Posted: Jan 18, 2018 11:45 am
zulumoose wrote:We have been through this over and over. Other countries do not have a problem.
Step 1- registration of all firearms. After a deadline all unregistered firearms are illegal. Voluntary hand-in of any you do not want to bother registering. Immediate reduction.
Step 2 - ramp up the requirements to a standard national level for licencing, purchase and transfer of ownership. Continue with voluntary hand-in. Hold an occasional amnesty day for hand-in of unregistered firearms, no questions asked.
1&2 by themselves will lead to a massive reduction, firearms will no longer be inheritable without application for licence and registration, people will be responsible for the whereabouts of all their registered firearms. Any firearms found by police (in the course of their normal duties) will be verifiable and traceable, or destroyed as unregistered. Those who want to retain firearms will be able to as long as they go through the process, and do not have a disqualifying history - such as a previous conviction for a violent offence. The hassle involved with sale of a firearm may also radically reduce private sales and hence ownership.
Not rocket science, no need to come up with nonsense like "With one gun for every man and woman and child it could not be regulated anyway", that's crap, the onus is on the owners to register, hand in, or hold illegally and risk prosecution any time it comes to light. What use is a firearm you can't use legally to a law abiding owner?
A step in the right direction leads to a reduction, and the spin-off benefits begin. National search and seizure has never been attempted anywhere I have ever heard of, and would never be proposed by anyone, that's a smokescreen scare tactic by gun nuts.
Not happening. You show your cards here and that is what we have always suspected. Why would I care to vote for a process that makes my life more difficult and costs me a bunch of money? I already have a gun and happily so. I have reason to believe that your system would do nothing at all to solve the perceived problems of gun violence.
Except for one thing. When your idea doesn't work and we have our next Sandy Hook, now you can go the next step and require turning over all those registered weapons. When that fails to prevent murder then you can just keep the department around for a few decades and fuck up our lives for us.
My suspicion is that it irritates some people that I have a gun and they don't even though they don't want one. It's kind of like my neighbor who rakes his leaves when he shakes his head at my 300hp leaf blower.
Here's an idea. Leave me alone! Quit snooping into my affairs. Quit trying to make simple and comfortable aspects of my life into criminal acts.