The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #155297 Message #3662304
Posted By: Ebbie
20-Sep-14 - 09:37 PM
Thread Name: BS: Anyone defend US gun law?
Subject: RE: BS: Anyone defend US gun law?
"Declare gun possession illegal except in the sort of highly restricted circumstances that we permit here. Set a deadline date by which all weapons must be surrendered, after which possession will become a serious offence. Enact searches and checks for any unauthorised weapons after that date. Further enact the severest penalties, both custodial & financial [hit the buggers in the pocket] for being found in unauthorised possession."MGM Lion
Bill D has said just about everything that I could say, but let me pile on:
"Declare gun possession illegal except..."
Who should declare it? As has been said, we have states' rights here- one state can make rules that other states needn't honor. That being so, it would have to be the Federal government that would have to declare such a thing. BUT if President Obama were to dictate such a thing, there would be a mass uprising that you would not believe. Don't forget: our Supreme Court has decided that plain old citizens have the right to bear arms; the gun totin' citizenry has taken that to mean that guns may be carried 'most everywhere. We are farther behind than we were 10 years ago!
One other factoid you might enter into the equation is this: The Eastern Time Zone in the USA has more people than double the entire population of the UK. And that's just one time zone out of six- although granted that some zones have far fewer in population.
In addition to the greater population, consider the far greater land mass in the US and the far different conditions and expectations and histories of one state from another. It is a wonder that my country gets along as well as it does with its disparate parts.
That being said, US states are jealous states. No state will allow another state to make rules and laws that impact -against their will- that state.
We have states that allow gambling, we have states that do not. We have states that are dry, do not allow alcohol sales within its borders, we have states that barely regulate the alcohol industry. Incidentally, in Alaska we have many communities that are dry, and some that are semi-dry by the vote of their people. They have lawbreakers that go to jail on that account alone.
The glue that holds this together is the government in Washington DC. Washington can and does make rules and laws that states are duty bound to follow and that some states flout for a period of time. Take for instance the pot legalization that several states have recently decreed. At this point Washington has not changed its stance on pot use, sales and distribution- it's agin it, and it could -and still may - lower the boom and whack the states' rules out of existence.
All this to say that the issue of guns is complex.