General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Fuck it! I'm sick of pro gun arguments and advocates. [View all]branford
(4,462 posts)in exchange for national gun safety and training standards, similar to how a drivers license from one state is good in any other?
In fact, what are you willing to compromise to improve gun safety (and just willing to accept a little less gun control than you want is not compromise, it's demanding a conditional surrender).
Do you have evidence that registration will actually lower crime or accidents? Canada's registration was such a waste of money that they repealed much of the legislation.
Insurance is both useless and a non-starter. I've written extensively on DU about the problems with firearm insurance, but in brief, (i) you cannot insure against intentional criminal conduct, (ii) firearm insurance is already cheap and readily available, and since firearm accidents are covered by virtually all homeowners and renters policies, most firearm owners are already covered, and (iii) it would be unconstitutional to interfere with the insurance market simply to make gun ownership more burdensome and expensive as it would be a veritable, an quite illegal, "poll tax."
http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=7133846
Lastly, no one has to demonstrate why they need anything in a free country, particularly when the class of product is explicitly protected in the Constitution. If you don't want an "assault weapon," no one is suggesting you must buy one. However, those you wish to regulate or ban a product are the ones who bear the burden of demonstrating the need for such regulation. Since ALL long arms, not just "assault weapons," represent a tiny fraction of gun crime, no less among the tens of millions of owners who safely use such firearms, isn't your demand for another AWB really just a solution looking for a problem?
Despite your claims, it not "common sense stuff," and you can't achieve it because a great many other Americans have vastly different ideas and perspectives concerning firearms than you and many here on DU.
I nevertheless believe some "reasonable" comprise is possible, but it will require many gun control advocates to believably give up on any notions of an American legal framework about firearms ever becoming anything like Britain, Australia, the UK, Japan, etc.