Helping felons get access to guns

Helping felons get access to guns

San Jose Mercury News: This is what the National Rifle Association spends its time and money on?

A New York Times report this week explained that in many states, felons can regain their gun rights without any serious review and as soon as they’re released from prison. The story gives chilling details of multiple cases in which dangerous ex-convicts legally obtained weapons and used them to commit other crimes.

In one case, a prosecutor says he believes a murder victim would still be alive if the shooter — who had a well-documented history of mental-health problems, two felony convictions and friends who said he was dangerous — didn’t have a gun.

A decades-long effort

These laws are the result of decades of work by the gun-rights lobby, first to get the federal government to leave this matter to the states and then to get states to eliminate restrictions. About half of them reportedly have done so.

Reasonable people can disagree about the meaning of the Second Amendment. But it boggles the mind that anyone could think it was a good idea to legally arm violent and sometimes mentally ill felons.

To paraphrase what one gun-safety advocate told the Times:

Doesn’t the NRA have anything better to do than ensuring criminals have guns?

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