DjTj; my position has never been one that challenged strengthing the current laws or limiting access to certain weapons; my contention is and always has been trusting our govt to enforce them properly and ensure the intent is clear and concise in a manner that doesn't open the door for selective enforcement. Also, in regards to registering weapons, is my privacy going to be maintained? How difficult will it before people to get their hands on "public" information that will lead people to my home when I'm not home so they can rob me?
Paranoid? Hell yea, how anyone can blindly trust our govt is beyond me! ESPECIALLY, when your faith is dependent upon what party you align yourself with. Talk about blind! If a Dem is in office and you're one, faith and trust is given. Flip the party and the faith and trust disappear. I don't get that, a party doesn't determine my loyalty. My loyalty is given to the person who has the best interest of the people in mind when they make decisions about policy. Someone supporting the ban on assault weapons can give me a VALID reason supported by facts instead of speculation I might change my stance.
"Why would anyone need an assault weapon?" Because they can and why should I impose my opinion upon them. It's like "why does anyone need a crotch rocket that goes 200mph?" Because they can. Does it mean they'll drive it that fast? Is it "necessary" to have that much power at your disposal? Do you know that super sport style bikes have a fatality rate that's 4X higher than all other motorcycles? Ban them!!!!!!!!
You see, I'm not against restrictions, I just expect real, fact based rationale and proof that by carrying out such restrictions will have the intended affect. Simply; are the guns, particularly the ones being targeted the problem? Will their ban help prevent something like Sandy Hook from happening? Is the motivation truly for protection or political gain? I'm 100% against policy that targets a fictitious "culprit" just so a political party can claim they "fixed" the problem with cherry picked numbers and statistics.
So this government you speak of doesn't hamstring, hogtie or render ineffective those that oppose them? I'm just wondering if it isn't the pot calling the kettle black? If it wasn't for the corruption, greed and self-serving politicians there wouldn't be a need for lobbyists.
For a very long time, I have often referred to myself as "sort of a gun nut" at various times, so I think it's a great term and perfectly valid in both light-hearted and castigating manner. As with all such things, I simply prefer it be accurately applied.
Well, as in other areas, I may be stepping on toes and annoying people on more than one "side" when I write on this topic, but first, from what I would call a position of relative ignorance (by my standards), I think the framers seemed to be mainly focused on the importance of having the whole population as armed as possible, given our continental army needed a great deal of outside-our-control circumstance to win the war , we were concerned about future British retaliation (them winning it back) and we still had much less of a standing army force (however impressively we battled) than most of Europe at that time. I also have no problem, given their recent experiences, with the contention that they considered “home-grown tyranny” or regional abuses of power, as something to additionally protect against.
From more the areas I am anything but ignorant about (by the highest of standards), I also figure that were those men of that day (as would be true IMV of any group of intelligent humans in any body of that time) be able to foresee either the changes in quantity and nature of weaponry available to all, or our level of issues of cultural violence, or of the country’s nature as a whole over its ensuing history to this point in time, that it would be unlikely they would hold to exactly the same thoughts they did then, whatever those thoughts truly were in each individual’s mind. That‘s just a rational and inevitably logical supposition to me.
I would not expect intelligent people anywhere to think the exact same things on any vital matter were they able to be transported into an entirely different nation of the future. The basic principles can still hold, and much of a brilliant guiding schematic be held in enough esteem to make change exceedingly demanding, but I expect a great many things would be tempered by all the new information. It being otherwise would be truly frightening to me, and I guess we wouldn’t have any amendments.
These are all components to why I find there is a lot of room between "gun restrictions" and "absolute bans" that is worth talking about, and I’d hope many of the framers would likely agree from having read them. I also would add that I reserve the reasonable (IMO) right to not care whether they did or not above all other concerns. They also were good with blacks and women not being allowed to vote and were they here to have argued for keeping that as it was, I wouldn’t care, either.
This kind of view doesn't dismiss 100% (since we have so many binary thinkers) or even any significant degree of all they legislated in the Constitution, it's just part of a rationale to deploy some changes at some times in some areas to be determined by today’s society, and only after appropriately required strenuous debate and social testing. It may be maddening at times to all involved, that some changes are even allowed or are so difficult to obtain, even when in hindsight things like blacks and women voting seem so “obviously right”, but it’s a burden I can live with, still.
Last edited by Jumbo; January-17th-2013 at 01:11 PM.
"Captain, it's a viewpoint--not one of ours! We're under attack!"
"I see it, ensign! Engage amygdala! Transfer all power from frontal lobes!
Suspend critical thinking field! Go to course heading of reflexive response 101 at full bias!
Now!'Enter' at will!"
"It ain't what you don't know that gets you into trouble. It's what you know for sure that just ain't so."
this doesn't make any sense to me.
this 'government that i speak of' has an agency in place to police the laws, and the NRA and their right wing stooges have kneecapped it for the purpose of making money for gun manufacturers. Does the second cover that? Are we only supposed to turn our guns on the government, or does it apply to those evil ****ers who have abused it?
the pot in this case is the need for enforcement of current laws. Everyone is calling for it, especially the NRA.
the kettle is that a few congressman and the NRA have subverted that and left us vulnerable to the mess we're in now.
