New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg launched a sting operation on gun shows and it came back with disturbing results which we should have expected all along : Gun owners would not care who they sell their guns to if they could not be caught. What this means is that there are a lot of crazy people out there that could get their hands on guns when they are not supposed to.

Firstly, I think that this mentality is not only open to the gun industry alone. It happens everywhere all the time. If a seller could sell liquor to underage kids and get away with it, they would. If a seller could sell drugs without being caught, they would. It is human nature to supply the demand, be it legal or illegal.

What this sting does though is that it exposed a loophole in guns legislation where people at private gun sales are not required to have background checks. If a hardcore criminal or even a terrorist wanted to get guns, they can just go to one of these gun shows and obtain it. That could end up with guns in wrong hands and body bags to be filled up.

It is also of my opinion that there should be extremely stiff punishment to all gun dealers that do not do a background check. I feel that should a person who was not supposed to get a gun, used the gun to murder someone else, the gun dealer should be charged with involuntary manslaughter. I feel that it is because of the gross negligence of the gun dealer that lead to the victim being dead, hence the involuntary manslaughter.

I know that there would be people who think that this is a step too far. “If death is a direct result of the omission of one to perform a duty, the person guilty of such omission is chargeable with manslaughter; but if such omission or duty was wilful or malicious the crime is murder.” Even though causing death was not the intent of the gun dealer, it was his or her failure of duty that led to a person being dead.

I do not think that we should take these people lightly. I have once drawn criticism for suggesting that the death penalty should be applied to Drinking Under Influence offenders regardless whether someone died as a result of their actions. Though I have since mellowed, I still think that DUI offenders are getting away with it too easily. I equate DUI offenders with these irresponsible gun owners that sell guns without a background check. Both should suffer the consequences of involuntary manslaughter should a death result from their negligences.

Sticking to the topic of negligences, why is New York City doing this and not Chicago, where there are lots of kids are shot dead? I like Mayor Bloomberg who happens to be Independent, not because he is. It stuns me to compare the competency of Mayor Bloomberg and Mayor Richard Daley. But doesn’t it seem that those politicians with an (I) behind their names are the ones that are really doing their jobs?

Lastly, President Obama’s administration must be criticized for not doing enough on gun regulation. The Democrats have just collapsed again and again on this front. They have allowed guns to be in parks as part of a credit card bill, allowed assault weapons on trains when it was banned under the President Bush administration, and I think would crumble soon to allow assault weapons in airplanes.

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