What's the point of gun regulation??

[Pale Ryder]

Alright.

I understand why we have quick NICs checks for guns to stop mentally unstable criminal type people from buying but why do we have anything beyond that?

I'm not saying this to sound super pro-2a but say I lived in AZ and bought a bunch of fun guns and moved to MD and never registered them, who cares?No registration in Md, so nobody cares.

Say I lived in any other state and bought a bunch of guns not allowed in MD and moved here, who would know/care?Again not a problem. you can bring guns here from out of state.

Which brings me right back to my thread title, what's the point of gun regulation??

It's all about control. They cannot get all that they want, so they chip away at our rights every chance they get.

 

[MDFF2008]

There is no point; other than to know who has guns legally. The Supreme Court has already ruled criminals don't have to register their guns because that would be self-incrimination. (US vs Hayes) so it is about control.

Gun Registration has lead to confiscation 100% of the time historically.

 

[Markp]

In theory I agree with you. But in practice who gets to decide what constitutes mental illness??
IMHO a liberal is mentally ill. Fortunately it's curable with a small daily dose of common sense.
I make fun of it but you see my point?

I tried to diagnose someone with Liberalism today, but my supervisor disallowed it because it wasn't in the DSM. I had to go with Personality Disorder, NOS instead. Still, outcome will be the same, Ad-Sep.

 

[r3t1awr3yd]

There is no point; other than to know who has guns legally. The Supreme Court has already ruled criminals don't have to register their guns because that would be self-incrimination. (US vs Hayes) so it is about control.

Gun Registration has lead to confiscation 100% of the time historically.

Who's business is that anyways?

The US Code is in 35 volumes of around 1,200 to 1,400 pages each, including 6,850 pages of index in 6 volumes and one volume that is nothing but a 1,400-page LIST of the other public laws that have not been codified.

Firearms regulation is but a small fraction. Every one of us is a criminal; if you annoy enough powerful people, they'll beat you to death with this stuff. Fortunately most of us are not important enough for that kind of treatment.

They got Capone with the tax code; they ground Lenny Bruce into little paranoid bits for his believing in the First Amendment, and talking about it. Keep your head down and don't post a lot of stuff on the Internet and you'll be OK.

Too late, huh? Oh well, take comfort in the fact that they can't jail ALL of us; they have to leave enough taxpayers to pay for the prison system.

LOL

I tend to think The State (not as in MD, but "State" as in any big-brother authoritarian regime) sees gun registration lists as a (long term) solution for their eventual dreams of confiscation.

They really do believe that one day, they'll be able to send squads of agents from door to door to "collect" guns from their hold-out owners. And that the thought of this will intimidate those people into surrendering and being frog-marched off to death in some gulag.

The catastrophic failing of their plan is that registration/confiscation schemes work both ways. No need to go out hunting for the agents of tyranny when one can just wait for them to come to you...

These thoughts make me most nervous, especially the way the government is running itself now a days.

Only thing you have to register with MD is machine guns.

I'd like to have that problem

You are under no obligation whatsoever to register guns that you bring into the state when you move. There are regulated firearms on a list that require additional paperwork and waiting when you purchase them in-state, but that is not, strictly speaking, registration.

So if you move here with an arsenal of ARs, AKs, and other "regulated" guns from out of state, Maryland has no way to know and you never have to tell them.

THUS negating the "necessity" of having a registration at all.

I think somebody is forgetting about THE CHILDREN !!! sheesh...

That's why you have to be 21 to get one. Why not lower that to 18...

In regards the to OP's question, the answer I have is "simple ignorance."

Your average Marylander is spammed with anti gun messages by the media on a daily basis and in many cases has never held or fired a gun in their lives. They have been indoctrinated with a message and have no counterweight to it and so they believe it.

I would guess that 99% of people in Maryland who support gun regulation would no longer do so if taken to the range a few times and taught to shoot by a reasonable competent instructor.

That includes *gasp* democrats.

I'm still amazed by how many people keep asking me if it's legal for me to have my AK (THANKS FPS!!!)

I kinda think we should have mental instability checks before someone can buy a gun. Maybe have a couple questions like: Do you hear voices? Do bugs live under your skin? Is Nancy Pelosi a good role model? Are you an alien? The only thing they actually check is criminal records, there needs to be a way of checking mental status.

In theory I agree with you. But in practice who gets to decide what constitutes mental illness??
IMHO a liberal is mentally ill. Fortunately it's curable with a small daily dose of common sense.
I make fun of it but you see my point?

In actuality NICS checks mental illness but the rub is that you must be adjudicated mentally ill and/or involuntarily (or voluntarily but with forced commitment thereafter) committed for it to show up.

The 2A being a fundamental right and what not, an individual may only be deprived of that right after notice and due process. The non-adjudicated mental illness questions raises oh so many questions about due process and notice.

Not too mention the bag of worms it would open with the right to privacy and publication of mental health records. Then what degree of mental illness qualifies as too mentally ill to possess a firearm. Say you're a cop who works child crime and you see a shrink once a month to get all of the ugliness you witness off your chest, then you go to a shop to buy a gun and are denied because that shrink has diagnosed you - w/out your knowledge I might add - with PTSD and has input that into her system. So now you're denied a gun and this sends up red flags all over the place including your work. You get put on leave until you're mentally stable and you can't make payments on your house cause you're not receiving a paycheck while you wait for disability to kick in (if you can even get it). You lose your house because you can't make payments and you and your family are forced out into the street. Your wife divorces you because you're a deadbeat who can't hold a job or a gun and takes the kids with her cause you don't have a home. So now your jobless, homeless, wifeless, and gun less because some do-gooder thought it would be a good idea to keep guns out of the hands of the "mentally ill."