When the self same organization who says this then does everything in it['s power to make sure those laws cannot be enforced, you realize who we're living under, and it's not our Constitution.
it's being used against us in ways it was never intended by people who's sole motivation is money. The congressmen get paid to insert the language, the NRA is funded by gun manufacturers.
We pay in blood and potentially lost rights. What do they pay?
Exploitation and subversion are not the intention of the Founders. Anyone want to bet?
~Bang
This idea that the 2nd Amendment says you can own any weapons you want, and if the government passes a law restricting your ownership of arms, then it is unconstitutional is, frankly, dumb. There's not a single "right" in the Bill of Rights that is guaranteed absolutely. Take the fourth amendment: no unreasonable search and seizures. However, the government can ransack your home when they have probable cause. Take the first amendment: free speech. Yet, the government can prosecute you for saying you are going to kill the president, for example, or restrict the availability of speech to certain people.
I digress here, but how awesome/ironic/telling is it that one of the first things we heard in response to gun laws being promised was that Hollywood was responsible for this as much as anyone because of movies and video games glorifying violence. Don't you realize that you are saying we need to restrict someone's First Amendment rights when we say that? I'm not saying its wrong to want to limit these games/movies, but to use that as a way to say "restricting my second amendment rights" is wrong is just hysterical.
The thing that is patently absurd about all this is that all these assault weapon owners and advocates don't get that restricting your rights, or regulating them, does not mean its unconstitutional. All of your rights can be limited in some way by the federal government for the most part. But there are complicated tests and analyses that go into determining whether they go too far.
I'll also note that the Second Amendment talks about a "well regulated militia" being necessary... "the right to bear arms"... shall not be infringed. So, do those advocating for no assault weapons ban think that laws making it illegal to buy, sell, produce, transfer nuclear weapons is unconstitutional? Is that infringing on your rights? Why not if the second amendment guarantees absolutely your right to bear arms?
Finally, I'll just say from a practical analysis (and not a legal one), that we generally feel that a person's right to do or own something ceases when it starts to infringe on someone else's rights. For example, you don't have a first amendment right to defame someone because it infringes on their rights to privacy, etc. The second amendment is very susceptible to this. You may think you own a right to own an assault weapon, but all the people that get killed by assault weapons also have a right to not be killed by assault weapons. Now, you can blame the person not the gun all you want, but that's not very persuasive. Guns play some role in a person getting shot. If you can't see that, you are blind. And your right to own whatever gun you want, infringes on other peoples rights to not be worried about people that have these weapons, practically.
Let's be level headed about these things. People don't need guns that can shoot 100 armor piercing bullets in 5 seconds without reloading. Sorry, you don't need that. We can have common sense answers that preserve your second amendment rights but protect people as well. Just like the laws against you owning a nuclear bomb.
What would A World Without Lawyers be like?
This was the type informed response I was selfishly hoping to add to my knowledge base, since there is only so much time for me to research so many different things calling my attention. Honeslty, I don;t know how I get done what I get done. Especially considering the recently updated (by loving peers, family, and friends) inventory of my limitations.
"Captain, it's a viewpoint--not one of ours! We're under attack!"
"I see it, ensign! Engage amygdala! Transfer all power from frontal lobes!
Suspend critical thinking field! Go to course heading of reflexive response 101 at full bias!
Now!'Enter' at will!"
"It ain't what you don't know that gets you into trouble. It's what you know for sure that just ain't so."
What would A World Without Lawyers be like?
If your concern is privacy, then the law can provide for that. There was a provision in the recently passed New York law that gave local jurisdictions the power to control the privacy of their gun registrations. If you really don't trust the government to keep your privacy, I would be a lot more worried about my tax records, which have my address and how much money I make. Or my car registration that has my address and what kind of car I drive. Wouldn't a burglar actually be less likely to target a home that has guns? When you are not home, I hope that your guns are locked up in a way that doesn't make it too easy for them to be stolen.
I think there is a lot of gray area between paranoia and blind trust. "Trust but verify" is what Reagan liked to say.Paranoid? Hell yea, how anyone can blindly trust our govt is beyond me! ESPECIALLY, when your faith is dependent upon what party you align yourself with. Talk about blind! If a Dem is in office and you're one, faith and trust is given. Flip the party and the faith and trust disappear. I don't get that, a party doesn't determine my loyalty. My loyalty is given to the person who has the best interest of the people in mind when they make decisions about policy.
We actually do have restrictions on the features of street legal motorcycles.Someone supporting the ban on assault weapons can give me a VALID reason supported by facts instead of speculation I might change my stance.
