Live Free And Die--thought provoking article....

[MrBenchley]

"In the manic environment of the first shopping weekend after Thanksgiving, the competition was fierce. We hesitated and lost out on a lovely, slightly used grenade launcher, bargain priced in tax-free New Hampshire at $190.
Not to worry. The dozens of dealers at the Fireside Inn gun show came well armed. Andrew Heggie, a Randolph police officer, spotted a Bushmaster, similar to the rifle he carried in two tours of duty in Afghanistan. And he found an AK-47, the same gun the enemy carried. There were military sniper rifles and an M-16-type ''machine pistol" capable of firing off 100 rounds before reloading -- the kind of gun only an angry high school student could love. Saturday night specials were cheap and plentiful....
...Gun shows, a billion-dollar business, are one source of guns: There are an estimated 5,000 gun shows like this one around the country every year, and many of them, unlike the one here, include so-called private sellers that require no background checks at all.
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives found that gun shows rank second, after corrupt firearms distributors, in the number of illegally trafficked guns that turn up in its investigations, according to a 2000 report. The National Rifle Association has suggested that ''hundreds of thousands of guns" are sold at gun shows with no background checks. The weapons used in the Columbine High School massacre, which left 14 dead, came from gun shows.
Dramatically reducing the flow of illegal guns would be a relatively straightforward matter if it were not for the lunatic gun lobby and its political enablers. What is needed is uniform national gun laws that require background checks for all gun purchases whether from licensed dealers or from private individuals. In addition, we need to limit gun purchases for individuals to one per month, a policy that has proven effective in Virginia. Question: How many legitimate buyers need more than a dozen guns a year?"

http://www.boston.com/business/articles/2005/11/30/live_free_and_die/?rss_id=Boston+Globe+--+Business+News

Worth noting that H.R.3540, a Democratic-sponsored bill that would address this national disaster, is currently bottled up in committee by Hastert and the GOP. Just as bills by Democrats that would have solved this long ago have been bottled up by the GOP in previous Congresses.