I don't pretend to be able to competently interpret the land of the law. I'm not a Constitutional lawyer like you are.
Most shootings in the home, the vast majority of them in fact, are committed by one resident of the home on another resident of the home. Many of these are accidental. A daughter jumps out of a closet to surprise her father as he enters the home and he shoots her. A husband forgets his key and climbs in a back window when he thinks nobody is home and his wife shoots him. A kid is showing off his dad's gun to a friend and shoots him, etc. There are self defense shootings that are legitimate but alongside those are the ones that are clearly not legitimate. A white sheriff accidentally shoots his daughter's black boyfriend when he finds out his daughter is pregnant. Guess who investigated that one? A white homeowner shoots a black man in a suit who knocked on his door looking for help when his car broke down. We know about that one because the black man was a prominent lawyer and his firm sued the homeowner when the authorities decided not to prosecute. How many murders in the home have been covered up as accidental shootings, because the only person who was left to tell the tale was the shooter? How many truly accidental shootings have occurred because the home owner was careless in how he safeguarded his guns? How many people have been killed where the homeowner thought he was clearly in the right and the victim had no idea he was in the wrong? You know, the cases where somebody enters the wrong home not realizing their mistake? Or the cases where they had permission to be in the home but something has changed in their absence and they wind up shot upon entering, as in the case of the boyfriend and the sheriff? How many nutty parents give their nuttier kids a gun and then something really bad happens? How many guns get stolen out of a house or car and wind up in the wrong hands and kill somebody? How many gun dealers feed guns into the gray and black markets and support criminal use of guns in the process? Guns are bad. They kill people. Yes, a person has to be pulling the trigger to make that happen but the variance in who kills who is just astounding. It's not just bad guys killing people with guns. There are a lot of people who think they're completely justified in pulling the trigger over events that are essentially trivial. There are a lot of people who cannot distinguish between a valid use of the gun, which is extremely rare, and committing a murder. There are a lot of people who do not have the temperament to even be put in the position to make the decision if it should arise. The argument is usually framed in a way that suggests that we should keep guns out of the hands of the crazies but leave them in everybody else's options. In fact we probably should keep guns out of the hand of all but a few people who actually have the temperament to use them appropriately. You think that sheriff would ever have imagined that he could shoot somebody over something like that? If the answer is yes then obviously he shouldn't have had access to a gun but if the answer is no, and I'm guessing that's the answer, then it's a wake-up call for all of us about how crazy we can get in moments of extreme stress.
There are so many scenarios and your point to me is 110% valid - no point in people having guns; accidents happen; major stress occurs. But people will defend their rights so, at the end of the day this will all be ignored - by pro-gun supporters. I wonder how many posters here have been threatened and put into a situation SO bad that they needed a gun to restore order.
I'm glad you finally decided to join the party - was wondering when you'd jump in. Now all we need is an @abyzmul siting to come full circle. link? There are good guys shooting bad guys in self defense almost every day in this country. They even stop potential mass shootings sometimes. The mainstream media doesn't like to report that sort of thing though. I will start a thread to document. Should the lives of everyone be governed by the actions of nuts? Here is something I think we can do, and I think we've agreed on this in the past. You make it law that people need to keep their weapons locked up, but only enforce it by making them liable if they don't lock them up and something happens. We can't enforce it by having home inspections or anything crazy like that. I believe gun dealers lose their license if they're found selling to people who they shouldn't be. People can be bad too. Evil is in some people's DNA and the government isn't saving all the good people from all the bad people.
From our friend NatSato: "I believe gun dealers lose their license if they're found selling to people who they shouldn't be." This is an assumption taking on grandiose proportions because it isn't true. Thanks to the NRA and the Republican Congress (which is in the palm of the NRA) gun dealers breaking the rules and the law rarely lose their licenses. Link...Of course, here's one article about just how difficult it is for the ATF to investigate and kick these guys out http://www.publicintegrity.org/2013/02/01/12117/atfs-struggle-close-down-firearms-dealers. And of course there's always gun shows, etc. It's easy to get guns, no training, etc. There are more rules on driving a car than owning a gun. Crazy. Btw true gun users are for regulations and background checks. That includes a high percentage of the NRA's membership.
The ATF can revoke the license of a gun dealer if they violate gun control laws. https://www.atf.gov/resource-center/pr/atf-fact-sheet-ffl-revocation-process
Why would I read anything you posted? On a more serious note, if we cannot enforce existing laws what good does creating new ones do?
I wonder how many people have had a fire in ther house so bad they needed a fire extinguisher to restore order
No way in hell can you flip that the way you just did ... I am sure those people are looking to get the hell out of that house, fuck a fire extinguisher. There are other ways of resolving issues. My personal opinion, fuck the amendment, we don't need guns in this country - IMO they have caused more harm then good. EDIT - this isn't because of the guns themselves, but the people that purchase them. I don't trust them, never will.
you could say that about everything though. A lot of people break traffic laws.. should we not bother ourselves with more stop signs because the police can't keep up with all the people blowing through them? just a thought
Same scenario (and fate) involved Ty Cobb's father. At 20, Cobb's father who was a teacher went the route of 'the prophet' and married a 12 year old student. Years later when his father was 42, local word had it that some other guy was playing hit & run with Cobb's approaching-her-sexual-prime 34 yr. old mom. So Cobb's father tells the Mrs. that he's going away for a few days and returns that evening intent on catching her in the act. Instead (as she later claimed in court) she mistook him for an intruder and blew him away...though many think she took the rap for the lover who was in fact in bed with her and who was the one who blew Cobb Sr. away (echoing the murder ballad "The Long Black Veil").
Cool - the police will protect us then. I trust they'll be there to help the instant trouble arrives. I'm sure you feel the same.
I don't think that's really a good analogy. If everyone is blowing through one traffic light you'd put more cops there to enforce the law. Putting up more stops signs wouldn't help.
