Stricter gun control divides gun owners in Mid-Michigan - ABC 12 – WJRT – Flint, MI

(02/25/13) - Questions continue to be raised regarding stricter gun control laws.

The issue has divided gun owners in Mid-Michigan.

Kadeem Carter, only 20 years old, was killed in Flint in a drive by shooting in April 2011.

"We got the news and everything that Kadeem was one of the guys who was killed," said Cynthia Carter, Kadeem's mother.

His parents say the shooter sprayed his car with bullets from an assault rifle.

"Fifteen bullets, like that, real quick. His car was hit, 13 to 15 bullets hit that car," said Ed Carter, Kadeem's father.

According to the FBI, the same year Kadeem was murdered, 323 people in the US were killed by rifles.

"More assaults are committed each year by a baseball bat than an assault rifle," said Tom Wright, owner of Williams Gun Sight.

FBI stats seem to back that up.

In 2011, 496 people were killed by some kind of club. But it's assault rifles that are under the microscope because someone can fire so many rounds so quickly, possibly killing so many.

"Why does anyone need a 30 round magazine? That is the question a lot of people ask. My response to that is you need a 30 round magazine if the bad people who want to do something bad to you have more than 30 rounds. It's that simple," Wright said.

It's Flint Police Chief Alvern Lock's job to lock up those bad guys.

In the evidence locker, you'll find hundreds and hundreds of guns taken from criminals - including assault rifles, just like the ones his officers carry.

"We have to react to what we encounter on the street. We started to encounter this on the street and so we had to go with this also," Lock said.

Lock says his officers are often out gunned. He sees no reason people should own assault rifles.

"You do not hunt with these, you don't need 30 rounds to hunt with. These guns are designed by the Military to kill people, that's all they are designed for," he said.

Rifles are sold at many stores you shop at everyday. We wanted to find out how easy it is to buy one, so we went to Williams Gun Sight in Davison.

All ABC12's Angela Brown had to do was fill out a form. It's a couple of pages long, asking more than 20 questions.

Once it's filled out, they called the national instant criminal background system to check if she was a criminal or shouldn't have a gun.

Less then 10 minutes later, she was approved to buy any gun she wanted.

"Why should it be long time? As long as you are OK, why should it take a long time?" Wright said.

Soon, buying a gun may not be so easy. The president is proposing required criminal background checks for all gun sales, including private sales, which are exempt, along with reinstating the ban on military style rifles.

But one of the biggest proposed changes deals with the number of rounds in a magazine. The president is proposing limiting ammunition magazine count from 30 rounds to 10.

Chief Lock agrees.

"It may not make a difference in your particular instance, but what if your child is in the building and someone comes in with 30 rounds or 10, which one would you prefer?" he said.

But Wright says limiting magazines to 10 rounds won't make a difference.

"I could take six 10 round magazines and stuff them in my pocket and I could change them just as fast as I can shoot two 30 round magazines. It's how I am using them, it is my intent," he said.

Kadeem's parents believe the person who shot up their son's car had only one intent - to kill. They believe their son was not the target.

Next March, Kadeem would have turned 22. His killer is still out there.

The Carter's believe something should be done to make guns tougher to get, so other parents do not have to live with the pain they live with everyday.

"They took our future," Ed said.

"They took my heart, my last born, they took my son," Cynthia said. "Whoever they are, I have already forgiven them, I just want justice."