CONGRESS has debated a comprehensive crime bill for several years, but failed, once more, to pass it this year. The crime rate is horrendous and the criminaljustice system is becoming less effective every day. Yet, had it become law, the bill wouldn’t have helped much. Consider some of its provisions.
A five-year waiting period for the purchase of guns would have inconvenienced law-abiding purchasers who buy from licensed dealers. But currently there is no serious way to make background checks (the bill provided none). Hence, released convicts, or insane persons, could have got their guns. Actually, even prohibiting the sale of guns altogether would be of little use. Drugs remain readily available despite prohibition. In New York guns are prohibited, yet criminals, even schoolboys, get them easily. Only the law-abiding are disarmed. Why should we legislate unilateral disarmament throughout the nation?
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