Do It Yourself!
In Robert Broussard's letter in (June '63), he said he "found things difficult" when he tried to purchase a handgun because he's in the service.
I know exactly how he feels!
When I was stationed in Maryland, I tried to purchase a revolver, and immediately came up against insurmountable red tape. First, I had to have written permission from my commanding officer, which I couldn't get. (It seemed that such requests were rare and therefore suspicious, and besides enlisted men weren't allowed to have handguns unless they lived off the base.) Second, I would then have to register with the local police for a permit to buy the handgun. If they didn't like my reasons for wanting the permit, it would be turned down.
I was brought up in a shooting, hunting, gun·loving family. To us, guns were not only a pleasure but a symbol of our freedom, and the thought of having to register to buy a firearm, and then register the gun after it was bought, would have my father turning in his grave.
Even though I was trusted to be in charge of a million and a half dollars of electronic equipment, and the lives and value of every plane that used it to land with, I still was not to be trusted to buy and have a handgun.
My enlistment was about up at the time, so I didn't sign up for a second four years of "the benefits." I didn't get out because of guns, but it very definitely was a factor.
A car by itself never committed a crime or killed anyone. The same is true with a gun. The only way we'll get rid of these outmoded laws, and keep uninformed legislators from enacting more of them, is to write to our representatives, speak before groups, and join gun associations. Like salesmen, we have an idea. In order to sell it, we have to get it in front of the public. Don't wait for George to do it; it'll only get done if you do it
Victor D. Powell
Oak Hill, W.Va.
Correction
As a dealer and gunsmith, I would like to correct the letter by Victor D. Powell of Oak Hill, W. Va., in relation to permits to purchase handguns in the state of Maryland.
Permits to purchase handguns are required only in Baltimore City and County, and not in the rest of the State. If Mr. Powell had to apply for a permit to purchase, he was either in Baltimore or close to the District of Columbia and applied for a handgun in the D.C. without realizing he had left the state of Maryland. This is possible, as his reference to planes, suggests that he may have been located at Andrews Field Air Base which is just a few minutes from D.C.
The registration of handguns is required by dealers on purchase, but there is no waiting period, and there is no permit to purchase required. On the registration form, description and address of purchaser, and make, model, serial number, caliber, barrel length is required, along with purchasers statement that he has never been convicted of a felony.
We Marylanders are very much alert to the type of restrictions Mr. Powell described but we will not let it happen here, as we prize our constitutional right to keep and bear arms.
Robert M. Dolby
Silverdale, Maryland