Edgar Allen Beem wrote “Maine Citizens against Handgun Violence brought Tom Mauser to Maine to testify on behalf of LD 814. Mauser’s son Daniel was killed in the 1999 Columbine school massacre by a student wielding a gun purchased legally at a gun show, so if he couldn’t persuade the Maine legislators, I’m sure I can’t. But there is hope.”

Beem failed to note that the specific weapons used were purchased by a straw purchaser in an illegal transaction. The entire gun purchase was already illegal under federal law. No “gun show loophole” legal sale occurred. It was not as though the shooters went to the seller who sold those arms under some pretend loophole. Instead they used a third party who illegally bought the weapons.

Does everyone follow that? The sale was illegal under existing law. No imagined “gun show loophole” was used or had any effect on the acquisition of the guns. If existing gun laws had been followed, no sale would have happened.

This was simply another example of hysterics trying to use a tragedy to push an agenda, disarming America and gutting the Constitution without cause or real reason. Perhaps Augusta was thinking for once.

Jim Verdolini
Boise, Idaho
(formerly of Portland)

 

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