This week there’s been another blast on statistics about guns. Number of guns made, numbers of guns sold, and the numbers of guns stolen. Of course, the inevitable mainstream conclusion - lifted directly from “Everytown’s” talking points is that until we are totally disarmed, none of us will ever be safe.
It’s mostly “facts, figures and folderol”.
No quibbling with the raw numbers.
And I’m not complaining about the fact that for the past two decades we’ve seen gun sales and gun ownership rise. My regret is not having bought crates of ammunition during that time.
But I can’t change that any more than I can change what I had for breakfast.
Hindsight, like indigestion, only gives a clear view of what you did wrong.
That’s why some of the latest numbers, like too-much coffee, left me jittery.
For instance, the ATF’s stratospheric rise in the number of ghost guns confiscated after being used in the commission of a crime. I don’t know if the raw numbers are accurate, but I have real suspicions that the standards under which they were compiled I suspect were a bit more pliable.
According to the anti-gun groups, ghosts are the single-most dangerous threat to modern civilization. They’re untraceable, untraceable, and to carry the alliteration to a triune conclusion- unstoppable.
A characterization that’s wildly inaccurate and intentionally obfuscated.
There’s still no definitive answer as to exactly how the ATF arrived at the “ghost gun” number.
Did they, as I’ve heard speculated several times this week, include manufactured firearms with the serial number removed?
If so, that’s combining defaced firearms (illegal) with personally built firearms (totally legal on the federal level). That’s called “cooking the books” in accounting terms.
“Ghost gun” - isn’t even a real term, it’s a manufactured device. Totally designed to confuse average citizens into thinking that making a firearm for personal use (important) is illegal.
It is absolutely not illegal to make yourself a gun. It has never been illegal. OK, that’s not completely accurate. It is definitely illegal to manufacture yourself a fully automatic gun or a short barreled rifle.
But making yourself a gun - even from an 80% parts kit -is legal.
You may own it, hunt/shoot/compete with it…but should you decide to get rid of it, that’s a different deal.
Should you decide to gift your homemade gun to your progeny, you are required to serialize that gun and register it with the ATF. Otherwise, you’ll be looking at a felony charge for the illegal transfer of an unregistered firearm. For the gift and the giver. Those are not the kind of memories any of us are looking to leave behind.
One final note on those “ghost guns” - gun control groups make it sound as if anyone with an IQ above room temperature and a bastard file can manufacture “ghost guns” at the same pace as Ruger, SIG or Smith & Wesson’s manufacturing plants.
That’s a bunch of hooey.
The kits are simple to complete -provided you happen to have an end mill, drill press, jigs, and a modicum of manufacturing expertise. My tool bench has none of the above. I have less expertise.
That didn’t keep me from trying my hand at finishing one of those “idiot-proof” lowers. John Dillinger’s hand-carved soap gun -wet- had a better chance of working than the mess I “machined” with my electric drill and vice setup. So don’t believe “anyone can assemble a working gun in 30 minutes or less.”
There is one statistic that has given me heartburn: the rising number of guns stolen from vehicles.
Nashville, for instance, had a more than twenty percent increase gun thefts- from vehicles. It was worse in Memphis. More guns were reported stolen there in 2021 than anywhere else in America.
In fact, it seems a majority of guns stolen last year- nationwide- were taken from vehicles.
As gun owners, that number should make us ill.
The basics of gun safety are pretty simple. It’s inarguable that the only way to make certain your gun is safe is to have it under your control at all times.
Control, in this instance, means either in our hands, on our bodies or secured to prevent anyone accessing it.
That doesn’t mean hidden in your console, stuffed in your door pocket or jammed under your seat “out of sight”.
No locked container, even that “vault” inside your locked car is secure.
More cars than guns are stolen every day. And crooks looking for easy pickings start with cars. Cars can be filled with all manner of stuff- including guns. And guns mean easy money -or a means to escalate your criminal activities.
Willie Sutton was a very well-known bankrobber.
When asked why he robbed banks, he gave a simple answer: “I rob banks because that’s where the money is.”
He also said “Go where the money is. And go there often.”
Hard logic to argue.
And it’s one reason homes and cars that have been burgled are prime candidates for encore visits in their not too-distant future.
Why? Because robbers allow them time to replace their stolen articles with new ones. Newer is better.
They’re criminals, but they’re not morons.
I understand having a “favorite.” Favorite school, favorite sports team, whatever. You see people championing their “faves” on their cars all the time.
Yes, gun and accessory companies make all sorts of cool, funny or “messaging” stickers to allow their fans show their preferences.
But you have to question the wisdom behind covering the rear end of your ride with what is essentially signage directing criminals to potential targets.
If you’re a smash-and-grab robber working a parking lot outside a popular night spot, you’re looking for vehicles that indicate they might contain something worth stealing.
See anything in the two photos below that might interest a crook?
As the old saying about the jungle goes, “if you don’t want to get eaten, don’t look like food.”
We’ll keep you posted.
— Jim Shepherd