Gun-car analogy is apples and oranges

John M. McGrail, Las Vegas

Saturday, April 27, 2013 | 2:01 a.m.

In his letter, “A comparison of guns and cars,” Richard Pratt writes, “Why would people be willing to pass driving tests, register cars and follow laws and regulations in order to own a car, but resist any and all restrictions on owning guns?”

He is comparing apples and oranges. He has mixed up the difference between owning a car and driving a car on public streets. You do not have to do any of those things to own a car. Just go to a car dealer, put up the cash and you own the car. No license or registration is required to own it. Furthermore, if you have it towed to your farm, ranch or private track, you can then drive it to your heart’s content without any of the so called “requirements” he lists.

Mr. Pratt then writes, “If it is too much to ask gun owners to register their guns, pass safety and background tests, and abide by a few common-sense restrictions on using a gun, then it also should be too much for car owners to do the same.”

He is right, it is too much to ask car owners to jump through all of those hoops just to buy a car and drive it on their property. Only when you drive a car on public streets does the state have authority to make you follow regulations such as testing, licenses and registrations. Likewise, only if you desire to carry a firearm concealed in public should you have to follow various requirements for testing or have a concealed carry license. That is the correct analogy.