A lot of renewed talk going on lately, about various aspects of proposed new GUN CONTROL laws. There's the so-called Assault Weapons ban; Magazine Capacity limitations/ban; Firearms Registration; Ban of Firearms between private citizens; Banning Gun Shows; etc.
As a former Law Enforcement Officer, let me make very clear, I am all for keeping firearms out of the hands of bad people. I am also for preventing firearm accidents in our homes. NO responsible gun owner feels any different. Any suggestion that we, or the NRA, do not care about kids or the safety of our communities, is nothing more than irresponsible rhetoric.
I've written before about most of those gun control law attempts, in one way or another. And in one way or another, people can find some grounds to agree on parts of many of those. But there are two points I will address here.
1. Is the primary reason our Founders wrote into the 2nd Amendment, was for a guarantee for "the people" to have firearms to protect against government tyranny? (our soldiers swear an oath, to protect us against all enemies, foreign and domestic. The "and domestic" is there for a reason!)
2. Does "gun registration" pose any real threat to our 2nd Amendment rights? Some would say is does not, and can't understand why many of us resist that.
(1) To me, and my understanding of our Constitution and Bill of Rights, the 2nd Amendment was so written, to be a mechanism for "the people" to be able to rise up and defend against a government that grew outside it's design, and would become a tyrant in its control over the "the people". An armed citizenry would not be easily be "ruled". I believe this is basically true, and say that in order for "the people" to have such protection FROM such a government, having access to weapons sufficient enough to defend against such a government, goes with that. Having limits to guns other than what many would say are "traditional" hunting firearms, misses the whole point. I will retain my AR-15, to stay armed in the manner I feel is necessary, but hope I will never need for the designed purpose of the 2nd Amendment. (If anyone wants to jump in about "machine guns and tanks", do so. I welcome that debate!)
(2) I am flatly opposed to "gun registration". That is to say, "registration" of what I own, registered with a government. Do I find the idea completely wrong? No. But unless someone can ABSOLUTELY guarantee that such registry can never be used by a wayward government to "confiscate" our legal weapons, then I don't want the government to know what I own. NO ONE can guarantee that this, or that any future elected official won't take such a step for what ever reason they chose to justify it. THAT is why I will always resist registering my lawful firearms.
This whole debate is multi-faceted, and we can debate lots of particulars. I'll address more of those as I go.
Disagree? Jump in. As long as any response is civil, I don't otherwise reject responses.