The point is to raise as many obstacles to gun ownership as possible. If they can't ban them they will try to make owning them as inconvienient as possible.

yup about sums it up

state wants to appear to be tough for the sake of the antis but basically its a PITA

 

[gamer_jim]

Can we get mental instability checks for the politicians?

It's not about safety, it's politics. A majority of voters in key districts believe that guns are bad so politicians run on the platform of gun control in order to get elected. These same politicians apply for their own CCW permit in secret but declare that common citizens don't have the right.

 

[K31]

I tend to think The State (not as in MD, but "State" as in any big-brother authoritarian regime) sees gun registration lists as a (long term) solution for their eventual dreams of confiscation.

Bingo, registration precedes talk of confiscation.

The point of gun regulation to hoplophobes is they believe universal gun confiscation works, that this will lead to a fluffy world free of sharp corners, and anyway, if it doesn't the police and telephone are all they need to protect them other than their winning ways of convincing sociopaths that they are really, really nice people who only want to give them what they want.

The point of gun regulation to some liberal democrats is, it's a source of fear they can exploit to get money from hoplophobes.

 

[Corporal Doug]

Regulations/laws are broken/ignored, by good, law-abiding citizens, every second of the day.

Guess what? About 1 hr ago I sped, and parked in front of a hydrant so I could run an errand. Got away with both!!

How are still they law abiding citizens anymore if they breaking and ignoring laws and regulations?

 

[GNLaFrance]

How are still they law abiding citizens anymore if they breaking and ignoring laws and regulations?

One can't live these days without breaking at least one law every day. I know I've broken laws without knowing it and without intending to, and most likely, so has everyone else.

"The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren't enough criminals, one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws." ~ Ayn Rand

"It is the invariable habit of bureaucracies, at all times and everywhere, to assume... that every citizen is a criminal. Their one apparent purpose, pursued with a relentless and furious diligence, is to convert the assumption into a fact. They hunt endlessly for proofs, and, when proofs are lacking, for mere suspicions. The moment they become aware of a definite citizen, John Doe, seeking what is his right under the law, they begin searching feverishly for an excuse for withholding it from him." ~ H. L. Mencken

"In the larger sense, however, the personal ownership of firearms is only secondarily a matter of defense against the criminal. Note the following from Thomas Jefferson: ‘The strongest reason for the people to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against the tyranny of government.’ That is why our masters in Washington are so anxious to disarm us. They are not afraid of criminals. They are afraid of a populace which cannot be subdued by tyrants." ~ Jeff Cooper's Commentaries, Vol. 2, No. 5, May 1994

 

[sim1776]

How are still they law abiding citizens anymore if they breaking and ignoring laws and regulations?

There's a vast difference between lawful and legal. How else would unjust "laws" be changed? Most gun regulations are pointless and merely serve to create barriers for law-abiding citizens. As previously mentioned, gun registration, historically, has had ominous outcomes. Nazi Germany is a prominent example.

 

[HollowPoint]

One can't live these days without breaking at least one law every day. I know I've broken laws without knowing it and without intending to, and most likely, so has everyone else.

"The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren't enough criminals, one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws." ~ Ayn Rand

"It is the invariable habit of bureaucracies, at all times and everywhere, to assume... that every citizen is a criminal. Their one apparent purpose, pursued with a relentless and furious diligence, is to convert the assumption into a fact. They hunt endlessly for proofs, and, when proofs are lacking, for mere suspicions. The moment they become aware of a definite citizen, John Doe, seeking what is his right under the law, they begin searching feverishly for an excuse for withholding it from him." ~ H. L. Mencken

"In the larger sense, however, the personal ownership of firearms is only secondarily a matter of defense against the criminal. Note the following from Thomas Jefferson: ‘The strongest reason for the people to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against the tyranny of government.’ That is why our masters in Washington are so anxious to disarm us. They are not afraid of criminals. They are afraid of a populace which cannot be subdued by tyrants." ~ Jeff Cooper's Commentaries, Vol. 2, No. 5, May 1994

Good quotes!!!

You can add another quote: ""The "Criminalization of the State", is when criminals legitimately occupy positions of authority, which enable them to decide "who are the criminals", when in fact they are the criminals."" - Michel Chossudovsky

"All political power comes from the barrel of a gun. The communist party must command all the guns, that way, no guns can ever be used to command the party." -- Mao Tse Tseng, November 6th 1935. Subsequently, from 1948 to 1952, 20 million political dissidents are rounded up and exterminated now they are not able to defend themselves from the communists due to Mao Tse Tsung's gun control laws.

THIS ^^^ is why we need our second amendment rights IN FULL! Not 'infringed.' Not abrogated. Not 'regulated' into uselessness. Registration always precedes talk of confiscation which leads to tyranny.

I also want to know why it's OK for armed men to stand around to guard corporate money from bad guys but I cannot do the same to protect the lives of my family from these same bad guys.

You cannot regulate the behavior of the lawless by passing more stringent laws.

(end rant -- )

 

[MDFF2008]

Who's business is that anyways?

Umm, I'm just answering his question. It's pretty obvious I am against gun registration.

 

[john_bud]

"what's the purpose of gun control laws"?

Well, that was one of the founding principles of the KKK. That should tell you something about those that are now rabid gun control law proponents.

 

[GNLaFrance]

The Racist Roots of Gun Control

Gun Control: White Man's Law

Racist Motivations vs. Racist Outcomes