The objective is saving lives. People can still have their guns. They can still fantasize about rescuing Nell with their gun and getting her eternal gratitude and maybe a kiss. They can hunt, shoot at gun clubs and swagger with the barrel bulging in their jeans because their tiny penis doe not impress. They can do everything they were doing before Oregon voters chose to vote for this measure.
And the gun nuts can drone on with their trivial and unimportant minutia about AR being some narrow definition when the legislation doesn't even mention assault rifles. But it's not about assault rifles or assault weapons or any of that. Measure 114 is a reasonable systematic approach toward reducing harm from US guns and their owners. We can talk about theory, and that's ALL gun nuts have to offer. But I can offer credible facts based hard data showing that the system of changes written into measure 114 have been shown in other districts to have worked in saving lives.
Firearm purchaser licensing, as contained in the state's referendum, is one of the most effective policies at reducing gun deaths.
www.nbcnews.com
The licensing component of the Oregon ballot measure requires that gun purchasers complete a firearm safety training course and an application, including fingerprinting, at their local police department. Before issuing the license, law enforcement officers review the application, run a background check and examine local and state records to help ensure that the purchaser is not a clear danger to themselves or others based on a pattern of violent behavior.
This process prevents many dangerous people from purchasing guns and deters gun straw purchases carried out in order to traffic guns to criminal networks. It also provides a “cooling down” period for individuals who are suicidal or are in crisis by putting time between when someone decides to purchase a gun and when it can be obtained. Research shows that gun suicides are often impulsive, and having a built-in waiting period saves lives.
Other researchers from our center at Johns Hopkins University evaluated laws similar to the Oregon measure and found large reductions in many forms of gun violence. For example, they found that the passage of such a law in Connecticut was associated with a 33% reduction in the gun suicide rate and a 28% reduction in the gun homicide rate over a 22-year period. Our center’s research has also found that gun purchaser licensing was associated with a 56% decrease in the incidence of fatal mass shootings.
That's the objective. Reductions in suicides, gun homicides and fatal mass shootings. If a gun nut wants to claim this measure is worthless, then they need to tell us why that study is false.
From this study:
What doesn't seem to help reduce gun deaths:
The findings of this study suggest that the most common policy prescriptions offered by advocates on each side of the debate over gun control—comprehensive background checks and assault weapons bans on one side and so-called “Right to Carry” laws reducing restrictions on civilian concealed carry of firearms on the other side—do not seem to be associated with the incidence of fatal mass shootings.
So there it is, gun nuts. You might be right that so-called assault weapons bans don't seem to reduce incidents of fatal mass shootings. But neither does right to carry laws.
What does seem to help reduce deaths in mass shooting events:
This study identified two policies associated with reductions in fatal mass shootings—laws requiring firearm purchasers or owners to acquire a license that involves in-person application and/or fingerprinting of applicants and state laws banning the purchase of LCMs or ammunition-feeding devices for semiautomatic firearms.
Hence the reason Measure 114 includes permit to purchase requirements and bans on the sale of high capacity magazines, which restrict the shooter's potential to fire at a high rate for a long time.
It's not really as complicated as what the gun lobby tells its chumps to say.