County Wants Closer Look at Gun Background Checks
Pinellas County Commissioners added a discussion about gun background checks to their legislative agenda.
Pinellas County Commissioners have added a discussion of gun background checks to their legislative agenda.
Commissioner Janet Long said as elected officials, it is their responsibility to look at gun violence and gun policies in the interest of public safety. She said there are many holes in the existing background check system, including lags in time between when a person is officially listed as a felon and not.
“Are you comfortable knowing the background check is not really a background check in terms of identifying people who are potential problems?” Long asked the commission Tuesday. “Are you aware that this is a real glitch in our state law and are your comfortable with it?”
She said a person can be arrested for a violent crime on Monday, be bonded out on Tuesday and buy a gun the day of his or her release because they are not officially a convicted felon yet.
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Domestic abuse issues and mental illness, Long said, are also not addressed in background checks.
“Can we strengthen and clarify what we mean with background checks?” she said.
While Long stressed this was just for discussion purposes, commissioner Susan Latvala cautioned against coming too close to trying to make policy about guns because of new state laws that make it illegal for the county to do so.
“Does that fall under the prohibition that the legislature put on us about controlling guns?” Latvala said.
The county’s legal team said as long as no gun policy is officially proposed, there would be no legal threat to having a discussion with its legislative delegation about gun background checks.
“It’s the political ping pongs like this” that are making Washington and Tallahassee stagnant and that frustrate the public, Commissioner Norm Roche said. “Let’s be realistic about what our expectations and results are."
The gun control discussion was added to the Feb. 26 meeting.
Earlier this week in St. Petersburg Republican Congressman C.W. Bill Young was the target of a rally advocating for stricter gun background check policies.
Residetns, community leaders and city council members asked Young to support President Barack Obama's gun policies.
"We know common sense tells us we need to make it more difficult for criminals to buy guns," said St. Pete council chair Karl Nurse said. "More difficult for the mentally ill to buy a gun. We do not need semi-automatic riffles to go hunting. The only purpose of those is mass murder.
"It’s time for Congressman Young to step up," Nurse said. "He knows the right thing to do is to support common sense measure that (will) protect the law abiding citizens from the criminals."
Do you think something should be done about gun background checks? Sound off in the comments section below.
Really?
10:44 am on Thursday, February 14, 2013
The whole gun control issue is moot ,a criminal or someone deranged is not going to a dealer filing out an application and buying a gun . and if you think they are you are mistaken .just look at the drug dealer they just caught with 30 firearms 1 being a fully automatic weapon and a felony conviction from some 10 years ago ! You would have to see how easy it is to buy a gun if you are a felon or not and with the millions of guns in Pinellas county alone increased government control will do nothing but hinder legal law abiding gun owners enjoying their choice of sport shooting /hunting . Wake up people why waste time and money on an issue you won't improve on other than saying you did !
Really?
10:46 am on Thursday, February 14, 2013
the only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is with a good guy with a gun !
NSDQ47G
11:51 am on Thursday, February 14, 2013
Karl Nurse needs to do some research on the subject before jumping on the "gun violence bandwagon. The National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) is an interesting resource that breaks down homicide victimization trends relative to age, sex and race, type of crime (gang, argument, felony), occurrence within large and small cities, etc. The proportion of homicides, with or without a gun, involving two or more victims remains relatively stable at 4.5% since 2000, with homicide incidents involving three or more victims remaining less than 1% of all homicides each year. Mass shootings fall under this less than 1% bracket, but wield tremendous social impact. On the flipside, according to the FBI, in 2011, “firearms were used in 67.7 percent of the nation’s murders, 41.3 percent of robberies, and 21.2 percent of aggravated assaults.” From this, one might assume a gun ban will reduce gun related crime and death. Should a gun ban go into effect, however, this tightens the control on those who lawfully attempt to obtain a weapon. It does not affect criminals who ultimately commit the majority of these crimes with an illegal weapon. According to the Department of Justice, which interviewed State and Federal inmates who committed a crime with a firearm for which they were serving time, 13.9% of offenders purchased a gun from a retail store, pawnshop or flea market, 0.7% from a gun show, 39.6% from a friend or family member, and 39.2% from the street or other illegal source.
Tom Tito
10:06 pm on Thursday, February 14, 2013
President Obama and the nation's police chiefs can do more to win on gun safety by supporting ethical gun dealers and manufacturers. How? Police and military buy a very, very big percentage of all guns. We, the public, buy from those who support the NRA with their profits and allow guns to reach criminals through straw buyers. But we are the number one market and must set standards with our massive buying power. Most gun owners and even NRA members agree on the need for background checks but spend money with those who fund the NRA. We must start a conversation with gun sellers on their support for background check loopholes. Then they will be faced with the choice of giving up sales to criminals or not doing business with the military, police and educated hunters and other gun buyers.