Buckeye Firearms:

Earlier this month, the City of Toledo announced a new policy that says it will only purchase firearms from “responsible” gun companies. In order to determine which companies are “responsible,” city officials say they will ask six questions of manufacturers:

Those questions are:

• Do you manufacture assault weapons for civilian use?
• Do you sell assault weapons for civilian use?
• Which firearms does your company agree to not sell to civilians?
• Do you require your dealers to conduct background checks?
• Does your company have a plan in place to invest in gun and ammunition-tracing technologies?
• Do you use, at a minimum, industry best practices for inventory control and transactions?

Toledo Mayor Wade Kapszukiewicz says he hopes other cities will follow his lead, given that the city’s $150,000 annual budget for firearms, ammunition and parts is not likely to put a major dent in manufacturers’ bottom lines all by itself.

To my knowledge there has been no public response from a manufacturer to the policy, but I have a few suggestions.

First, it is interesting to note that the city did not say what answers would be considered to be “successful,” or how many answers a company has to get “correct.” But one can hazard a guess as to what they want to hear. And thanks to the poor wording of their questions, it is likely most manufacturers can tell them exactly what they want to hear, even if they sell the wildly-popular modern sporting rifles.

“Do you manufacture assault weapons for civilian use?” If you’re a manufacturer of AR-15s, for example, you can honestly answer “no.” Semi-automatic firearms are NOT “assault weapons.”

“Do you sell assault weapons for civilian use?” Again, if you sell AR-15s to law-abiding citizens, for example, you can honestly answer “no.” Semi-automatic firearms are NOT “assault weapons.”

“Which firearms does your company agree to not sell to civilians?” A fitting and truthful answer to this question could simply be, “Those prohibited by state and or Federal law.”

“Do you require your dealers to conduct background checks?” Once again, a truthful answer is simply, “We follow all Federal and state laws.”

“Does your company have a plan in place to invest in gun and ammunition-tracing technologies?” This is, presumably, a question referring to unproven micro-stamping, or so-called “ballistic fingerprinting” – a technique that has repeatedly failed in test, and that could be easily defeated by a criminal. Once again, a truthful answer is simply, “We follow all Federal and state laws.”

“Do you use, at a minimum, industry best practices for inventory control and transactions?” The answer? You guessed it. “We follow all Federal and state laws.”

So many manufacturers could probably answer the questions and still win contracts. But I’d like to suggest another idea …

I like his suggestion for “another idea” better.  Just say no.

Do not sell firearms of any kind to the City of Toledo, at any time, for any reason whatsoever.

I don’t like the classification of something as an “assault weapon,” any more than I like the gun rights crowd (us) trying to argue the contrary, i.e., that there is no such thing as an “assault weapon” or that AR-15s aren’t “weapons of war.”  Virtually every weapon, from bolt action rifles, to shotguns, to revolvers, to rocks and spears, have been weapons of war, and all weapons can be used to assault someone or some position.

Don’t argue semantics.  When we do that we just adopt the language framework of the enemy.  Just refuse to sell the firearms to the Toledo police department.  It’s for their own good.  After all, if the cops have guns, they’ll just execute a no-knock raid and cause some unsuspecting homeowner to think there’s a break-in, ending with the imprisonment of the homeowner.

Or something else nefarious like that.