So I have a small confession to make. I was going to be a good little boy, and postpone any major firearm-related purchases until Tuesday's National Exercise Your Rights Day - after all, it would make the largest impact then. However, before this week got too far along, a thought struck me. I could have sworn that Kalifornistan was one of those idiotic states that still had a waiting period to purchase firearms, despite the federal one having expired years ago.

Turns out, I was right.

So, yeah, ten days really are not many days, right? Well, if I purchase anything on Tuesday, and have to wait ten days for it, I would not actually be able to pick it up until the next Friday... and I would be going out of town before then. Couple that with the fact that my travels this time would take me away for a period that would put me outside of the 30-day-pick-up window for the firearm, and I figured that it would be better to go ahead and just do it.

With that in mind, I packed myself up, went to a local firearm store, and purchased (or at least put the money down on) an M1A SOCOM II.

Of course, I will not be able to touch that firearm until not this coming Wednesday, but the next one, at the earliest. Yup, Kalifornistan still has a waiting period, for everything from a .22 Derringer all the way up to the biggest rifle you can get here. Why, you ask? To provide purchasers a "cooling-down" period, and to provide the firearm stores and appropriate authorities the time to do a background check.

Fine, all good and well, right? Not so much.

Let us examine the first fallacy - that of a "cooling-off" period. The basic premise is that a lot of crimes these days are committed as crimes of passion - short-fuse, immediate decision, reaction style crimes, where a person decides to do something, and then does it, within a remarkably short period of time. With a firearm purchase waiting period, that person could not just go to a store, pick up a gun, and then go and immediately use it in the commission of a crime, but (in theory, at least) would instead have to wait, consider his or her actions, and hopefully decide against them while waiting for the firearm. Great. Except a lot of crimes are not crimes of passion. A lot of crimes require careful planning. A lot of criminals would be willing to wait those extra ten days just to get the augmentation apparent in a firearm. A lot of criminals might just decide a baseball bat will work just as well for their purposes as a firearm will. And a whole lot more criminals, or people intent on becoming criminals, would simply bypass the entire problem by going and illegally procuring a firearm from a source that does not require a "cooling-off" period. So explain to me the point of a "cooling-off" period again? Oh, right, not really to have any affect upon criminals (remember, criminals are criminals because they break laws), but rather to inconvenience law-abiding gun owners. Sorry, forgot.

Now for the second fallacy - that the time granted in a waiting period is necessary for a background check. Years ago, that might have been the case. However, one of the byproducts of the Brady Bill was the creation of the National Instant Criminal Background Check System. Notice the use of the word "instant". As in Federal Firearm Licensees (FFLs - the people legally allowed to sell you firearms) call a toll-free number, or log into an online system, provide your information to the Department of Justice, and *poof*, you are done. And by *poof*, I mean, on average, the NICS system provided a response in 30 seconds or so (as of 2003), with 91% of the determinations qualifying as "immediate" - no turnaround time to speak of whatsoever. So exactly why do we need 10 days to complete a background check? I mean, sure, sometimes stores get busy, and things get backed up... But 10 days? Give me a break.

And now for the third fallacy - that criminals, supposedly the targets of "gun control" laws, would actually obey a waiting period. Right. I am not even going to insult your intelligence by explaining to you just how patently ludicrous that thought is. However, it does only serve to prove that, as with 90% of the "gun control" laws out there, waiting periods only serve to inconvenience, persecute, and generally annoy those law abiding citizens who are interested in owning firearms.

So do these pointless, poorly-aimed waiting period laws actually accomplish anything? Unsurprisingly, no. In fact, if you look at the numbers, Kalifornistan's murder rate continued to go up, waiting period or no. And in all reality, if you wanted to look at it from a certain perspective (and I see absolutely nothing wrong with that perspective), waiting periods actually kill more people. Criminals are going to get their firearms, no matter the method. That much is pretty much a given. All waiting periods do is prevent people who might actually need the firearm to defend themselves from getting it... and in ten days' time all manner of horrific things can happen to them.

And here I sit, with something less than 240 hours to go before I can actually touch my firearm, and nothing to show for a rather considerable expenditure of funds except for a slip of paper. And all the while, Kalifornistan lawmakers are just coming up with more and better ways to ultimately abridge our Constitutionally-protected right to bear arms. No, they will not do it all at once... no, it will not be a sudden move. But the best way to boil a frog is to put the aforementioned amphibian in a pot of normal water, and bring up the heat slowly. And considering how short of memories Americans have, and how intent the hoplophobes are...

Oh, and before you lucky non-Kalifornistans start going on about how it could never happen in your states... You really ought to examine the trend of things starting here, spreading to the Capitol, and from there... Well, you know what comes next.

Me, I just want the product I forked my money over for, gorram it.

Trackposted to Outside the Beltway, Blog @ MoreWhat.com, Perri Nelson's Website, The Virtuous Republic, Is It Just Me?, Rosemary's Thoughts, DeMediacratic Nation, Nanotechnology Today, Adam's Blog, Big Dog's Weblog, Shadowscope, Webloggin, The Bullwinkle Blog, Phastidio.net, The Amboy Times, Leaning Straight Up, , third world county, Faultline USA, Woman Honor Thyself, The Crazy Rants of Samantha Burns, The Uncooperative Radio Show!, The World According to Carl, Pirate's Cove, Blue Star Chronicles, The Pink Flamingo, CommonSenseAmerica, Dumb Ox Daily News, The Yankee Sailor, and Church and State, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.