Mr. Matthews point which Mr. Pratt tried to respond to but was continuously interrupted, needs to be countered. Before that, there is one argument that comes up regularly and drives me crazy every time I hear it. "The First Amendment on freedom of speech even has reasonable limits. You cannot shout "FIRE!" in a movie theater." The fallacy of logic here deals with restricting the ability to do an action versus the wrong of doing it. If we were to equate gun registration and restriction to the shouting a false warning in a theater, we would make it law that everyone entering a theater would have their mouths taped shut so as to prevent some one evil person from shouting. We must lower the entirety of the population to the trustworthiness of a psychopath. Now we are safe from that malicious shout, however what happens when a fire truly does break out in that theater? No one is able to shout a warning and all die. This analogy cross references perfectly with the "Gun Free" zones. Notice that our most notorious "Gun Free" zones (Virginia Tech, Newtown, Navy Yard, L.A. International Airport...just to mention the recent few) were not free of guns after all.
Mr. Matthews put great faith in the government's ability to sort through our citizens and find the bad guys with precision, keep track of them and keep guns out of their hands. Wow! Mr. Pratt was trying to counter with the obvious fact that these bad guys get guns regardless of the government's efforts and that the only effect of these registration schemes is unarmed victims of mass shootings in "Gun Free" zones. Consider the performance of the government in anticipating the murderous actions of Aaron Alexis, the mass murderer of twelve legally disarmed victims inside a heavily secured "Gun Free" military installation, the Navy Yard. Mr. Alexis had a security clearance along with an ID badge which gave him access to the Navy Yard. I strongly suspect that ID badge came with a background check. Mr. Alexis legally bought that Remington 870 shotgun from a reputable gun store in Virginia within a week of his rampage. I know for a fact that he was subjected to the Brady Background check on that occasion. Here is the huge problem with the Universal Gun Registration / Background Check idea. There is no way we can predict anyone's actions. Mr. Alexis was clean as a whistle. If we were to create a filter sufficiently tight to have barred Mr. Alexis from buying that shotgun it would have to bar anyone from ever buying a shotgun - the exact place Mr. Matthews wishes us to be. Remember this the next time you travel through an airport screening station. Suffering the indignity of a pat-down or subjecting your body to radiation rich full body x-rays while meekly allowing TSA goons to riffle through your personal belongings as you try to "prove" your innocent intent, is the "safe" world of Mr. Matthew's dreams. Again, it is a world wherein we lower everyone to the common denominator, that of a psychopath.
How do we prove a negative? We can all wring our hands and demand government action as we count the dead. But before you urge such action consider the millions of people who are not dead simply because they had ready access to a gun when the unthinkable started to happen. This is Mr. Pratt's position. Support him! Join Gun Owners of America today! Or, support Mr. Matthews...it is your choice.
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