Ok, so I'll tell the full story of my recent purchase and why it scared the crap out of me.
First, as I've explained elsewhere I sustained partial and full thickness (2nd & 3rd) burns a few years ago. Both of my arms and hands are heavily scarred as well as the back of my neck (other areas as well but I'm speaking here only of what's visible to others). As a result of that I tend to not pay much attention to my appearance. For example, I shave every couple or three months and I get a hair cut ever couple or three years whether I need one or not. Second, The ten years I lived in North Carolina, I picked up and have consciously retained a southern accent. Third, the weekend before last I had the shits and got maybe 6 hours of sleep all weekend. Fourth, as a result of the burns I have moderate nerve damage to my hands that sometimes makes my handwriting illegible even to myself.
Which brings me to Monday aftenoon and picking up my FNH PS90. I'm stuttering and can't put full thoughtful sentences together due to lack of sleep. My hands are shaking due to the nerve damage aggravated by lack of sleep. My hair is two inches below my shoulders. I'm sporting a 2+ month old patchy beard and mustache. Pretty much I sound and act like an ignorant, oxy popping, illiterate meth addict from the deep depths of Appalachia. I'm none of those things but this gun dealer had no way of knowing that. The only info he had was that I didn't trip a NICS hold, which we've already established won't block somebody on the terrorist watch list.
One would think that a dealer would be somewhat nervous about selling me a weapon that is clearly only useful as an assault rifle or for shooting groundhogs. And there are no groundhogs anywhere around here. Instead he tried to sell me 4x the ammo I wanted.
It took a total of 20 minutes to fill out paperwork, decide that I only needed 500 rounds vs 2000, and to write a check that I had to decipher for the owner.
There is very definitely something wrong with that time frame.
As a gun owner who does believe that, for good or bad, the second amendment does provide some protection for the average person to be able to own guns, I cannot fathom why that purchase was able to be made in that manner. A few things that should be done and cannot (in my mind) logically be interpreted as an abridgement of the second amendment.
- 72 hour wait period. If you need a gun sooner than that you need police protection.
- Magazines for all guns to be limited to 10 rounds max. (We already have a 3 shell minimum for shotguns; are geese really worth more than people?)
- Assault weapons and ammunition ban. Not to be limited by looks (to get around the right's "what's the use of banning scary looking guns" argument.) Limit by ammunition; if it's a military grade caliber it doesn't belong in civilian hands. 5.56mm, 5.57mm. 7.62mm. A side effect of this would be that many of the guns in the wild would be rendered eventually useless via a shrinking supply of ammunition. Further sales of weapons that use those ammunitions to be banned. As well as conversion kits that would allow them to be re-introduced. Meaning that if you buy an AK-47 in a civilian caliber it cannot legally be converted back to 7.62mm.
- Lengthen the minimum barrel length to that of the average 'true' hunting rifle.
- Ammunition purchase limit. At most 200 rounds per day. Only that high because I've legitimately purchased that many before heading for the mountains during elk season.
- A 'fingerprint' round fired at the factory and both the shell (extractor marks while not unique can seriously narrow the pool) and the bullet sent to the FBI or BATF for digital processing. Results available to all law enforcement agencies.
- A limit on caliber allowed for civilian use. Nothing larger than a .45 pistol and .375 H&H rifle can be sold to civilians. Exit the Barret sniper rifle (which can be purchased by civvys.) Precedent: we already restrict 10 gauge to police/military only.
- Fingerprint scanners on all new guns. As somebody already pointed out our phones have the for gawd's sake.
- Sound suppressors back to being universally banned. They are currently legal in 45 states. WTF????
- A misdemeanor charge for failing to report a stolen weapon. Upgraded to felony if the weapon is used in the commission of a crime. No statute of limitations.
- (Subject to the "law" of unintended consequences): 5 years automagically applied to your sentence if you have a gun on your person during the commission of a crime. (There is currently a statute about having a gun "in you possession" during a crime.) That is counter-productive since it can include a weapon the perpetrator left at home, in the car, etc.
I'm sure there are more that I'm missing, but I think those points could and should be implemented ASAP without any undo infringement of the 2nd amendment except in the most extreme interpretations. If the government can legally restrict my ownership of:
- fully automatic weapons (which it does),
- ground to air missiles (which it does)
- mortars (which it does)
- tanks, F/A-18s, Littoral combat ships, etc (which it does)
it can legally restrict my access to military grade calibers and weapons designed to shoot them.
As for body armor. The purchase of such should be allowed absolutely. But they should contain some form of serial number, rfid, or such to uniquely identify each piece. Purchase of one should be entered into a database maintained by the FBI and accessible to all law enforcement agencies. If it is borrowed, stolen or sold the owner should be required to keep a record of such. If your vest is used in a crime, you can be subject to arrest for materiel accomplice without paperwork proving you were not in possession and who was last in possession as far as you can prove).
Nico, your refute please. Using logic as opposed to kneejerkism please. I've already allowed you the 2nd amendment. How do any of those infringe?
"Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom." - Viktor Frankl
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