With everyone distracted by economic issues, Democrats are secretly escalating their long running war on gun owners. They carefully avoided discussing guns just long enough to get Barak Obama elected. But now that the Far Left has taken control of both Congress and the White House, the anti-gun radicals are chomping at the bit.

Across the nation, states under the thumb of Democrat majorities are in the process of sneaking through some of the most onerous (and ultimately useless) gun control measures to be attempted in decades.

One of the most common tactics is to attempt to control and register the heretofore private transfer of firearms by individuals, under the rubric of closing the mythical "gun show loophole."

First of all, decades of research have shown that the whole "loophole" issue is nothing but a myth. The ATF themselves admit that a tiny 0.7% of guns used in crime ever came from a gun show. And an in-depth study by the University of Maryland and the University of Michigan stated the following:

"We find no evidence that gun shows lead to substantial increases in either gun homicides or suicides. In addition, tighter regulation of gun shows does not appear to reduce the number of firearms-related deaths." - The Effects of Gun Shows on Gun Related Deaths - September, 2008

Most of these pending bills will also force every single person who buys, sells, trades, or even gives as a gift, ANY firearm, to go through a bureaucratic morass of forms, background checks, and, worst of all, registration of their guns - even if they never set foot in a gun show!

On a national level, there is a frighteningly totalitarian bill (HF 045) that would create a massive, expensive, and dangerously intrusive program that will require every gun owner in America to pay a fee to REGISTER themselves (to get a Federal ID) and then REGISTER each and every gun they own with the Federal government...and you will have to re-register them every 5 years - even if you haven't bought any new guns during that period!

But all of the latest research shows that thugs and gang-bangers, who account for more than 80% of violent crime, do not obtain their guns legally in the first place. A study by the FBI and Mankato State University revealed that many inner city gang members begin carrying guns between the ages of 9 and 12! By age 17, most are carrying a gun EVERY DAY! Now, since they can't even legally buy a handgun in most states until they are 21 years of age, exactly how are these various measures supposed to prevent these little thugs from getting a gun?

Well, sorry to break the news, but the answer is: YOU CAN'T. The study even asked these young offenders if they "were hindered by any law, Federal, State, or local, that had ever been established to prevent  prevented gun ownership" - their answer? According to the study authors, "they just laughed at us."

In most cases (97% in this study), they don't actually buy their guns at all - they steal them. The rest they obtain as "currency" in drug deals, or they recruit a person with no criminal record (most often a girlfriend) to make a "straw purchase" - pretending to buy the gun for herself, then turning it over to her gangster boyfriend, which is already a FELONY. And, since straw purchasers have no criminal records, no legislation will stop them - only vigorous prosecution and severe penalties will make any difference.

Thus, NONE of the laws that target lawful American gun owners will do anything to save a single life, or make any of us safer. But, then again, protecting you, or your kids, has never been their goal, anyway.

The anti-gun extremist groups always masquerade under "nice" sounding names like "Citizens for a Safer Minnesota" or "Americans for Gun Safety" - but make no mistake, they were all founded, funded, and exist, for one reason, and one reason only: to eventually all but eliminate private gun ownership in the United States.

But as much as they would like to, the anti-gun hysterics have learned that a wholesale ban on firerarms would never be tolerated by Americans, even by most of those who don't own guns themselves. So they have selected a strategy of attrition - make LEGAL gun ownership more and more expensive, more difficult, and more time-consuming, until many gun owners just throw in the towel.

Now, if these gun-phobic types actually did care about making the nation a safer place to live, they would focus on the REAL threat - gangs, drugs, and inner city violence...instead of using the rare (but headline-grabbing) lunatic shooter incident as an excuse to attack the rights of legitimate gun owners.

Here in Minnesota, more than half of the homicides in the entire state occur in just TWO zip codes in the city of Minneapolis! Meanwhile, several of the wealthier suburban communities own 5 TIMES as many guns per capita as the city of Minneapolis, yet have almost no violent crime whatsoever. Inner city violence is a societal problem, a cultural problem, a drugs and gangs problem - but it is most certainly NOT a "gun" problem.

If the anti-gun fanatics actually did want to reduce violent crime, they would focus on attacking the gangs, drugs, and social issues that cultivate violence,  instead of attempting to harass and criminalize the 99.6% of American gun owners who are NOT the problem.