Wrong approach on gun safety

By Joseph F. Boetcher, Las Vegas

Saturday, Sept. 13, 2014 | 2:02 a.m.

The writer of the Aug. 24 letter “Will NRA back this plan?” compares guns to autos and suggests steps to improve gun safety. He advocates yearly gun registration and payment of a tax, like with autos.

The registration and payment of a tax on autos has nothing to do with safety but is merely a revenue-raising device. Requiring yearly gun registration and tax payment also would serve only to raise revenue and have no effect on gun safety.

Criminals obtain most of their guns illegally and would not register their guns or pay a tax.

In any event, Clark County has for decades required all handguns be registered with the police. Over the years, Metro Police have accumulated data on the ownership and possession of handguns in Clark County, yet the sheriff could not cite even one case in which this information was used to help solve a crime, and there is no evidence this gun registration requirement improves gun safety.

All states already have imposed age limits on the purchase of handguns, and if a criminal is not deterred from using a gun by the threat of lengthy incarceration, he or she certainly would not be deterred by the requirement to purchase liability insurance.

The National Rifle Association has always supported actions that would reduce violent crime and the misuse of firearms. For example, the NRA has always supported increased penalties for the use of a firearm in the commission of a crime.

Also, the NRA’s Eddie Eagle program is the nation’s largest and most effective gun-safety program for children.

The gun-control schemes proposed by the letter writer would not improve firearm safety; they would only make it more difficult and expensive for law-abiding citizens to obtain firearms to protect themselves.