By Peggy Tartaro,
Executive Editor

"Life's short. Eat dessert first."

That's my kind of bumper sticker, and a philosophy that should have applications beyond meals, such as a review of the year just "past."

I use the quotes around "past," because it's a not-very-well-kept secret of magazine production that the "past" is prologue: it's only October as I write this, so many things, including what's for Christmas dinner chez Tartaro and the presidential and federal election results remain unknown.

But gunowners have had plenty of "dessert" already as I write this.

There's mostly good news from the states, where the march toward shall-issue laws grew this year, along with reciprocity expansion.

The states with carry laws seem to have finally realized that a carry license granted in say, Washington state, should imply, at minimum, that the Evergreen Staters can be trusted in a dozen other states as well. (For a list of states which offer reciprocity with others, go to the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms website, www.ccrkba.com. The reciprocity guide is listed under "General Interest" on the homepage and is updated frequently.)

One of my favorite responses to anti-gunners who say, "If we can license drivers, why not gunowners?" is to say, "But a New York driver's license is good in every other state in the union, but a New York concealed carry permit isn't good anywhere else, even in some other parts of the state."

There are gunowners who argue that reciprocity is a false issue, but frankly, these folks are intellectual Luddites. Yes, it would be nice if the Constitution's Full Faith and Credit provisions applied to carry licenses, just as it would be nice if the 2nd Amendment was inarguably the law of the land, from Maine to Hawaii and from Florida to Alaska.

But that's not the way it works in the modern world, and reciprocity provides advantages to gunowners across the country, especially those who do a lot of traveling.

Similarly, the recently passed federal law which allows police officers (both active and retired) to be armed outside their jurisdictions, is a law which benefits all gunowners, who argue, quite rightly, that an armed citizenry is the best deterrent to crime, and useful in time of national or natural emergency.

When states finally move into the "shall issue" category, there's usually at least one newspaper editorial worrying about impending "blood in the streets." It never happens, and although the editorial boards seldom, if ever, correct themselves, it will be instructive to see if anyone notices that newly enfranchised law enforcement officers, like similarly endowed airline pilots, don't prove the core argument of gun rights activists: citizens protect this country and its people more readily and completely than the police in any given jurisdiction, or military, can.

A symbolic victory for gunowners was also won in September in Washington. We can think of it as a "low-carb" dessert, then, when the House of Representatives voted to restore gun rights to the citizens of the District of Columbia.

It's a name-only win, because the Senate will not vote on this measure this term, sending action back to both houses of Congress in the next session. But, once again, it speaks to a newly-found understanding on the part of legislators that gun control doesn't work very well.

The centerpiece of victories this year was the sunsetting of the federal "assault weapons" ban.

This fraudulent confection only made it into law originally by a couple of squeaky votes (the squeaking being done by lawmakers who had their arms twisted by Bill Clinton). Clinton, who demanded the legislation and bit his lip over the fact that "one day" without it was misery for the nation's police officers, then decamped for Martha's Vineyard and waited two weeks to sign it.

The "sunset" provision (that is, the fact that it would expire unless specifically renewed by Congress and signed again by the president) was part of the compromise that got it passed.
But the 2004 Congress was a whole different critter than the 1994 version, and some Democrats have learned, if not to love guns, then to tolerate them, at least for short-term political expediency.

The biggest effect on gunowners of the sunset will be, not as the shrilling voices of the Brady Campaign would have it, Uzis on every street corner, but that consumers can once again buy long guns that were criminalized over cosmetic features and handguns with standard capacity magazines.

Finally, in the plus column this year, goes the fine showing by American sport shooters, across the country and across the globe. Some of them are detailed in this issue (see related feature), but, unfortunately, not all the individual achievements at regional and local matches find their way into our pages. Our congratulations, nonetheless, to those who literally stepped up to the line this year, and came away with a victory.

And, so, dessert this year truly was delicious. We only hope the rest of the meal is just as good.

Peggy Tartaro

Photo © Copyright 1998 Nancy Floyd, used with permission.