From: Samantha Atkins (samantha@objectent.com)
Date: Sun Oct 08 2000 - 22:03:21 MDT
Joe Dees wrote:
>
> We were specifically addressing guns, not straw herring substitutes. I would strengthen the law's already present denial of legal purchase of firearms to kids, criminals and psychos by closing the gun show loophole (mandating background checks for all purchases at gun shows) and by closing the fake collector loophole, where a so-called 'private collector' buys a hundred of the same street-popular model each week.
A couple of problems with the above. First, the government gets to
define who the "criminals" and "psychos" are. Defining people as having
"mental problems" has been a favorite way of silencing here and in other
repressive regimes. A cursory glance at our drug laws and some of the
utterly irrational "felonies" on the book will give some idea of how
objective and reasonable the category "criminal" is. Another problem is
that the true violent criminal has no trouble at all finding and
purchasing much more firepower that we law-abiding folks can legally
purchase. They simply go to black market sources. Lastly, I don't know
of any private collectors who engage in the behavior described.
References?
- samantha
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