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comment by kleinbl00
kleinbl00  ·  3036 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Guns in America

You're off having this other discussion and that's fine, but look:

    A well-regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right to bear arms shall not be infringed.

That's it. Soup to nuts. No footnotes, no parenthetical expressions, no "see alsos." 2nd amendment is 22 words, two commas and a period. But ignoring the presence of a standing army, those twin titans "arms" and "infringed" are all the vagueness you could possibly want.

- Want a 20mm cannon? Too fucking bad, unless it was imported back in the '60s, in which case absolutely, buy a Swedish Lahti anti-tank cannon. After all, they sold them in the back of Popular Mechanics.

- How 'bout a .50 cal? Sure, but not in California. You also can't have mags over 10 rounds, folding stocks or bayonets.

- Sawed-off shotgun? Totally illegal thanks to the National Firearms Act. How 'bout a booby trap that uses shotgun shells as if they were Claymore mines? Totally legal because nobody has banned them yet.

- Thompson submachine gun? Perfectly legal during the reign of Al Capone, now a Class III controlled weapon.

- Under indictment for a crime whose punishment is greater than a year? Can't own a gun, even if you haven't been convicted.

- Addicted to a controlled substance? Can't own a gun since '68. What's a "controlled substance?" Well, marijuana, for example. So if you're allowed by the state of Washington to smoke a bowl, are you allowed by the government of the United States to own a pistol? Stay tuned as we hash this out in court.

- Ever been committed to a mental institution? Even for, say, depression? Guess what? You're out.

- Dishonorably discharged from the army? Guess what?

this is not a constitutional issue. Find the constitutional consistency, I dare you. People throw up the 2nd amendment because then they don't have to think about it. It's a sop to quench discussion or forethought. It's bullshit, though. We've been infringing the fuck out of the 2nd amendment ever since we decided that the military gets guns we don't. and that's entirely appropriate. We've twice said "that gun is too scary" and had it stick and that's why Randy Weaver ended up in a mountain siege - a BATF guy talked him into taking a hacksaw to a shotgun and then threatening him with a 20-year prison term if he didn't turn informant.

So bummer 'bout your history (we won't go into mine) but when I say the 2nd amendment shtick is a feint, I mean it. We've got angry people who would rather shoot someone in the face than deal with their problems and the founding fathers have fuckall to do with that.





cgod  ·  3031 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Current Supreme Court precedent is that people are allowed to own handguns and some types of rifles. They just declined to hear a case where a state had an assult weapon ban where the appeals court found the ban Constitutional. What types of gin regulations are legal is murky right now but the unambiguous right forost citizens to own guns is not.

The six shootings near my house this summer were all with handguns. All of the arrests made in connection were of felons that didn't have the legal right to have a gun. As long as handguns are widely available and their purchase is protected by Supreme Court precedent there are significant Constitutional road blocks to real gun reform.

goobster  ·  3036 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Thanks for doing the due diligence on this one, my friend. I didn't have the time.