Over at Crime, Guns and Videotape:
In order to buy the four firearms in Illinois, Steven Kazmierczak had to lie on four separate #4473 Firearm Transaction Forms, and his Illinois Firearms Owners Identification Application. That FOID process takes months to complete. Once the FIOD was received Kazmierczak could not take delivery until he had endured the mandated waiting periods for the guns he had already purchased.
It would appear he was prohibited from having a firearm under both federal and IL laws, yet he still managed to get past the many obstacles Illinois throws up against purchasing a firearm, including state licensing, waiting periods, and a host of other controls the Brady Campaign and others say will prevent this kind of stuff.
It doesn’t work, now can we start talking about solutions that will?
How many shootings will it take for these campus Brainiacs to realize that concealed carry is a good idea?
It’s a difficult debate to frame. The other side is very good at making it seem like we’re advocating handing out guns like candy to 18 year old kids as they make their way to booze it up at the frat parties. Reality is a lot of these “kids” who choose to get licenses at that young age are veterans, that are doing college after their military service. We trust them with M16s in Iraq, then they come back here and are told they aren’t responsible enough.
I didn’t get a concealed carry license until I was 26, but if I had had the money for one when I was in college, I would have done it. I don’t think I had a marked increase in maturity from 21 to 26, enough that at one age I would have been irresponsible, and at the other just fine.
As much as I hate to say it, though, IMHO there is a maturity increase from 18 to 21. OTOH, I think that 16 years olds are probably mature enough to handle firearms (and the military agrees that 17 year olds are), so that big jump in maturity is irrelevant.
And a big component of that maturity increase is that most 18-21 year olds are FINALLY living out on their own; so the longer that parents “shelter” their children, the longer it will take for the maturing to occur. The 18-21 YO maturity boost could be spread across the 13-18 bracket; and some parents do this despite the government. But the government union bureaucrats would rather have people dependent on them than people who are self-reliant, because if you don’t need them, what will they do?
This isn’t just a frearms issue, it’s also a drinking issue, and a driving issue. I got my permit at 15.5 and my license the day I turned 16 (my parents said “we’re tired of drivving you and your brother around”). At the time, it was an unlimited license (though my parents quite wisely bought a 4-speed, 4 cylinder, 2 seat white izuzu P’up for my use (though I eventually was the owner of record); and the insurance company agreed with them). I lived in NJ during the period that the state essentially made the under-18 license a long-term permit, in the name of “the children”. But it was just another way of moving the deaths of “children” into the 18-21yr old bracket, IIRC.
We’ve been creating a society of adolescent 18+, where they are children until the late 20’s because they never had to start learning to be an adult in their teenage years. The later that process takes, the longer it will take, I believe. And now I’m gettting off-topic, so I’ll have to blog this elsewhere.