I would gladly give up my bolt and lever guns if it meant that the world would blossom into a garden paradise.
Aww, that's sweet!
Right now the focus of the Feds is on keeping tabs on FFLs, NOT on transactions. The FFLs are supposed to maintain records of all sales (4473 copy) for 20 years. The BATFE can come inspect the FFL any time they want, but they cannot access the records of sales.
So this does not lead to universal registration.
If the Congress passes a law that requires the Feds to track all SALES, then they will say, we need to track all firearms in order to track all sales.
re: the idea of a form 4474 where no one needs to keep a record...i like it but the argument could be made...why have it at all if there is to be no record of the sale?
The anti 2As would love it but it would likely never pass Congress, and as an EO it would be over reach.
IMHO. They may try it though...
"Improved govt regulation is needed to keep guns out of the hands of the mentally ill." This is how it would be presented.
In the abstract this sounds good but the devil is in the details. Whose definition of mental illness will be used? Could this definition be abused? Certainly. This was a favorite trick in the USSR. If you opposed the government, you were mentally ill and needed to be confined.
Can psychologists accurately tell who might be violent or suicidal? Obviously not in most cases. So this mental illness judgement could easily be abused. If it saves one life then the govt is justified in denying the right to own firearms. And as others are pointing out, this would be bolstered in short order by universal registration once it became apparent that mental illness assessments were not working to prevent violence due to the abundance of unregistered firearms.
I think we need to let our reps know our specific opposition to any form of background check enhancement. This is a potential end run that could be pulled in one of their infamous rushed, last minute bills hidden inside another piece of legislation.
The step our reps can and should be taking to protect school kids is to eliminate the federal gun-free zone laws. Beyond that let the states decide how to improve safety in schools. Utah already allows teachers to carry and Texas may be moving in that direction.
Regulation equals infringement.
In the abstract this sounds good but the devil is in the details. Whose definition of mental illness will be used? Could this definition be abused? Certainly. This was a favorite trick in the USSR. If you opposed the government, you were mentally ill and needed to be confined.
Can psychologists accurately tell who might be violent or suicidal? Obviously not in most cases. So this mental illness judgement could easily be abused. If it saves one life then the govt is justified in denying the right to own firearms. And as others are pointing out, this would be bolstered in short order by universal registration once it became apparent that mental illness assessments were not working to prevent violence due to the abundance of unregistered firearms.
I think we need to let our reps know our specific opposition to any form of background check enhancement. This is a potential end run that could be pulled in one of their infamous rushed, last minute bills hidden inside another piece of legislation.
The step our reps can and should be taking to protect school kids is to eliminate the federal gun-free zone laws. Beyond that let the states decide how to improve safety in schools. Utah already allows teachers to carry and Texas may be moving in that direction.
Regulation equals infringement.
re: the idea of a form 4474 where no one needs to keep a record...i like it but the argument could be made...why have it at all if there is to be no record of the sale?
The idea stems from the "spirit of compromise" where it looks like we are being reasonable and giving up something when in reality we give up nothing. Ya know largely symbolic laws that don't do much.
I beg to differ on this. We did not do anything wrong. Newtown and other crimes are NOT our fault. we are responsibly exercising the natural right to keep and bear arms, as recognized, indeed enshrined, in 2A. there are 20000+ gun laws on the books. No more compromises on 2A.
I have been suspicious that he was posturing about guns and has to make it look like he tried to do something. Gun control will lose votes for a lot of Dimocrats and he wants as much power as he can keep. I think he wants to spend his political capital on immigration reform, something that will get votes in the long term. If he can get these ideas passed he may go after the AWB too. We don't need any of the first six ideas.
I think we need a law that would require a search for guns of the homes of all people that see a mental health professional. Remove the guns from their house. The problem isn't access to mental health care, it is keeping guns out of their hands. I know someone that is soon to get out of Federal prison for embezzlement and his home will be searched for guns. If that happens for criminals it should happen for mentally ill people. Make it a federal offense for mental health professionals that fail to report a mentally ill patient. Make them register the mentally ill patients. Irresponsible mental health professionals are what got the gun owners in trouble.
