On gun laws that are dumb
People often say to me Hey, Uncle, what’s your problem with a lot of these gun laws people are trying to pass these days? And I say Well, anymore, all these laws do are target the law-abiding, who are, despite the claims of some, not inclined to go shooting people. So, they’re rather pointless. To illustrate:
Gov. M. Jodi Rell has approved a new law that will penalize gun owners if they fail to report lost or stolen firearms to police within 72 hours. …
Under the new law, a first-time failure to report a lost or stolen gun within 72 hours of discovering it is missing is an infraction, punishable by a fine up to $90. Any subsequent, unintentional failure to report a lost or stolen gun is a felony that carries a prison sentence of up to five years and a fine of up to $5,000.
If gun owners intentionally fail to report lost or stolen guns, they could be sent to prison for up to 10 years.
Wow. Punishing lawful gun owners. That’s real smart. What if Joe Gun Owner is out of town and someone breaks in?
Punishing the otherwise law-abiding is easy. After all, they don’t shoot back. And going after people who do shoot back is hard.
June 25th, 2007 at 10:53 am
I was all ready to correct Bitter on the matter of law since it says after “discovery” rather than after the incident, so that you wouldn’t need to actually conduct inventories, but after reading the actual law, no, it really could be that bad. It’s ripe for prosecutorial abuse by any DA that decides he doesn’t like a gun owner who had a gun stolen.
June 25th, 2007 at 2:14 pm
Such laws are obviously aimed (no pun intended) at forcing the law-abiding citizens to disarm themselves. This is tyranny using the slower and gradual approach and naive “useful idiots” to achieve its evil.
June 25th, 2007 at 3:28 pm
Ron pretty much nailed it.
The idea that you guns aren’t already properly stored and cared for by having them locked in your own goddamn house behind closed doors is offensive.
Let’s be frank–the person at fault when guns are stolen is the THIEF, not the gun owner. Any suggestion to the contrary is anti-freedom thinking at its worst.