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Slims · 06-24-2006, 11:16 PM

What laws?

I can't think of a single firearm law that I can agree with.

Let me mention a few common ones and I will explain my issues:

1: no firearms for felons. Perfectly reasonable, except that if they can't be trusted with a firearm then they are still a danger and thus should remain in jail. Making it against the law for them to own the firearm they break the law with doesn't make much sense.

2: taking a persons firearms away before they have been convicted of a crime. If the person is that dangerous they should be in jail pending trial.

3: Banning standard (liberals, read 'high') capacity magazines. If someone is planning to go on a rampage, they can buy the illegal standard capacity magazines, or just bring extras...reloading is easy. However, when a law abiding citizen is surprised and must react he has to use what he has at hand and it would really suck to run out of ammunition.

4: Assault weapons bans. These are used in a statistically insignificant number of crimes each year. But they are used frequently for home defense applications (I have one next to the bed).

5: banning saturday night specials or inexpensive firearms. Only the rich deserve to excercise their right of responsible firearms ownership.

6: Banning concealed carry. If someone wants to use a firearm for an offensive purpose, they need only carry the weapon for a short period of time. I.e. from their house, to the victim, and back. The risk of getting caught carrying illegally is minimal. However, if someone desires to protect themselves they have to carry all the time because they lack the luxury of choosing when an attack will occur. Thus preventing legal concealed carry puts an increased burden on those who fear being attacked, but don't really effect the attacker in a meaningful way.

7: No silencers. If I have to fire my rifle indoors in order to defend my wife and I, I would prefer not to go deaf. Also, due to shooting my whole life I am already having hearing trouble. A silenced weapon allows you to shoot without bothering the neighbors. They are not quiet, just not as noisy as they otherwise would be.

8: No machine guns. Other countries have tremendous ownership rates of automatic weapons, and they don't have any problems with them. We still have many floating around in this country and they simply don't show up at crime scenes.

9: Let's register them. Except that allows a future, corrupted government to collect them at will...see Germany, Australia, etc.

10: One gun a month, or similar: I can only shoot one of them at a time, what the fuck do you care how many I own?

12: Background checks. They seem like a good idea, but they don't really do much as anyone can buy their firearms in person to person sales and get around them while paying less for their firearms. If anything they create a market for illegal guns sold off-the-books.

13: Total ban. We should do this because the places that have these (D.C., Chicago) are model success stories and their murder and crime rates have plummeted to nearly zero in recent years.

14: mandatory training. It sounds neat, but it can be used as a tool to prevent people from purchasing firearms. Over time what started out as a reasonable program can end up with an unreasonable number of classes, ridiculous standards, and a long waiting period when anti-gun burocrats use it deliberately as an obstruction.

I don't think I will ever understand how people are so willing to surrender their ability to defend themselves and ensure their safety. If you are unarmed you are, at best, on equal footing with an unarmed assailant. But if you are armed you will always be on at least equal footing.

If you don't want to accept the burden of protecting yourself then fine, curl into a ball and hope nobody notices you, but don't legislate away my ability to protect myself.

06-24-2006, 11:16 PM	#36 (permalink)
Slims Eccentric insomniac Location: North Carolina	What laws? I can't think of a single firearm law that I can agree with. Let me mention a few common ones and I will explain my issues: 1: no firearms for felons. Perfectly reasonable, except that if they can't be trusted with a firearm then they are still a danger and thus should remain in jail. Making it against the law for them to own the firearm they break the law with doesn't make much sense. 2: taking a persons firearms away before they have been convicted of a crime. If the person is that dangerous they should be in jail pending trial. 3: Banning standard (liberals, read 'high') capacity magazines. If someone is planning to go on a rampage, they can buy the illegal standard capacity magazines, or just bring extras...reloading is easy. However, when a law abiding citizen is surprised and must react he has to use what he has at hand and it would really suck to run out of ammunition. 4: Assault weapons bans. These are used in a statistically insignificant number of crimes each year. But they are used frequently for home defense applications (I have one next to the bed). 5: banning saturday night specials or inexpensive firearms. Only the rich deserve to excercise their right of responsible firearms ownership. 6: Banning concealed carry. If someone wants to use a firearm for an offensive purpose, they need only carry the weapon for a short period of time. I.e. from their house, to the victim, and back. The risk of getting caught carrying illegally is minimal. However, if someone desires to protect themselves they have to carry all the time because they lack the luxury of choosing when an attack will occur. Thus preventing legal concealed carry puts an increased burden on those who fear being attacked, but don't really effect the attacker in a meaningful way. 7: No silencers. If I have to fire my rifle indoors in order to defend my wife and I, I would prefer not to go deaf. Also, due to shooting my whole life I am already having hearing trouble. A silenced weapon allows you to shoot without bothering the neighbors. They are not quiet, just not as noisy as they otherwise would be. 8: No machine guns. Other countries have tremendous ownership rates of automatic weapons, and they don't have any problems with them. We still have many floating around in this country and they simply don't show up at crime scenes. 9: Let's register them. Except that allows a future, corrupted government to collect them at will...see Germany, Australia, etc. 10: One gun a month, or similar: I can only shoot one of them at a time, what the fuck do you care how many I own? 12: Background checks. They seem like a good idea, but they don't really do much as anyone can buy their firearms in person to person sales and get around them while paying less for their firearms. If anything they create a market for illegal guns sold off-the-books. 13: Total ban. We should do this because the places that have these (D.C., Chicago) are model success stories and their murder and crime rates have plummeted to nearly zero in recent years. 14: mandatory training. It sounds neat, but it can be used as a tool to prevent people from purchasing firearms. Over time what started out as a reasonable program can end up with an unreasonable number of classes, ridiculous standards, and a long waiting period when anti-gun burocrats use it deliberately as an obstruction. I don't think I will ever understand how people are so willing to surrender their ability to defend themselves and ensure their safety. If you are unarmed you are, at best, on equal footing with an unarmed assailant. But if you are armed you will always be on at least equal footing. If you don't want to accept the burden of protecting yourself then fine, curl into a ball and hope nobody notices you, but don't legislate away my ability to protect myself. __________________ "Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery." - Winston Churchill "All men dream: but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity: but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act out their dream with open eyes, to make it possible." Seven Pillars of Wisdom, T.E. Lawrence Last edited by Slims; 06-24-2006 at 11:18 PM..