Jesse Russell

Today, Sunday, March 26, there was an episode on a gun control law in CA that would require a "tax" on gun owners. Although a number of those interviewed rightfully pointed out that those who illegally own guns are flying under the radar and of course will not be paying this tax. The problem is that Full Measure and so many other discussions on gun control is that they never ask the most important question: How do these illegal guns (manufactured legally) get into the hands of felons and current criminals to begin with? The guns are obviously being purchased by those with no criminal records who then sell them to those who should not own guns. This has happened through "straw buyers" or those who privately sell a gun to someone else and in neither case, there is no gun law that attempts to track these sales. I have been a gun owner all my life, but even I can see a serous loophole in the law that is too often ignored by the media. If those who support our 2nd amend. right to own a gun do not begin to use some common sense with gun laws, we might all be impacted by a backlash against gun ownership because of the continued gun related violence. We would be much wiser to support gun laws that keep guns out of the hands of criminal elements through better laws other than basically no laws, which the gun industry would like. In the long run, responsible gun owners, like myself, may end up being on the short end of the stick.