NICS

Congress is considering an "improvement" to the National Instant Check System, something that they have been doing since the church shooting in Sutherland Springs, Texas last November. That shooter passed his NICS check because his disqualifying psychological records were never submitted by the military branch he served in. Following the school shooting in Parkland, Florida in February, the NICS Improvement act has been given more urgent attention, especially since that shooter passed the NICS check as well in spite of multiple warning signs.

While adding more names to the prohibited list from which the NICS culls prohibited firearm purchasers sounds like a good idea, I am set against the improvement and the NICS itself. Here's why.

Let's consider four different gun buyers:

The first is Mr. Clean Record and his intentions are completely lawful and peaceful. This man must fill out the application and have his name searched against the prohibited list. In most cases he passes. However in many cases he is rejected. The far majority of the NICS rejections are for errors in the database, such as similar names. This man may have an outstanding parking warrant of which he is unaware. In the future, he will find it much easier to get on the bad guy list as they have added the lists of Social Security recipients who have a another party handling their financial affairs and the list of military veterans who have requested counselling for stress from the Veterans Affairs Agency. Under this current round of improvement considerations several lawmakers have urged that the Airline No-fly list be added to the NICS. So this man whose intentions were harmless, finds himself prohibited and our safety hasn't been improved one bit.

Secondly, let's consider Mr Clean Record whose intentions are evil. This is the guy who has been slipping through the net because he hasn't committed his crime yet. This is the guy they hope to stop by adding more and more names to the list. He is one evil person within thousands of innocents. Thousands must be denied in the hope of stopping this guy. He shot up Sutherland Springs, TX, Parkland, FL, Navy Yard, DC, Blacksburg, VA and so many others after the NICS was created. This is the guy that a background check is useless against because he has no background. Once again the NICS hasn't improved our safety one bit.

Thirdly, there is Mr. Dirty and his intentions are evil. This is the guy for whom the NICS works perfectly, if he tries to buy a gun from a reputable dealer, but he won't. He gets a gun whenever he wants one through black markets, through theft, or a friend from the Clean and evil group. This guy doesn't give a rip about NICS and laws don't bother him. We haven't been able to stem the tide of drugs, why do we think we would do any better with firearms? In fact, this guy uses our laws to run his business in drugs and guns. So once again the NICS hasn't improved our safety one bit.

Lastly, let's consider the fellow I feel for the most. He is the most hated and persecuted man in our society. He is Mr. Dirty but trying to go straight. His intentions are peaceful. He made a mistake when he was young and stupid, but he found God and now wants to get his life back on track, but we won't let him! We hound him with our sanctimonious background checks and refuse him gainful employment and brand him as a felon for the rest of his life and with the NICS we deny him even the right to protect his life. We condemn him to rejoin the Dirty and evil group and we did it with the NICS. Here, the NICS not only failed to improve our safety one bit, but has actually effected an endangering force.

So, in the end the two honest fellows have been denied firearms and the two evil guys haven't been deterred at all. In a free society, any man walking in our streets must be given the presumption of honorability and as such must have the right of arming himself for protection against the criminal class. To do that, the right to keep and bare arms must be universal and unrestrained. Otherwise, we cannot have liberty and will not have safety, no matter how many laws we enact.