“Even if we start from the place the “law-abiding citizens” should not have their access to fire arms impeded in any way, how is that impacted by a seamless national system that keeps those who are not “law-abiding” from accessing weapons legally?”
It’s not - but the gun nuts think if there is a national registry of any kind the government will be able to come to their homes and take their guns and then they would not be able to rise up and fight a tyrannical government. A completely irrational reason but gun nuts, imo, are not the most rational people.
Of course. And in my hypothetical scenario where you do a background check for a personal sale and register that sale it would only feed into that national data base that the government will use when they come door to door to take our guns. cue the black helicopters
Why do you need a National Registry in order to run effective background checks? What you need is better reporting of mental illness and criminal records to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS).
So . . . whatever it is that can make comprehensive background checks happen accurately at every point of sale is OK with you then? People push for that after every tragedy like this one and there always seems to be push back. If it’s so simple then why doesn’t it happen?
Seems like a good idea, but in practice, it doesn’t work very well. Our expectations of the average person aren’t too high. You’d have to show that the seller committed some kind of negligence and that is very difficult.
Did the Westboro Baptist church agitators show up today at [one of the] victim’s funeral? This morning Governor Jindal said the he “wouldn’t stand for that nonsense in Louisiana” and that if they showed up he would order their arrest.
I think both the funerals are on Monday. Jindal is referencing a state law that prohibits “disturbing the peace” at funerals. There are also 14,000 people who have signed up to form a human wall to exclude the WBC. I bet the WBC won’t show up.
So with federal checks the issues then are what are the triggers that will cause a person to be flagged, and how does that data base get accurately populated with new information every single time?
I know if they showed up and Jindal had them arrested they’d sue. Maybe they’d win. But I doubt that would stop Jindal. He’s kind of pig-headed. And he’s lost a number of legal challenges as governor. What’s one more?
On what grounds would they sue? Something related to their freedom of religious expression? Since Louisiana follows Napoleonic law and not British common law (or whatever the model is called here), it would be great to test that in a sate with a different legal approach. I hope they are at the very least found to be disturbing the peace.
I’m assuming they’d sue because that’s what they do. Louisiana dies apparently have specific laws about protesting at funerals.
And as far as I know they’ve never been here. They threatened to show up to protest a HS play several years ago but never came. A bunch of counter protester did, and one local guy who was on their side. Kinda funny.
What do you mean they are less likely to be semi-automatic? There are really only two types of handguns available- revolvers and semi automatic pistols. Both send one bullet down range with one trigger pull and both come in a wide variety of ammo sizes (caliber). Does semi-auto sound scarier than revolver?
The cheapest handguns I know of are semi-autos. BTW handguns have magazines not clips. On most handguns the magazines hold from 8-18 bullets depending on the caliber of the gun/ ammo.
Jym, it doesn’t matter at all what laws or legal system Louisiana has. It’s a federal Constitutional issue involving the First Amendment right to freedom of speech. And the Westboro people have prevailed on the same issue elsewhere. States may provide greater individual rights than the U.S. Constitution mandates, but cannot reduce them.
Well I’ve been proven wrong. A larger scale shooting in NOLA this afternoon - semi-auto, at least 4 shot, drive by with an accomplice. Not the lone shooter pattern. No - semi-auto doesn’t sound scarier and as someone who is married to a hunter and gun owner I’m not going down that road of poo pooing legitimate concerns over the failure of our current background check system. So my semantics are wrong - large magazines. I bet you still knew what I meant.
At any rate, my point was that a 17 year old kid with a stolen hand gun is unlikely to have the type of weaponry that the Aurora shooter had or the Portland shooter had or the guy who shot Gabby Giffords.
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Why do you need a National Registry in order to run effective background checks? What you need is better reporting of mental illness and criminal records to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS).
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It certainly would help if that reporting were mandatory. It’s not, and the chances of Congress making it mandatory are zero. Next.
Yes , donna, while the WBC clowns have a right to a peaceful protest, and to them negative attention is better than no attention at all, and its terrible to waste a penny having to defend against their lawsuits, there is a part of me that would not be too upset to hear that they were jailed for a while, hopefully with some cellmates who don’t exactly see eye to eye with these bigots.