This is what a "pro-gun" author wants to do about guns
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This is what a "pro-gun" author wants to do about guns
Here in your one-a-day gunaway we have self-proclaimed "liberal" Craig Whitney's ideas for what to do about gun violence:
Fill in the holes in the national instant-background-check database by requiring states to report, among others, seriously mentally disturbed individuals.
Crack down on firearms dealers who knowingly sell to straw purchasers.
Require gun owners to report loss or theft of weapons to local authorities within 48 hours.
"Fingerprint" bullets and cartridge casings to make it easier to trace guns used in crimes.
All common sense, right? What I find interesting is that Whitney's proposals are contained in a book called Living With Guns: A Liberal's Case for the Second Amendment. In other words, he believes -- and rightfully so -- that none of these measures interferes with an American's Constitutional right to own a gun. Yet the NRA would surely oppose most of them. Why? No American right is absolute -- free speech, for example, doesn't allow you to make death threats or, famously, yell "fire" in a crowded theater. What's so different about the 2nd Amendment?
Comments (42)
Guns ouught to be treated like automobiles--a person should need a license to own one after passing a test, renewable, and all guns should be registered and re-registered every year. Insurance against damage might help, also.
That is not everything, but it would help get a handle on part of the problem.— Archimedes- Uh-oh. I didn't realize I had to have a license to own a car. I'd better look into that new regulation.
I agree with Archimedes that I should have to pass a test initially, then get my license renewed periodically (5 years?) to carry a concealed weapon in public places. And it is advisable to have insurance to pay for any damage I cause if I discharge my weapon and damage other people's property.— Mr. Smith - sig pro is a nice gun will. about 700 bucks i think.— rysagr
- btw will you can't fingerprint bullets. first the bullet gets deformed when it hits something. second the firing pin can be reshaped in 10 seconds with a file.— rysagr
- Menawhile, thanks to our state-controlled media: "As an example, he said the list included most of the correction officers at the Rockland County Jail in New City. Because their names and home addresses were listed, and they must wear name tags while on duty, the inmates now know exactly where each guard lives, and they have been harassing and threatening those guards ever since the list appeared.
The inmates also know when the guards work, meaning they know when their families at home are alone and unprotected, and thus most subject to home invasions, kidnapping and assault. The inmates have been threatening the guards with this information since The Journal-News published the list, Nulty said, telling the guards that they have friends and family on the outside who can easily visit their homes when the guards are at work."— teardownthisfishwrap - 1 bullet fired from each weapon to be entered into ballistics data base along with serial number of said weapon. Data then follows weapon.
— gibby58 - Thanks for the Picture of the Sig/Sauer , it is Made up now (My mind) , I'm Buying Two , a His , and a His .— oldsog67
- There's no need to hurry in buying a Sig-Sauer. If the gun ban passes, it will still be in the market. It's made in Switzerland. Instead of buying it at a gun shop, you'll buy it at the street corner where the drug peddlers do their business. Drugs are illegal too, aren't they? — DonQ
- True, guns are just like crack to some people. — carl and sons
- Ahh it's just as easy for the crackhead to buy a gun if (s)he has no criminal record, genius.
— wokmaster - What about that question in the BATFE form 4473? - "Are you under the influence of alcohol or illegal drugs?"
— DonQ - Yeah I'm sure the buyer will voluntarily admit that he smokes crack. You're desperation is showing, Einstein. — wokmaster
- Of course I heard that The "Journal-News" of Lower New York Posts All The Legally licensed guns in their area by Publishing The Names , and Addresses of the Owners , so it has been making "Stealing" a Gun by Illegal entry into the Homes More Economical than Buying One , and "NO" Registration required on a stolen Gun either ,....You Reporters are really out for the working man ,.................... so what they are Burglars .— oldsog67
- You write well. For a second grader. — wokmaster
- "“You look at some of these guns, and it’s just hard to conclude that these guns should be in the hands of anyone who isn’t a soldier on a battlefield or a law enforcement officer sent into a tactical situation."
This quote brought to you by the Governor of Maryland.
The momentum continues to build.— wokmaster - Your gun should be able to hit the farthest neighbor on the next block down. Many people prefer cruise missiles, although they are really difficult to put together. One friend of mine had parts strewn about his living room for a year and a half. Still, in the end he was able to wipe out an SUV a mile away. They make a really cool sound right after you launch them— orange rhino
- Make illegal gun possession (and Medicare fraud while I'm thinking about it) capital crimes.— philly2flag
- Lets make violating the second amendment a capital crime— teardownthisfishwrap
- You mean owning a gun outside of a well-regulated militia?
OK!— carl and sons - So the only requirement for owning a gun would then be to get a whole bunch of like-mided individuals together for training and practice.
Do you reaaaallllyy want to do that?— General Turgidson - Let's look at those four points:
1 - The current computerized background check was actually proposed by the NRA. Unfortunately, there are federal laws blocking the full inclusion of mentally disturbed individuals.
