Don't jump the gun on new laws

After the 1999 high school shooting in Columbine, Colo., the Clinton administration and those in Congress pushed through "ground breaking" gun control laws. Because of the quick reaction of U.S. lawmakers, it was then required to place trigger locks on all new handguns, the age for buying guns was raised from 18 to 21 and the importing of high-capacity ammunition clips became unlawful. To this day, those laws have not been enacted.\nNow with the recent sniper shootings in the Washington, D.C. area, there are those in Congress who are responding to the pressure of anti-gun lobbyists by suggesting new laws that would implement "ballistic fingerprinting." The "fingerprinting" would require every legal gun that is sold in the U.S. to be tested to determine each gun's "fingerprint" that is left on the shell casing. While it's great our lawmakers are taking an interest in the human lives that have been lost in the shootings, they must be careful in passing anti-gun legislation.\nIt would be a shame if lawmakers passed a new law that would get lost in the bureaucratic paperwork such as those that followed Columbine. So rather than a new restriction, a reworking of the current system is needed. Research needs to be done before any new laws are made and tax dollars are spent on something, such as "fingerprinting," that, as of now, shows no conclusive evidence it's 100 percent accurate. \nStates and law enforcement officials must begin to take advantage of systems such as the FBI-operated National Instant Criminal Background Check System database. Only within the last week did the House pass a bill that authorizes grants to states to computerize court and other records for inclusion in the database. Bill sponsors, Reps. Jon Dingell, D-Mich. and Carolyn McCarthy, D-N.Y., said most states have not automated nor shared their records with NICS, allowing 10,000 convicted felons to acquire guns in the last 30 months. Maryland, the location of several sniper shootings, even decided to stop providing information to the NICS for six months this year. The state has resumed providing the information.\nDon't insult the families of the sniper shooting victims by passing a new gun control law just for politics sake or waste tax dollars on something that might not work. Implement laws that are effective in curbing gun violence, and don't allow them to head the way of the mandatory gunlocks and higher buying age.