"Why would anyone need an assault weapon?" Because they can and why should I impose my opinion upon them. It's like "why does anyone need a crotch rocket that goes 200mph?" Because they can. Does it mean they'll drive it that fast? Is it "necessary" to have that much power at your disposal? Do you know that super sport style bikes have a fatality rate that's 4X higher than all other motorcycles? Ban them!!!!!!!!
http://www.americanmotorcyclist.com/...aspx?stateid=8
And of course, you must wear a helmet, and it is illegal to drive more than 200mph on public roads.
The simple facts are this: A restriction on magazine size to 10 bullets would make the clips used in Newtown, Aurora, and Tuscon illegal. It would make some of ammunition used at Virginia Tech illegal. Virginia has already changed its mental health laws related to gun background checks. More changes could keep guns out of the hands of future shooters.You see, I'm not against restrictions, I just expect real, fact based rationale and proof that by carrying out such restrictions will have the intended affect. Simply; are the guns, particularly the ones being targeted the problem? Will their ban help prevent something like Sandy Hook from happening? Is the motivation truly for protection or political gain? I'm 100% against policy that targets a fictitious "culprit" just so a political party can claim they "fixed" the problem with cherry picked numbers and statistics.
I feel like the difference between a gun control advocate and a gun rights advocate is really just what you feel like the baseline should be. It seems like you look at the assault weapons ban and say, "Prove to me that it will work." I look at a proposal for gun control and I ask myself, what is the cost vs. the benefit?
The costs that I see are inconvenience for gun owners, less enjoyment for recreational shooters, and a decreased ability to fight the government/Communists/zombies. From what I can tell, the assault weapons ban will have little to no effect on the ability to protect yourself in a home invasion kind of situation. If you need to fire more than 10 shots without reloading you are probably in a situation that is going to require the police to resolve. The cosmetic regulations (pistol grip, collapsible stock, flash suppressor) don't seem to have much application in a self defense situation.
The benefits I see are that such restrictions could marginally limit the effectiveness of an attacker. While restricting magazine size and forcing someone to reload more often isn't going to prevent an attack, even a half-second could give a bystander time to act, or even to shoot back, if the bystander is armed. I think that in the case of the Oregon mall shooting, an armed bystander was able to confront the shooter when he was having trouble reloading.
I'm not really going to strongly defend the cosmetic restrictions because they are probably the least likely to have a tangible effect, but making civilian guns less military-like in their styling could affect the way people think about and use their guns. And there is little downside that I can see.
If we can make reduce the effectiveness of mass shooters and criminals, while having no real effect on the ability of law-abiding citizens to defend themselves, I will support it. Your balancing of these factors may be different.
Talk about playoffs in college football:
http://www.talkaboutplayoffs.com/
We're talking about playoffs?!-TJ
I don't watch Fox News and I am not a member of the NRA so I might not be qualified to answer. I am a gun owner who does not have an issue with universal background checks.
It is not a gun show issue it is a face to face transfer issue. The "Gun Show Loophole" is a brilliant piece of marketing in that it makes people think that anyone can walk into a gun show and buy anything they want with no checks. That is not how it works. Every registered dealer at a gun show is going to run the check on every sale. They have no interest in risking their business and way of life to make an extra sale. Especially in the current environment of mass panic buying. Where the "loophole" come in is with face to face transfers. Gun shows attract people who want to buy and sell guns. Some times they get together, and in some states they can sell guns to each other. No different than any other piece of personal property. This phenomena is not isolated to gun shows, it happens anywhere a buyer and a seller find each other.
You can make a law stating that every gun sale must go through a background check, but how do you enforce it? Has there ever been a government in history that could effectively regulate individual sales of items between two people? Just having the law in place would probably keep most law abiding gun owners from selling without a check.
How do you implement it? Do both the buyer and the seller have to travel to a gun store to have the check done? Will gun stores be willing to do checks for people, essentially diverting business away from themselves? What will they charge people to do the checks if they are willing? Maybe they have to go to the local police station. That is how it works in Maryland for regulated guns. Or do you open up the NICS system to allow any seller to call and do the check on their own?
These are just a few of the questions that lead to some of the concerns opponents may have.
Suddenly my works firewall is blocking me because of this thread being categorized as "weapons" so I'm reduced to using my phone and can't respond without wanting to throw it across the room! However, I will say that I have a massive amount of respect for your opinion and words in this post. This is the kind of discussion I'm hoping for and I appreciate the manner in which you articulated it.
But one thing...not every state requires helmets or the same restrictions on motorcycles. Again, for the millionth time, my contention is more for how these restrictions will be enforced and prosecuted than it is with the intent.
Car sales and boat sales have to be registered. Land sales must be recorded. You're not supposed to hire anyone without checking their immigration status.
Just make people go to the police station. You could even allow buyers to get pre-cleared licenses that expire after a certain amount of time so the buyer and seller don't necessarily need to go to the police station together.
It might be impossible to police every single sale, but we can have penalties for unauthorized sales, and harsh penalties for anyone who sells a gun without a background check if that gun ends up being used in a crime. It doesn't seem like it should be that difficult.
Talk about playoffs in college football:
http://www.talkaboutplayoffs.com/
We're talking about playoffs?!-TJ
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