For John, BLUF: There are too many different gun laws and now people are proposing even more. Nothing to see here; just move along.
Poor TV Personality David Gregory. Not only is he a hypocrite with regard to armed guards at schools, now folks want him prosecuted for violating DC's gun laws. It seems he had an illegal (high capacity) magazine on the set of his news program.♠ Well, illegal in DC.♥
I feel sorry for Mr Gregory, except, as Professor William Jacobson points out:
But I’m less sympathetic than you might expect because fear of unintentionally violating gun laws is one of the things that has kept me from purchasing a handgun. As you know, I took the NRA safety course over a year ago. But I’m a legal resident of Rhode Island who lives much of the year in New York, so there’s an issue of whether I could obtain a NY permit, which is needed even to keep a gun in the home. And then there’s the issue of transportation back and forth, and complying with the requirements to avoid prosecution as I pass through Massachusetts.We need a clean set of laws, so we understand what is and is not legal. Something like "full faith and credit", perhaps in the form of Article 4 of the US Constitution.♦It all became such a bureaucratic jungle that I just deferred for the time being.
That’s where we are with many gun laws, the law-abiding responsible citizens who worry about compliance are scared away or risk prosecution for unknowing violations, while the lunatics and criminals don’t care.
Regards — Cliff
♠ This is as opposed to New York Times talk about "high capacity ammunition", whatever that means.
♥ Someone noted today that violent crime in DC dropped after the de facto gun ownership ban ended in 2008 with the Heller decision by SCOTUS.
♦ There is, of course, always the racist Sullivan Law to deal with in New York.
7 comments:
Cliff,
Are you suggesting a set of federal laws to homogenize the regulatory environment around guns?
And, Prof.Jacobson, who detours from RI into MA, to get to NY; is unconvincing with his reworking of the old saw. "If guns are outlawed, only outlaws will have guns."
Is Prof. Jacobson, normally, a "tenther?"
Risking a tidal wave of condemning vitriol from Jack Mitchell, I submit the following thoughts. For the record, I am not necessarily advocating that my posits are in fact valid, but rather, that they might be or probably are.
First and foremost,Prof. Jacobson reflects what I would suggest is a much more pervasive fear than one might think. That is a fear of our very own government, at all levels. There are today so many statutes on the books that at any given time, a determined prosecutor could successfully charge even nuns and priests (assuming that they among all of us are least without sin) with multiple violations of laws. And once the "ensnaring" begins, it generally only gets worse.
I submit too that it is precisely the fear of a "homogenized" Federal regulatory environment that is behind the incredibly increased purchases of weapons and large quantities of ammunition. particularly the hollow point variant. One can argue all one wants about the veracity of the many stories leaked about Federal government "preparations for national disasters" such as agencies like the Commerce Department and the EPA purchasing millions of rounds of HP ammunition....and FEMA creating "emergency relocation camps." When folks ask why they are most generally given the "nothing to see here folks, move along." kind of answer.
I think that many, if not perhaps even most Americans have an innate distrust of government. It is that very distrust that gave birth to the 2nd Amendment, that a "well armed (civilian) militia" was necessary. Most Americans today would correctly assume that this "militia" is needed to repel foreign invaders, but just as probable according to a number of the framers, that same well armed militia is necessary to protect the citizenry from our own government becoming a dictatorial tyranny.
I would strongly suggest that is the underlying reason for the almost frantic rush to buy weapons and ammunition in the past few weeks. Folks are afraid (and the "intellectuals" can argue about basis) that Obama et al are about to set upon a much less free society in which the good of the many outweigh the rights and needs of the few....and willing to imprison those it deems as being "not in compliance."
Frankly, I don't know what the foregoing "makes" me...I am certain Jack has an entire list of descriptors of me. I do know that the entire "matter" makes me frightened. Fear, with or without "basis" is a dangerous motivator in society.
Wait, wait, wait; what about David Gregory? DC laws were violated and people, perhaps even young children, were put at risk—otherwise why they law?
Regards — Cliff
PS: Yes, I do believe Professor Jacobson is a "Tenther". For those who care, I do not believe he is a "Twelver".
Oh PULEEZE!!! You've been listening too much to folks like Sandra Fluke or all the darlings of MSNBC. WERE young people or even some old geezers like me put at risk by David's TV program? How? As I recall, he never pointed the gun at anyone. Of course, the hysterical class will respond, "Yeah, well, he COULD have."
Why the law? Because we write laws in hysterical response to something that offended a large enough group of folks to get one passed. Law doesn't have to make sense....only promise to control the acts of others. Note....PROMISE.
In the middle of Kansas, on a four lane Interstate...without another vehicle around me for at least 10 miles in either direction, who is harmed by my driving at, oh, say, 85 mph? And if nobody sees me.....did I still break the law......and if someone else decides to report me because they "Heard" or "think" I was going 85 mph, should I then be prosecuted.
My prayer for the new year is simple and straight forward and should test the power of God perhaps to the limits, "Please save us from ourselves and our unbounded stupidity."
I'll skip over Neal's penchant to soil himself whenever someone with a 'badge' presents themselves. Let's focus on the paranoia laced into concerns over such things as "emergency relocation camps."
It strikes me as noteable that folks in NOLA, after Katrina, or Staten Island after Sandy, would welcome 3 hots and a cot, rather than live like French Trappers, circa 1750.
Yet, one man's hostel is another's concentration camp?
Having been in the military, I have little fear of Uncle Sam. I don't know what happened in The 'Nam, but in the late 80's, they taught us to think for ourselves.
Such training really makes a would be tyrant's task, near impossible.
That doesn't mean Neal shouldn't stock up on Depends. It helps boost the economy.
Oh really Jack, you are beginning to stumble over your own tongue.
First and foremost...I never said that the "camps" exist...only that the rumor of their being and other government actions have served to make a sizable portion of the public very nervous, very frightened. Fear makes rational people behave in irrational ways. I am just pointing that out. Does it concern me? Sure it does...but I hardly need Depends....especially where folks such as you are concerned.
As for the military and the government. Anyone with a period in the military IS taught to think for themselves...and particularly those who have devoted an entire adulthood to that profession. Could that possibly be the reason that Big Sister pointed suggested that current and ex-military personnel should be considered as potential domestic terrorists? Or maybe your assignment in the military was in stability ops and nation building....
You have little fear of Uncle Sam because you are part of the Obama in crowd and would never, EVER think to utter an unkind or uncooperative word against or about Our Lord and Savior Barack Obama (not my words). Why would he trash his own people?? Now...anyone who disagrees with him (or you) are just plain wrong and excess to the needs of the human race. I'm just happy you have no expertise in genetics or connections to the neo-eugenics dreamers.
Keep smiling Jack. You live in a near perfect world and your one world utopia is only a few weeks away....
As for me, you are completely inconsequential.
Neal says, "one world utopia."
As a Magi in the Ordo Templi Orientis, an outer chapter of the Illuminati (think of us as the working man's Bilderburgs); I most certainly ensure that your Internet IP be reported to Frater Perdurabo A∴A∴, expediting your inclusion in the Soylent Green program.
"Do What Thou Wilt"
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