for being ignorant of firearms and for passing ineffective gun control measures. This is counterproductive because it enrages gun enthusiasts who would be supportive of background checks, safe storage, and domestic violence exclusions, and leads to further polarization and distrust of Democrats by gun owners.
Virginia Democrats recently tried to pass an “assault weapon ban” that included a whole list of senseless feature bans:
- The appropriate bans like the bump stock ban falls under existing NFA regulation of fully automatic firearms anyway. It was redundant. All the ATF had to do was enforce what was already on the books. By the way, bump stocks were banned by President Trump.
- The proposed bans have also covered a variety of gun features and modifications such as suppressors (already regulated by the NFA), folding or telescoping stocks, pistol grips, thumbhole stocks, and mounts for bayonets or grenade launchers.
To gun owners, this type of legislation is nonsensical. Bayonets: You can have a rifle, but you can’t attach a knife to it? Pistol grips: You can have a rifle, but it can’t have a handle? Grenades have never been legal.
Assault weapons have never been clearly defined so these efforts to ban them are nonsensical, disjointed, and ineffective.
In another example, Colorado’s “high capacity” magazine ban made previously legal small caliber handguns illegal with their stock (default) magazine, and had a massive political cost. Telling thousands of people that their small 9mm handgun is now illegal is a great way to lose elections, and to lose support for effective gun regulation.
With the stroke of a pen, Colorado small businesses were criminalized and forced to skirt the law in order to do business and provide their customers with the service and products they desire.
Banning pistol stabilizers? It’s just a piece of plastic or wood. This does nothing other than make gun owners angry and pushes businesses to operate on the fringes of legality while expanding the black market. We need to be enforcing domestic violence laws, and waiting periods, not banning pieces of plastic while rifles are still legal.
Feature bans will always enrage the populace. You either make the weapons they currently own illegal (at huge political cost) or you include a grandfather clause and the guns will never get out of circulation. It’s a lose-lose for everyone.
In the military, we have lots of guns, ammunition, and ordnance of all types – with very few accidents and very few intentional or mass shootings – simply because there is mental health screening, training, education, mandatory storage, and qualification required.
With effective legislation that will pass, we can and will reduce gun violence in Colorado and America.
Semper Fi,
Ike McCorkle
