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2015-10-01 -Land of the Free
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I Know How America Should Implement Gun Control
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Some of the worst gun grabbers are veterans and gun owners. Those are people who believe that the 2nd Amendment applies to them alone, and no one else, save for whoever can successfully jump through the hoops they wish to impose on everyone else to obtain and carry a gun.
Via David Codrea via Oathkeepers.
Last week, there was yet another campus shooting. This time, it was at Florida State University. The exhaustingly predictable cycle of mass shooting, recycled talking points from all sides, proposed legislation, insider lobbying, stagnation, and loss of public interest is about to begin and has been repeated far too many times in recent memory. Face it: the gun rights debate in this country is stale.
| I looked up that mass shooting. It was back in November of last year, and the shooter was literally certifiable, according to subsequent reports like this one. In fact, the gentleman sought psychiatric treatment and took the prescribed meds, the result of which apparently made him so much worse that his friends pleaded with the local mental health professionals to lock him up until he was stabilized. They didn't, which is a very good argument for reopening the insane asylums, and a terrible one for increasing gun control. |
In May, I talked about how both sides are wrong and said that we need to have some common sense.
Here we go. The writer wants to claim the "middle' of the debate when in fact he has already staked out his ground with the above statement. That is a dishonest start to a dishonest opinion.
Today, I am calling on lawmakers to have some damn courage.
Me, too. Repeal the National Firearms Act of 1933, just for starters.
If you feel, like the fringe gun lobby does, that my six-year-old son's life is less important than your right to own whatever firearm and ammunition you want, then say that.
| Given that the odds are that if anyone shoots your son it will either be an insane person who should be in an asylum or an unlicensed gangster who acquired his handgun illegally, going after the sane and law-abiding is counterproductive. If you want to deal in common sense, that is. |
Don't hide behind meaningless rhetoric or claim you're ready for action only to back off when the NRA comes knocking. That being said, if you believe--along with a clear majority of Americans of both parties--that modest regulation of weapons designed for the sole purpose of killing humans seems reasonable, that's a pretty easy public position to take.
My right to obtain and carry a firearm is more important than your hellspawn's life. If you can't protect yourself, or you refuse to have responsibility to protect yourself through the use of firearms, you can just go unarmed. Don't expect me and 80 million others to go quietly into that good night of government sponsored tyranny without a firearm.
And before you jump to assumptions, know that I'm no hippie. As a former weapons instructor in the U.S. Navy, I own guns myself--and I want to keep them. However, I believe that our society is overflowing with lethal weapons and that we must take action to prevent more dead kids. Mass shootings are on the rise. Children are dying. When will it be enough to actually do something? Who has the courage to do the right thing--money from special interest groups be damned?
Fewer dead kids; that's his goal. More dead political opponents goes hand to hand with what he proposes. And using laws and government to prevent crime is the reaction of a tyrant, and support for that reaction is the venue of a serf.
I'll make it easy for lawmakers. Here is the first common sense step for what we need to do, at the state level, to maintain our constitutional right to bear arms while arming ourselves with the tools to be safer in public.
Licensing, to be renewed every five years with full background checks and mental health screenings, is the first step. Adding a checkbox to a driver's license and another form would make this easy to implement. My driver's license tells folks that I am a donor; it could very easily also indicate whether or not I am a gun owner or authorized to carry concealed firearms.
I think he's on to something here. A donkey checkbox for Democrat, an elephant for a Republican and a portrait of Che or Castro, or better yet a fasci for someone who hates guns. Then we could have a checkbox for Christians with a cross, a yellow Star of David for Jews, and a crescent for Muslim.
Before you tell me how I am violating your rights by proposing a record of gun owners, note that the constitution does not say that you have the right to bear arms and not tell anyone. We regulate chemicals, elevators, airplanes, and financial transactions--and none of those are specifically designed to kill anyone.
The actual act itself of keeping a record of firearms owners, which the government already has, but for the existence of a hostile and well armed government doesn't violate anyone's rights as long as it is completely voluntary. But the government, being the recursive entity it is, will get up to no good with such an activity and will impose such a requirement, and will violate the right to life and liberty with such lists, as it is doing now. Regulations for the purpose of regulating economic activity are not the same thing as recording information on gun owners, and to suggest that it is is so over the top a lie, it is hard to believe it can be considered serious.
The next step is requiring 40 hours of training prior to license approval. I'm here to tell you that there is little value to having a firearm if one is cannot employ it tactically. I'm not saying we need owners to be trained to the level of Navy SEALs or SWAT teams, but if you claim to want these weapons to protect your home, then you should at least have a baseline knowledge. The training hours should jump to 80 hours for a concealed carry permit. This training should be done by the government to ensure consistency and quality control and should be covered by the tax on ammunition.
Training required by, and administered by the Gang That Can't Shoot Straight. But I agree: knowing how to use a gun tactically is useful if you expect to find yourself in a tactical situation. Most people, however, use their firearm for point defense. They expect to camp out inside the spaces of their own domicile, and will use a firearm if trouble comes to them. They have little illusion about countering threats with tactical knowledge mostly because most people expect to have a firearm and have a ready-made tactical advantage on any hostile threat. Hard to see how tactical training would improve that. In such cases the tactics are already laid out, already determined: You come into the field of fire of an armed individual defending his own property, if you have ill intent, you will be shot. You can go out and engage bad guys with a firearm, if you wish; you can go all Rambo on a threat, if you wish, but you will better survive an encounter with a hostile threat if the tactics are already in your favor. All the tactical training in the world will not shift the odds away from you. In fact, in my opinion, the only reason you should get tactical training is to counter government goons sent by fascists such as this Navy veteran seeking to take your property and your life.
And finally, to pay for the licensing process and training as well as the background and mental health screenings, we can add a modest tax to ammunition sales (think five to ten cents per round--a manageable amount). This way, the costs are spread amongst those who wish to own guns.
No, costs are not "spread". They are concentrated into the hands of a politically disfavored group: gun owners. And the main intention of ammunition tax is to end private reloading. I can see a law in which the government will fund seek and destroy programs intended to seize self loaded ammunition under the paradigm that the detainees are avoiding paying a tax. The government will not tolerate anyone avoiding a tax, and the current courts system will back up any legislation, just as long as more and more money can flow towards government.
My hometown city charter calls out public safety as the number one priority; many politicians around the country say the same thing, and I'd like to see them put their money where their mouths are. The question is pretty simple: do your lawmakers have the courage to protect you?
Your hometown lawmakers are a buncha fascists. And government by definition will protect no entity other than government. If lawmakers wanted to "protect" us they would not have passed the 20,000 gun laws already on the books. They just want your money, your guns and your life, in that order.
Call your state senators, your assembly members, your mayors, and your city councils. Tell them that you want to protect your kids. You want to protect your communities. Hell, you want to protect yourself. Tell them that, with the stroke of a pen, they can improve safety for their constituents and side with the clear majority of Americans.
Yeah, democracy rules. That's why we have a 2nd Amendment. Gun owners still get a vote when the people become fascists and serfs.
And if they try to run you around or brush you off, remember to ask them if they think the right to own as many firearms as one wants without anyone else knowing about it is more important than the lives of America's children--including yours and theirs. 
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Posted by badanov 2015-10-01 00:00||
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