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Edited on Thu Jun-18-09 01:26 PM by gorfle
Now, our police are outgunned on our own streets.
Yet police murders continue to be on the decline and are at the lowest levels in years.
Gun show loopholes allow would-be terrorists or haters easy access to guns.
But no more access than, say, the classified ads in your local newspaper, or web sites like www.gunbroker.com
Concealed weapons will take an ever-greater toll as they turn bar arguments into lethal encounters.
Every state that has taken up "shall issue" CCW permits has had a decrease in crime. The "blood in the streets" hue and cry never came to pass. CCW permit holders have been shown to be many times, sometimes hundreds of times less likely to be involved in any crime, let alone firearm crime, than your average citizen.
There are at least 200 million guns in America.
Belonging to some 40-80 million potential voters.
This isn't about hunting deer or quail. This is about arming the haters, giving them the right to conceal weapons or arm themselves with assault weapons that are made for only one thing: killing lots of people.
Interestingly, the second amendment is not about hunting deer or quail either. The second amendment is about putting military-grade small arms in the hands of the citizenry so as to be able to eliminate the need for or at least counter federal infantry power. Yes, military-grade small arms are designed to kill lots of people - that is what military forces do.
Hate is on the rise. Guns are on the rise. Hate and guns are a deadly combination.
And yet firearm crime is in decline.
Most Americans are neither haters nor gun nuts.
So let's not pass laws that adversely affect the majority of gun owners for the sake of a few bad apples.
Most support commonsense laws to limit easy access to guns.
Before we can decide what constitutes a "commonsense law" concerning firearms we have to agree on the intent of the second amendment.
Few want to arm themselves with a concealed weapon to enter a restaurant or a national park.
But those few who do have been shown to be among the most law-abiding citizens in the nation.
It is hard to find anyone who thinks it a good idea for our police to be outgunned on our streets, or for would-be terrorists to have easy access to assault weapons.
But police murder continues to be on the decline. But that's a nice tip of the hat to the "war on terra" boogeyman.
Guns will not provide economic security.
I imagine the firearm and ammunition manufacturers would beg to differ, considering the epic run on both goods since President Obama took office. In any case, the second amendment is not about securing economic freedom.
Hunters do not need assault weapons to kill deer.
The second amendment is not about hunting.
Honest gun owners have a huge stake in policing the sale of guns so the nuts and haters have a hard time getting them.
I have suggested a way to to this several times:
Today, the only firearm sales that go through a National Instant Check System (NICS) background check are those through a federally licensed dealer. All intra-state private sales, whether at a gun show between two private individuals, at a kitchen table, through a newspaper classified ad, or through a web site, do not have to go through a background check.
To halt this deficiency I propose the following:
Whenever anyone goes to obtain a driver's license or state-issued ID, they will automatically be screened through NICS for firearm ownership suitability, unless they choose to opt out. If you pass the NICS check, the back of your driver's license or state-issued ID will be marked with a Firearm Ownership ID (FOID) number. This number indicates that you are illegible to own firearms.
At any time, should you be convicted of a felony, involuntarily admitted to a mental institution, or adjudicated mentally incompetent, your ID will be revoked, and the local sheriff will be dispatched to your address to confiscate the ID and any firearms found in the possession of the individual. If the ID is conveniently "lost" and unable to be confiscated the ID could only be used for continued firearm sales until it expires, which all IDs do.
At the time of any firearm sale, public or private, the buyer will have to submit his ID to the seller, who will make a record of the FOID number and keep it for 10 years, under threat of of steep criminal penalty. Such a record could be made by hand, by photocopy of the back of the ID (which will contain no personally-identifying information), or by scanning it, or even photographing it with a cell-phone camera.
Any firearm recovered in a crime can then be traced from first sale all the way to the current owner. Any previous owner who could not provide a record of selling it would face steep criminal penalties. This would virtually eliminate "straw purchases", where someone purchases a firearm for someone not legally able to own them. Such a sale would immediately be seen as extremely risky, as if the firearm ever turned up in a crime it would be traced right back to the last legitimate owner.
Such a program would insure that every firearm owner has gone through a background check and is illegible to own firearms, while preserving anonymous firearm ownership, and provides traceability of any firearm through investigative police work and due process of law.
The majority is getting rolled by a mobilized minority.
If the rights of the minority could be trampled at will by the majority Jesse Jackson might still be a slave.
Constitutional rights are rights for all citizens.
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