From: Joe E. Dees (joedees@bellsouth.net)
Date: Sun May 30 1999 - 20:59:51 MDT
There are extreme antigun voices and extreme progun voices, just
like ther are extreme antiabortion voices and extreme prochoice
voices, and then there's the sensible center, where I reside on this
issue. To further draw the parallel, both extreme antiabortion and
extreme progun voices (the two "civil rights" issues of the
conservative right) assume an absolute position (no abortion, even
one minute after conception; no gun restriction, even for the insane,
underage or criminally violent) and warn, using the same flawed
analogies from the same historical precedents (typically naziism
and antebellum slavery in the american south) to argue, by means
of slippery slopes and dominoes, of losses of personal freedom of
biblical proportions if their absolutistic standard is compromised
one iota. On the other side, both extreme prochoice and extreme
antigun voices do much the same thing, and draw similar, and
similarly flawed analogies, to argue in defence of an unrestricted
right to partial-birth abortion for any reason or for none, or the
banning of all guns for all citizens and the elimination of sport
hunting. My position is kinda like Roe vs. Wade, in which the right
to abortion is connected to the level of development of the fetus.
No restrictions are permitted in the first trimester, some in the
second, and a lot in the third. For me, the right to keep and bear
arms should be connected to the level of personal responsibility
demonstrated by each individual. Any responsible adult should be
able to purchase firearms. The names of those who do not meet
the criteria of responsibility (who have been convicted of violent
criminal offences, spouse and/or child abuse, or judged mentally
unfit by a legitimate psychiatric review) should be kept in a national
purchase-prohibited registry, AND NO OTHER NAMES. If you can
prove (say, with your birth certificate) that you are of age (18
seems reasonable to me) and your name does not appear on the
registry, your purchase should go through. These registries should
apply to, and be accessible by, gun dealers, gun shows, pawn
shop owners, flea market owners, and any other place where
weapons may be reasonably expected to be purchased by people
unknown to the seller. Those who knowingly sell a firearm to
someone on the prohibited registry should be prosecuted for the
sale, and held legally liable for any gun-related crime the buyer
subsequently commits. Those who have these matters pending or
proceeding in court should have their names provisionally added to
the registry, to be removed upon acquittal or judgment of mental
fitness. All decisions should be appealable, but the names should
remain on the list until the appeals are decided. Trigger locks
should be required to be sold with every firearm, and if a shooting
subsequently occurs where the shooter has taken the weapon from
the owner without consent and the lock was not installed, the
owner should be held liable for neglect. If the trigger lock was in
place but subsequently picked or broken off, the owner should not
be held liable.
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