Our View: Internet provides dangerous loophole on gun sales

[Robb]

(snip)

We will avoid the breathless panic of either side of the gun-control issue: Criminals and others prohibited from owning guns are not the only people who gravitate to the Internet to buy a gun, but neither are Second Amendment defenders who fear a federal gun registry.

The point is that the "loophole" of the Brady Law is real. Gun shows and Internet firearms forums attract those whose criminal intentions are accommodated by the lack of background checks.

Remembering Congress' rejection this spring of expanded background checks — precisely targeting gun shows and Internet sales — is like reliving a bad dream: overwhelming popular support and overwhelming National Rifle Association membership support thwarted by overwhelming NRA leadership influence. Even the horrifying memory of 20 elementary school children killed in Connecticut in December wasn't enough to shake 60 senators out of their lobbyist-induced hypnosis.

The federal government has updated laws about commerce, copyright, intellectual property, taxes, privacy, personal safety, obscenity and more since the advent of the Internet. There can be no reasonable resistance to changing the laws governing the acquisition of firearms to keep pace with technology.

Closing the loopholes won't keep guns out of the hands of those who are qualified to own them, and it will reduce the number of unqualified purchasers, so what's not to like?....

Read More: http://www.southcoasttoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130807/OPINION/308070310/-1/news

[AnotherMcIntosh]

1. If the real goal is to keep keep guns out of the hands of those who are not qualified to own them,

why don't gun controllers show an interest in keeping criminals who use firearms in their criminal activities in prison longer?

Somehow the revolving-door justice system doesn't seem to be of interest to them?

[Robb]

2. Proponents of gun safety legislation tend to be progressives.

Progressives don't tend to support mandatory minimum sentencing or other measures designed to prop up the prison industrial complex.

[AnotherMcIntosh]

3. I'm a liberal and I don't believe that "Proponents of gun safety legislation tend to be progressives

There are gun controllers who never seem to have an agenda of calling for economic reform, another way to reduce unnecessary gun violence.

I blame gun controllers for the 1994 loss of Congress after having 40 years of having a Democratic
Congress and Democratic Party policies which led to the rise of the American middle-class.

We benefited as a whole when the Democratic Party controlled Congress with Democratic policies.

The Republicans do not share the policies and values. From 1954 through 1994, the Democratic Party controlled Congress.

In 1994, there was a loss of 54 seats. A major loss. Bill Clinton attributed the AWB in his autobiography as being a major factor.

The gun controllers who go into the Gungeon to bait other DUers may be sincerely ignorant of the 1994 losses. Or they may be so arrogant and selfish that they simply don't care. Or they may be Republican sock-puppets. It can be hard to tell. But many of them want to repeat the 1994 election.

I question, if there are gun controllers who are sincere, do they ever raise issues for economic reform? Or are all their anti-gun energies directed towards using emotional language and trying to shut down all views contrary to theirs?

[Robb]

4. That's a lot of words to say "people who don't agree with me are GOP shills."

But keep at it if that works for you.

[AnotherMcIntosh]

5. You are misrepresenting what I said because replying to the truth is not good enough.

What I actually said was

"The gun controllers who go into the Gungeon to bait other DUers may be sincerely ignorant of the 1994 losses. Or they may be so arrogant and selfish that they simply don't care. Or they may be Republican sock-puppets. It can be hard to tell. But many of them want to repeat the 1994 election."

Sincerely ignorant is not equivalent to "GOP shills."

Arrogant and selfish to the point of simply not carring is not equivalent to "GOP shills."

And if you believe that there are no Republican sock-puppets on this board, not one, I've got some ocean-front property in Arizona to sell you. Great view. You'll like it.

[onehandle]

6. The Internet is for two things. Porn and guns.

The danger are the people who can't tell the difference.