Happiness is a Warm Gun

Posted on February 29, 2012 by dedc79

There used to be this thing called a gun control debate in America.  As we’ve noted before, it no longer exists.  Members of Congress are shot, college and high school student shooting sprees are now an annual tradition, and even churches aren’t safe from gun violence.  But nothing changes. In fact, it only gets easier to get guns and more of them:

Gov. Bob McDonnell signed a bill Tuesday that repeals Virginia’s one-handgun-a-month law, enacted in 1993 when the state was a haven for gun runners.

McDonnell had earlier expressed support for repealing the law, which limited individuals to one handgun purchase every 30 days but did not apply to rifles or shotguns. The General Assembly passed the legislation Feb. 15.

The governor’s office alerted reporters to the signing but said the governor would not issue a statement.

The signing came after McDonnell met Saturday with families of people killed or injured in the April 2007 shooting rampage at Virginia Tech, the worst mass shooting in U.S. history. The families had hoped to persuade him to veto the bill, although they knew it was a long shot.

We have a Constitutionally protected freedom of speech, but even that right is not absolute – speech can sometimes be regulated.  Yet if recent trends continue, the individual right to bear arms, recognized by the Supreme Court only recently, will become this nation’s first and only absolute right.  We’ll have guns in National Parks and guns in State Capitols.  We’ll be able to buy guns basically anywhere at a moment’s notice, with no need to take any course in gun safety and with no background checks or waiting periods.  There will be no way for the police to track the guns we buy, and the mere fact that a person once robbed someone at gun point won’t prevent them from buying a gun when they get out of jail.   We’ll be able to buy guns that have no purpose but to kill people, and ammunition that has no purpose but to pierce the protective armor that cops and soldiers wear.

Gun manufacturers who turn a blind eye to the fact that they are supplying black markets with weapons need not fear any liability, because Congress has already shielded them.  While the manufacturers are safe, psychiatrists are not.  They will dare not ask patients if they own guns, even if those patients relate violent dreams of killing friends, co-workers or family.  To do so might put the doctor at risk of being fined by the State.

The writing is on the wall, red and dripping.  This country will soon be one, giant, no-so-well regulated militia.

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  • http://profiles.google.com/karl.s.kahn Karl Kahn

    On the plus side, it’s going to be very difficult for Mexico to invade.

  • Chilek9

    I have a problem with some of the misleading things you’ve said, “Yet if recent trends continue, the individual right to bear arms, recognized by the Supreme Court only recently, will become this nation’s first and only absolute right.” WRONG and not even close. The Gun Control Act of 1934 is still the law of the land. Try buying a fully automatic weapon, get ready for the disappointment. It is possible, but it’s also VERY expensive and VERY time consuming and no one who goes through the process is going to do anything dumb enough to lose that investment. Not to mention all the other laws that do remain and will remain, more than TWENTY THOUSAND of them, restricting the Second Amendment. More than restrict any other Amendment to the Constitution.

    “We’ll be able to buy guns basically anywhere at a moment’s notice, with no need to take any course in gun safety and with no background checks or waiting periods.” WRONG, the Brady bill waiting periods and checks remain codified in federal law and there they will stay. So far, no one has advocated their removal, not even the NRA.

    “There will be no way for the police to track the guns we buy” WRONG, the database of purchases is still available for law enforcement use. For any legitimate law enforcement query, a gun can be traced to it’s point of sale and, thence, to it’s last buyer. This is what the BATFE “Gun Trace” would be that everyone uses to say that too many guns go to Mexico from the U.S.

    “and the mere fact that a person once robbed someone at gun point won’t prevent them from buying a gun when they get out of jail.” WRONG, please see Title 18, United States Code, Section 922.

    I’ve been in federal law enforcement for 25 years, I’ve fired THOUSANDS, perhaps millions of rounds of ammunition from firearms. In those 25 years I was shooting those thousands of rounds, no one died. No one even got hurt.

    The “cop killer” bullet thing is a myth, read a book.

    And you are VERY clearly misrepresenting the Florida law or you are ignorant of it, one or the other, nothing in between. So are you ignorant or a liar? Make a choice. Pediatricians were being told to grill children about whether there were firearms in the home. This is what sparked the law. Information was then being passed OUTSIDE of the doctor-patient privilege and on to government agencies and insurance companies. The inquiries had NOTHING to do with what you frame it as.

    • dedc79

      I’ll respond to all of these points as soon as I have time. Right now, I’ll start with the Florida bill. Whatever the claimed justification for the legislation, the fact is that it was written so broadly that if a doctor told the police a patient had a weapon that he feared might use it, there could have to be an evidentiary hearing to basically decide whether the doctor had reasonable grounds to make the disclosure. And the doctor would face civil penalties if it was deemed that the disclosure was not warranted.

      I would note that the whole post was also written with a mind to the future. Many gun regulations have either are being rolled back or already have been. Others haven’t yet but will be if these trends continue.

      You referenced the Brady bill very generally, but the fact is that in many states you can walk in to a store and back out with a gun a few minutes later. As I’m sure you know, if a state issues you a concealed carry permit, you can often dispense with the background check and states are getting more and more lenient issuing these permits. As to waiting periods, as again, I’m sure you know (but don’t mention), they apply to handguns not to many other types of guns.

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