What is Steve Sanetti Thinking?

“controlling access to firearms should be at the heart of efforts to prevent violence and make American society safer”…?

The President of the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF), Steve Sanetti, appeared on CBS News last week declaring that “Access is the key” to preventing crime and tragedies like what happened in Newtown, CT last December, and went so far as to claim that had the mother of the murdering little deviant who committed that atrocity had her guns more securely stored, the tragedy would not have happened.

Come on Steve!  You cannot keep guns away from “the wrong people” in a free society.  The only “access control” that has proven to work is not locking up guns, but locking up those who cannot be trusted with guns. 

Certainly we agree that it is prudent to store firearms securely when not in use, but it is naive and misguided to suggest that secure storage can or would prevent atrocities like what happened at Sandy Hook and the Batman movie.  These attacks were carefully planned and plotted out in advance.  The first victim in Newtown was the murderer’s mother.  It’s quite possible – even probable – that she took reasonable precautions to keep her guns secure, but her demented son planned, waited, and seized his opportunity.  Even if he had not been able to access the firearms, he could have done just as much damage with the “Samurai sword” in his bedroom or the car he drove to the school.  As horrible as it is to contemplate, we’re talking about the massacre of helpless First-graders, not an assault on a group of soldiers.  Even then, there are plenty of ways to kill lots of people in a short span of time without using guns.  The worst mass murderers in History have used weapons other than guns.

It is a disservice to gun owners and the firearms industry for Sanetti to be suggesting that limiting access could or would reduce crime or violence.  While securing firearms can help to reduce accidents and deter theft, it is no panacea and is particularly useless when applied to the machinations of a maniac who looks at life as a video game.

Safe storage and reasonable limits on access are responsible approaches to enhancing firearms safety, but they are no answer to criminal abuse and misuse – particularly in the case of deranged scumbags seeking infamy.  It is irresponsible and harmful for Mr. Sanetti to be publicly taking such a misguided and counterproductive position.  This position is a trap and Sanetti and NSSF have jumped into it with both feet.

Sanetti and NSSF need to be focusing on the huge benefits of lawful gun ownership and keeping legislators from dictating rules and regulations that place limits and conditions on the free exercise of our rights.  In other countries Sanetti’s “access” theory has led to “safe storage” laws, criminal penalties for “improper” storage of firearms, and warrantless searches of the homes of gun owners.  That is the path that Sanetti has cleared with his misguided statements, and he needs to do some serious and expeditious back-pedaling. 

I’m a big fan of NSSF and their accomplishments.  I know and like Steve.  But we have plenty of bad ideas coming from the other side, we don’t need more from the folks who are supposed to be on ours.

See the clip here: http://www.NSSF.org/shooting