02-20-2018, 12:36 PM
(02-20-2018, 12:23 PM)fredtoast Wrote: The gun laws I propose will not restrict the rights of law abiding citizens in any way. They will still be able to buy and own guns.
I guess if a law abiding citizen was insane it might restrict his activities, but I doubt you have a problem with that.
I already responded to this. If the list was never used for any purpose, ever, other than determining who is the actual owner of the gun then no one would have a problem with it. Unfortunately, that is not the case. CA is already demanding that certain types of guns be registered and that, upon the owner's death, said firearm must either be surrendered to law enforcement, rendered inoperable or permanently sent out of state. The reason that actually "reasonable" or "common sense" measures such as you propose are not supported by gun owners is because they aren't a solution to a problem, they're an opening for more restrictions down the road.
(02-20-2018, 12:26 PM)fredtoast Wrote: Yes, but they have no criminal history.
How are you going to keep guns out of the hands of criminals before you know they are criminals?
Unless they have something that red flags them in a NICS case you can't and you shouldn't. Someone should not lose a Constitutionally protected right simply because they "might" be a criminal or "might" be a bad person. What you're advocating is proactive solutions where proactive violates a person's rights. Trust me when I say law enforcement knows about a lot more crime than they can arrest people for. As Denzel put it in Training Day, it's not what you know it's what you can prove. Law enforcement could end 99% of gang violence in one week if you threw away the Constitutionally protected rights of the people law enforcement "knows" to be gang members. Crime would drop like a rock. You'd also be living in the beginnings of a police state, which, I would hope, no one here wants.
If you have freedom then some will abuse it. Freedom is painful, it comes with a lot of responsibility and you cannot have guaranteed freedom and guaranteed safety, they simply cannot coexist. I'll take freedom and the inherent risks over the blanket of big brother all day, every day.
