Virginia Tech anniversary creates difficult moment on gun control for lawmakers

[krispos42]

45. It might be because most further restrictions are either expensive, intrusive, or unworkable.

Mental health evaluation before buying a gun? So what's the criteria, and who sets it? In some places, "I want a gun for self-defense" is not a reason unless you routinely carry around huge amounts of cash. Should that be the standard?
And where are we going to get a million mental-health evaluations a month done on top of everything else? And who pays for it?

Outlawing lawfully concealed or open carry? And how will this stop the guy that sticks a sawed-off shotgun under an overcoat to go rob a c-store?

National mandatory registration? Yeah, until the gun is stolen... as most guns used by career criminals are. Plus the issue of the pre-existing 240 millions guns already in circulation that aren't registered.

Ammunition purchasing limits? To what, 5 rounds a day? Anything past 5 dead bodies is a mass murder, so attempting to limit ammo purchases to prevent a mass shooting requires a purchase limit so low at to be untenetable. And shotguns... up to 15 pellets per shot!

Restricting ammunition to guns you already own? Well, aside from the fact that it requires registration of your guns first, there are 3 extremely common autopistol cartridges and 3 extremely common revolver cartridges. The 9mm Luger, the .40 S&W, and the .45 ACP probably account for 80% or more of autopistol ammunition sales, and the .38 Special, the .357 Magnum, and the .45 Colt probably account for 80% or more of revolver ammunition sales. Limiting a person to purchasing "only" 9mm ammo it like limiting a person to "only" purchasing a red car.

Private-sale background checks? Not a bad idea, but beyond the scope of federal law. It would have to be done on a state-by-state basis.

Safe-storage laws? Useful only for after-the-tragedy prosecutions, unless gun owners (you know, US citizens) were subject to random, unannounced spot inspections by the police. You know, like parolees duly convicted of a crime are subject to.

Smart guns? Let the cops use the technology first. If the rank-and-file cops will put their trust in guns that have electronic lockouts and such on them, I'm interested. If they won't, though... if they will only trust a purely mechanical gun like a Glock, then I'm not interested.

Microstamping? Again, requires registration to work and won't matter to the crazed mass-shooter. And, of course, IT DOESN'T WORK from a mechanical perspective.

Barcoding individual bullets? Requires ammunition registration, and then the purchaser cannot confirm the number etched on the bullet is the same as the box label. In other words, reasonable doubt. It would also send the price of new ammunition through the roof, encouraging people to discover the wonderful hobby of... handloading their own ammunition!




If the NY Times wants to see violent crimes drop (which would by necessity include gun-grime rates) then the would advocate for drug legalization.