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Even the Bedouins. Gun controls obviously cannot stop crime or wanton killing, and no one claims that they can. Laws can be circumvented. At the 1957 Apalachin "crime convention," twelve of the 35 New York residents collared by police were "clean" under the provisions of the state's tough Sullivan law—they had pistol permits. Unless an amateur psychiatrist in a gun shop or a police station had recognized him as a paranoid schizophrenic, Charles Whitman, the Texas Tower sniper who killed or wounded 46 people two years ago, would have been able to assemble his lethal armory despite strict gun controls. Sirhan Sirhan violated three California laws in merely possessing the pistol he used to kill Bobby Kennedy, but he still had the weapon. On the other hand, reasonable laws might have prevented Lee Harvey Oswald from committing what Lyndon Johnson called "murder by mail order"; Oswald would also probably have been refused a gun permit because of his background.
To be effective, gun-control legislation should be rational and uniform. Otherwise, as New Jersey's Governor Richard Hughes complained last week, states with strong laws will invariably be "subverted" by those with weak ones. Michigan residents who want to avoid buying a pistol permit—and having their background checked—simply drive across the Ohio border to Toledo, where guns are sold even at the candy counter of a sleazy hamburger stand. Massachusetts police in a ten-year study traced 87% of the guns used in local crimes to purchases in neighboring states where no waiting period or background investigation was required.
High on the list of reforms sought by many gun-control advocates is a system of dual registration, similar to the one for autos. The driver is licensed, and his vehicle is registered separately. The same principle could apply to guns —licensing for the owner, registration for each of his firearms. It would be a nuisance, to be sure, but, given the destructive power of guns, it would hardly be an outrageous imposition in an industrial society that demands registration of cars, businesses, private planes, dogs and marriages, as well as prescriptions for many mild drugs. Even the Bedouins of Jordan, rootless wanderers and fierce individualists all, are required to register their rifles with desert police.
Some authorities have suggested that every firearm sold be "fingerprinted" in advance by test-firing to determine its ballistic pattern. In the age of the computer, such distinctive patterns could be kept on file without too much difficulty. With gun owners carrying a license and a registration card for every weapon, ammunition could also be registered and sold only to those with proper credentials. Such all-embracing registration would aid police in both detection and prevention of crimes. Finally, proponents of gun-law reform argue that, just as prospective drivers must undergo examinations, the applicant for a license to possess a gun should be required to pass a thorough written exam and a proficiency test in handling it. At present, no tests are given —even for eyesight.