Author: Buckeye Firearms Association

Editor’s Note: The following article was written and submitted on December 8, just hours before yet another campus shooting occurred on the “no-guns” Virginia Tech campus.

by Tim Inwood

I had an argument with an anti-gun liberal the other day, not exactly a unique event for me. He wanted to know what I would do with myself now that changes to Ohio law concerning restaurant and car carry had come to fruition. Surely now that we had won all the battles that could be won over guns, what would I, and groups like Buckeye Firearms Association, do? He was actually serious. I was amused by the shortsighted premise of his question and his obvious lack of understanding of the gun rights issue.

I startled him as I told him I was hardly done with the gun issue as many battles on many fronts lay ahead. He was incredulous. What else could I possibly want?

Well, I said, I actually have a list. I would like to see Ohio’s ridiculous ban on magazines holding more than thirty rounds overturned. I would like to lower the age to buy a handgun from 21 years old to 18, because if we can send someone into combat in the military at 18, I think it is criminal to tell them when they muster out and come home at age 19 or 20 that they are too young to own a pistol or revolver. I would like to overturn the 1989 semi-auto import ban. And overturn the Gun Control Act of 1968. I would like to see the prohibition on buying guns across state lines die. Why is it I can buy just about anything I want in another state, but not a gun? It’s all put on a Form 4473 and the background check is uniform, so why can’t I buy, say, a Colt Python while visiting Arkansas or Tennessee? It’s silly. Also silly is the 1986 machine gun ban. Only two legally-owned registered machine guns were ever used in crimes, so why not open up the registry and allow new full auto guns to be made for the American people to own? We also need to help the families of veterans who have discovered Grandpa brought home a machine gun from whatever war he fought in and hid it away. We should let the families register this family heirloom, as this is part of their family heritage and our national history.

He seemed surprised there was so much I wanted. He scoffed that I was being ridiculous and that gun radicals like me needed to be stopped. I responded that it was the other way around and that anti-freedom radicals who do not trust their fellow Americans were the ones who needed to be stopped. I reminded him that seven years ago he was parroting the line about gunfights in the streets of Ohio if we got concealed carry and more recently that there would be shootouts in bars across the state if we got restaurant carry. I reminded him none of this had come to pass. He went silent.