Quote:
Originally Posted by David
. . . So a temperamental student goes wacko & uses his gun to shoot up a classroom. In that case, we have ... err ... PRECISELY WHAT WE HAVE NOW!  . . . . |
YEs, but I think it would happen more often. That, of course, is speculation. I knew people who lived on campus and had guns and they were lushes and crazies -- they never shot anyone. So, my theory likely is flawed.
In the end, if I thought banning al weapons would actually work, I'd be for it. But, there is no realistic way to get rid of all the handguns out there now and I do not want the police to be the only ones with guns
I do think that to own a handgun, you should have to do the following:
1. Present a photo ID and put that picture and your relevant information in some licensing government database somewhere - like you do for a driver's license - along with the background check stuff.
2. You ought to have to go down to some facility and fire the gun into a ballistic measurer and keep the bullett patterns on file. This will also ensure that you still have the gun.
3. You ought to have to go to jail for a year and pay a $10,000 fine if you give your gun away. And, if you give that gun away and it is used in a crime, you should be convicted as an accessory to that crime.
To me, whatever burden these conditions add for owning a handgun are slight and certainly do not overly burden whatever right The Supreme Court has said exists in the Constitution to bear arms in your militia.
But, like the crazy people who want a 12 year old to be able to have an abortion without her parents' knowledge, the gun crazies cannot fathom anything other than buying an automatic assault weapon on the street corner for cash. Insanity if you ask me. Ans, the price we all pay for it is what happened today.