2 - The largest known instance of straw purchases in the history of the BATFE was run by... the BATFE! The case is locked down by a Presidential order.
3 - Any law that turns a victim of crime into a potential criminal has serious issues with the 5th Amendment of the constitution.
4 - "Fingerprinting" bullets and casings is a fiction right out of the CSI TV show. It doesn't work, and the only reson why it's being proposed is that impementing such a law would make ammunition incredibly expensive. Back-door gun control.— DonQ - What constitutes Serious mental illness? Based on Attytood comments I'd say about 50% of conservatives believe the delusions of the Right.— chasing history
- "You mean owning a gun outside of a well-regulated militia?" Well played. Seriously, can you imagine the results of swaths of right wing types submitting to a mental competence test? It would be a hit TV show.— Murrayman
- Based on Alex Jones comments on CNN last week, I'd say you have a hit. Forget American Idol, here comes American Ammo! — The Fundamentals of the Economy are Fine
- How about 'American Gun Nutz'? — wokmaster
- I hear Ted Nugent is available! — The Fundamentals of the Economy are Fine
- Great article about the marriage of GOP and the NRA.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/how-nras-true-believers-converted-a-marksmanship-group-into-a-mighty-gun-lobby/2013/01/12/51c62288-59b9-11e2-88d0-c4cf65c3ad15_story.html?hpid=z1— wokmaster - "So the only requirement for owning a gun would then be to get a whole bunch of like-mided individuals together for training and practice." - yes - it would be must easier to surveil them.— Murrayman
- Turgidson once took a history test and answered every other question with "people with gvns" and couldn't be called wrong. "Which side won the Civil War? Which peoples settled Kansas? Who first explored the Oregon territory?— Murrayman
-
If the 2nd Amendment were applied today as intended by its drafters, we'd all be whining about compulsory militia duty.— montani semper liberi - "Require gun owners to report loss or theft of weapons to local authorities within 48 hours."...within 48 hours of what? Knee jerk "solutions" from dolts that allege they hold the mental high ground.
Until you get rid of mental defectives, a moral impossibility, there will be massacres. The emotional rants following Sandy Hook may make the ranters feel better but in the long run they will change nothing. In fact, they will decrease the effectiveness of the eventual remedial actions...good job.— 2ndNlong 
2ndNlong, you'll have to excuse some people. They tend to rant after children are senselessly slaughtered. Silly, huh? They're weak, unlike you of course, who rants only when it counts - when somebody wants to take away your killing machines.- @msl- Do you apply "intent of the drafters" to the interpretation and circumstances surrounding the 14th amendment?
Certainly the drafters did not intend it to apply to "foreign invaders" that happened to go into labor on American soil, could they?
Just curious...— Wiseman6 - The drafters intended citizenship to apply to anyone born here and subject to US jurisdiction. That would obviously not include children born to foreign invaders, but it did include children born to immigrants.
- Yeah, 2nd, why blame guns for gun violence? The authors of the American Constitution obviously envisioned firearms capable of discharging 30 or more rounds in a few seconds.— wokmaster
- @msl- Whether someone here illegally sets out to steal US property with or without the aid of the weapons of an "invader", the result is the same. You seem to afford those preferring to steal without a weapon a different fate when it comes to citizenship than I do.
It does not make any sense in the context of the ratification of the 13th and 14th amendements to extrapolate any birthright citizenship to those crossing te border in the dead of night. It further does not make any sense to award US citizenship to a people that have broken US law. Aren't we a nation of laws? Why would ignoring one be rewarded?
So to summarize, you are a strict constructionist when it comes to the 14th amendment, ignoring all context and reason, but not when it comes to the 2nd.....— Wiseman6 - Wiseman, you seem to completely misread the 14th Amendment. It applies not to your foreign law-breaker, but the innocent child born on US soil. It's been interpreted thusly since at least 1898. It confers no rights whatsoever on the foreign parents. If you have a logical argument why the framers of the 14th Amendment couldn't have foreseen children being born in the US to immigrants, whther thieves or not, then please, elaborate. — montani semper liberi
- @msl- I understand that the foreign parents do not obtain any benefit, but it is a benefit that they can pass on to their children by breaking the law. Still doesn't make any sense to me. Do we allow the innocent children of bank robbers to keep what their parents stole? What about the concept of "fruit from the poisonous tree"? Can something be valid or good if the starting point for it is tainted?
The 14th amendment was passed to ensure that the rights of the Civil Rights Act of 1866 would not be easily overturned. The Civil Rights Act was concerned about reconstruction and the rights of former slaves. I don't think it contemplated, people from other nations subjects of a foreign government coming to the US shores to give birth to US citizens....— Wiseman6 - "This quote brought to you by the Governor of Maryland"
Wok, O'Malley is to the left of Obama, hardly a surprise or an indication of any momebtum building— Pope of Chilitown
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