Hello... Moderate Gun Owners. Where ARE You?

[Straw Man]

11. Yes, and that's the crux of it.

It depends on who defines moderate.

I too consider myself a moderate. I live in New York, which already has most of what you describe. (We don't have an insurance requirement, and long guns are only registered if they are "assault weapons," meaning with a detachable magazine and any one "military feature," including flash hiders and adjustable stocks.)

When the last big gun control package, the SAFE Act, passed in 2013, gun controllers in the state legislature proclaimed from the floor that "this is just the beginning," and that "there's a lot more to come." In the face of this, who wouldn't believe in the slippery slope? That belief leads to hardline resistance against any "reasonable" proposals. Like clockwork, every year new bills come to the legislature for more limits on firearm ownership. It would be naive to think that it will ever end.

And here's why it will never end: none of the laws will have a significant impact on spree killings or even the more pressing problems of suicide and random criminal violence. There are just too many ways for the perpetrators to achieve their aims. So as the social fabric stretches to the breaking point, more and more useless measures will be enacted, until firearms are virtually banned.

I've said it before: it astounds me that no one seems to be concerned about why someone would want to slaughter a large number of random strangers. Such incidents are symptoms of a very sick society. Gun owners and the NRA are convenient scapegoats for those who want an easy answer and a bogeyman to hate, but they aren't the source of the problem.

In the current climate, it's practically impossible to be a moderate.