Issue: Gun Control

[danaeris]

Gun Control, when implemented properly, is a good thing.

By properly, I don't mean adding a lot of red tape. I mean screening for criminal record and requiring safety training. I'd say also psychological stability except that just opens pandora's box, and I do NOT want to go there; I expect I'd be one of the people they'd be discriminating against if they started doing psychological profiling, and more importantly, the profiling wouldn't stop at gun control if it were implemented at all.

Laws about gun storage are also reasonable. All those tragedies about guns accidentally being fired could be prevented by observance of basic safety rules, trigger locks, gun cabinets, etc.

I'm not convinced that having to register each individual gun is worth the expense. After all, do criminals purchase their arms legally? There may be some value to this, however... its possible that only organized crime could get ahold of illegally imported/manufactured arms, if all the guns in the country had to be registered. This would cut down on youth and gang violence, among other forms of disorganized crime.

Ultimately, I do believe that it should be possible for a law abiding citizen to own the firearms necessary to defend their home in wartime and revolt in the case of a government gone out of control. It may not be the way we established our government, but it is the way Americans did it. Of course, if a government ever got in power that was that bad, the right to bear arms would have already been eroded anyway, so this may be a moot point.

Comments

gun background checks

[admiralthrawn.livejournal.com]

MA just instituted a new system where they linked all sorts of databases together so that they can do instant background checks; the gun dealer just swipes your drivers license and within seconds it has done all the relevant checking to give them the yes or no. The privacy nut in me worries a little bit about that much info being gathered in one place, but it's neat that they cared enough to cut out the more painful delays and bits of red tape while increasing the amount of things they were checking for.

Re: gun background checks

[auros]

It's never been clear to me why people would object to waiting a week to make a gun purchase, if that was what it took to do a thorough check on licensing, whether the person is a criminal, etc. I mean, if you want your gun for hunting, home defense, or "just in case" (though in that case, I think you ought to bear in mind that the US military fields more firepower than a few AK-47s is going to deal with; successful armed insurrection against a modern Western gov't is rather improbable) surely you don't go out and look for one with less than a week to spare.

Sure, a quicker check is convenient. But why is this a big deal?

Re: gun background checks

[happypete.livejournal.com]

It's a good point...my personal opinion is that everyone who is competent and willing to make life-or-death decisions to protect their life or the lives of their loved ones should know how to use a gun safely, own a gun, and keep it.

If it takes a week to get their first gun, who cares...but if crooks knew that 95% of the houses they were thinking of breaking into were defended by lethal force, they'd take up a different occupation...if thugs knew that when they tried to mug some senior they'd find their way blocked by an "instant posse" of armed citizens, that would be the end of that.

But that's just the day-to-day practical benefit--the more important benefit of widespread, nay universal, gun ownership is that even a modern army cannot withstand an armed populace--look at what a small armed minority can do in Iraq? Now, imagine that the "insurgency" is Joe and Jane American, and there are more insurgents than troops?

Forget about it...it's the best check on government abuse of power their is.

Frankly, I think there are probably enough armed Americans out there to do the job already--thankfully I think (hope? pray?) that it'll never be an issue...

Re: gun background checks

[happypete.livejournal.com]

So, where was the follow-up? He poses the question, but I don't see the conclusions. I imagine that there's a lot more at work here--including that we have a very different social and religious structure than the Iraqis.

Re: gun background checks

[auros]

it's the best check on government abuse of power there is.

Think again.

All through the rise and reign of Saddam, the average Iraqi household was better armed than the average American household.

An armed populace is clearly not an adequate check on an abusive gov't.