Respectfully, I am urging you to introduce reasonable legislation to rationally address existing crime problems without taking away the ability of the law-abiding to protect themselves and loved ones. The legislation proposed and all forms similar turn a victim into a criminal.
Presumably this legislation is intended to address the problem of "straw purchasers" providing firearms to prohibited persons, and then later claiming to have lost or had stolen the firearm in question. Such persons have already committed fedral felonies by acting as a straw purchaser, and should be prosecuted accordingly.
If the state wishes an additional prosecutorial tool, it is preferable to draft legislation addressing the issue of false reporting by these persons, and to make that act specifically criminal. The bill institutes policies which criminalize the victims of crime, and subjects anyone who does not follow these arbitrary laws to heavy fines or felony charges that would take away their right to possess a firearm legally.
In no way could legislation that targets innocent citizens be seen as a "reform," and there is nothing "commom sense" about the effects such a far-reaching, wrong and unfair bill could have.
Robert Duff
Smyrna
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