Our Basic Thoughts on Yesterday’s Announcement from the White House
H&H Shooting Sports and the millions of shooters who visit H&H and other facilities all share the goal of reducing the intentional misuse of guns and enhancing the safety of our communities. Much remains to be clearly explained out and we should all review every one of the aspects of the executive actions that President Obama announced today as this process of executive orders is all too common in this administration. In the meantime we have some initial thoughts:
- First and foremost we still call for the effective enforcement of the numerous laws already on the books regarding the criminal misuse of firearms.
- We support further resources being allocated to staffing and increasing operational hours for the FBI’s National Instant Check System (NICS) to make the system more efficient and responsive.
- We have been a Federal Firearms Licensee (FFL) for 35 years. The new criteria for what might constitute being “engaged in the business” going forward needs considerable clarification and raises questions about enforceability. Family members giving relatives a gun may now have to do a check on the son, daughter, husband and or wife or potentially be committing a crime for failing to do so.
- The number of firearms lost or stolen while in transit to or from dealers (FFLs) is very small, less than 0.15 percent of the number manufactured and imported in a given year. In these rare occurrences, we and other dealers already actively participate in ATF’s long-standing reporting program and work with all the common carriers and ATF to investigate them. Proposals to make a shipping dealer responsible for tracking and reporting firearms no longer in their inventories, after the legal title has been transferred to the purchaser, are misdirected, as the receiving dealer is in the best position to know if it receives its shipment.
- For many years now dealers and industry leaders have been behind the “FixNICS” initiative to encourage states to report all appropriate adjudicated mental health records to NICS. A great challenge here is that almost every state has a different set of rules on what constitutes “mental adjudicated” is.
- The so called “smart-gun” technology has not been developed successfully yet and dealers and the industry never opposed the idea. Securing firearms in safes and with other locking devices already is in place and most importantly firearm accidents are at historic low levels.
Nothing mentioned today would do away with the “Gun Free” zones that are the preferred locations of these deranged and radicalized criminals. We must allow law abiding citizens the option and ability to defend themselves in these areas. It is just one of the reasons we believe the 2nd amendment is in the Bill of Rights.
Respectfully,
Mr. Miles E. Hall
Founder & President
H&H Shooting Sports.
