Morganni Wrote:Do any of the gun owners you know carry their guns around because they feel it's the right thing to do?None of them do so, to my knowledge. I know my dad keeps his under lock and key as any responsible gun owner should be expected to.
Quote:I think the main problem with the "need to have a suitable purpose" thing is that it would be either hilariously abusable, or hideously abusable. Here's the two ways I can see it going...This would be the main sticking point with such, yes, and I'm pretty sure would be the key weakness that the NRA would use to try to torpedo the whole idea.
-If what they say matches the approved list, the requirement is satisfied. The contents of this list will become known before well before the law goes into effect, and people will say the correct things regardless.
-If the issuing authority likes what they say, the requirement is satisfied. The system will be rife with corruption and nepotism, since this basically amounts to 'if I feel like it'. See as an example California, where "make a big donation to the sheriff's reelection fund" is often cited as an effective way to get a concealed carry permit.
If we want a system that won't be massively broken, the criteria need to be objective. Proper storage in theory could be, but I'm not entirely sure I trust regulators to get that one right. Training, on the other hand, gets no arguments from me, as long as the requirement is feasible. I haven't heard about anyplace actually trying to use prohibitively expensive training requirements to create a de facto ban, but I wouldn't be surprised if someone tried it.
Quote:As for the culture thing... care to elaborate? Most times I see that come up, it's from the "violent media and games cause crime, oh noez!" crowd, and it sounded to me like you were with me in the "that's complete bullshit" crowd.I do believe that blaming the media is "complete bullshit" (I compared the NRA's statement to asking that we completely gut the first amendment before even looking at the second amendment at all). However, there is a definite group of people that seems to feel there is little to no training needed for guns, or is making assumptions about their potential use, such as for self defense (which requires training so that, if you need to, you can get the gun out, pull the trigger, and put your assailant down with two shots, both hitting). On the other side of the coin are the people who think that guns are absolutely not needed in our society by anyone (never mind the issue with areas that we've completely removed the predators and hunters have taken the niche, or areas where people are living near wild animals).
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"You know how parents tell you everything's going to fine, but you know they're lying to make you feel better? Everything's going to be fine." - The Doctor