I came across this “debate“ and felt compelled to respond.  My response follows:

It would help the debate if the debaters did some basic fact checking. For example: “… if someone were to attend a gun show, he/she could buy a weapon at the seller’s discretion…” This is false. All the laws and regulations that apply at a retail store apply at a gun store. A licensed dealer must always do a background check when selling a gun from their stock. The gun show controversy is a myth created by anti-freedom advocates. See http://www.boomershoot.org/general/Myths.htm#Loophole for more details. “Assault rifles” have been severely restricted since 1934 and continue to be severely restricted.

“Assault weapons” is another manufactured myth by the anti-freedom advocates deliberately intending to deceive the public. They admit their intent take advantage of the confusion in the minds of the public over this issue. See http://www.vpc.org/studies/awaconc.htm where they says: “Assault weapons—just like armor-piercing bullets, machine guns, and plastic firearms—are a new topic. The weapons’ menacing looks, coupled with the public’s confusion over fully automatic machine guns versus semi-automatic assault weapons—anything that looks like a machine gun is assumed to be a machine gun—can only increase the chance of public support for restrictions on these weapons.”

Another example of lack of fact checking is when Mr. Sexton says of “assault weapons”, “These firearms are solely used for the purpose of attacking other human beings…” If this were true then one would have to conclude the 100,000+ of rounds I have fired through firearms covered by the expired “assault weapon” ban, none of which were involved in an attack on a human, must be considered a failure of my firearms.

Both Mr. Sexton and Ms. Taylor think background checks are a good idea before “allowing” people to exercise a fundamental right. I’m constantly baffled this line of thinking. If there are people freely roaming in society that cannot be trusted with a firearm can these same people be trusted with a can of gasoline and a book of matches? The largest mass murders committed by an individual were committed with gasoline and matches–demonstrating that combination is more deadly than firearms. Whatever restrictions you put on firearms are also sensible to put on gasoline and matches.

I could go on for pages on all the errors in fact and logic found in this debate but the above should be sufficient to encourage a bit more research before putting words to print.

That took almost an hour.  An hour I should have spent updating the Lewiston Pistol Club website.