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J. Robert Hayes stands in front of his gun store on Thursday in El Centro. (ANTOINE ABOU-DIWAN PHOTO / January 17, 2013) |
For J. Robert Hayes, a competitive shooter and owner of The Gun Shop in El Centro, business is booming. “Look at my case,” he said, gesturing at a display case that was nearly empty. “These racks are normally full,” he said, pointing at a rack behind him that holds shotguns.
“I have a waiting list for guns,” he added. “Threats of restrictions run sales through the roof.”
The restrictions that Hayes is referring to are in the gun control proposal that President Obama unveiled Wednesday in response to December’s shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut, in which an assailant fatally shot 20 students and six adults before committing suicide by shooting himself in his head.
Obama’s proposal requires criminal background checks for nearly all gun sales, a ban on armor-piercing bullets, a 10-round limit on magazines and a tougher assault-weapon ban.
Hayes does not believe that increasing gun control will reduce or prevent violence like school shootings.
“We’ve got a cancer in our society: violence,” Hayes said, warming up to the subject. “Gun control is a placebo. Good, honest people are deluded into thinking that something is being done, but nothing is being done.”
Hayes said that California had a ban on assault weapons under the Clinton administration, and “we still had kids dying. We need to look at reasons why guns are being used.”
Hayes’ believes that the media — by publicizing the names of school shooters and mass murderers — helps perpetuate a cycle of violence.
“By publishing and pushing the names of these psychopaths, you’re enabling the next idiot to get his name in the press. Denying them their name in print removes their incentives (to commit violent crimes).”
Hayes said he would like to see stiffer penalties for crimes committed with the aid of a firearm.
He favors background checks on gun buyers — mandatory in California —as long as the data is not used to track gun owners.
“I will support background checks 100 percent as long as it is used to check and then purged,” he said.
As for the proposal to ban high-capacity magazines, those that carry more than 10 rounds, Hayes’ response was to demonstrate the ease with which someone can squeeze off 10 rounds, change magazines and shoot another 10 rounds, over and over.
Albert Salgado, a Calexico resident, is another lifelong gun enthusiast and competitive shooter. He said he does not hunt, nor does he like to kill animals. He said he does not have issues with gun control — in theory.
“On background checks — I agree,” he said. “California has it.
As for armor-piercing bullets, “nobody has a need for that.” Obama’s proposal calls for a ban on armor-piercing rounds except for law enforcement officials.
Like Hayes, Salgado said that gun control efforts will likely be futile.
“Some nut is watching all this stuff on TV, and he’s going to say ‘I can do better than that’ and get a gun on the black market.”
Imperial Police Chief Miguel Colon dismissed Obama’s gun control proposal.
“It’s all politics,” he said. “Every recommendation he has made is a repeat of what’s been done in the past. He talked about gun control but not the culture war with violence in our country.”
Colon called Obama’s gun control proposal a kneejerk reaction to a tragedy and does not address the factors that may lead to violent crimes.
“What we really need is an honest conversation about why this country is so violent, and it has nothing to do with guns,” he said, noting that firearms have been treated as tools as far back as the nation’s founding. “From the 1920s on it became an issue with gangsters,” he added.
Staff Writer Antoine Abou-Diwan can be reached at 760-337-3454 or aabou-diwan@ivpressonline.com
Breakout
President Obama’s gun control proposal includes a number of actions for Congress to vote on. Some of these include
1 - A stronger ban on assault weapons
2 - A ban on the possession of armor-piercing rounds
3 - A 10-bullet limit on gun magazines
4 - Mandatory criminal background checks for all gun buyers
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