President Obama has made it quite clear that he would like to take American's guns away. So, it was no surprise that he would use a "backdoor" means to do this. As the Wall Street Journal is reporting, the Obama Administration is pushing the use of automobile license plate scanners in order to gather data on people attending gun shows. While there are no known arrests that resulted from this activity, the possibility is certainly there.
The larger problem with this "program" is that it violates our Constitutional right of freedom of assembly and association. One has to wonder where it would stop. For example, would data be collected on people attending political campaign events or protests? This shows, once again, that the President and his people don't respect our Constitution, and why he has so often lost Supreme Court cases brought against actions he and his Administration have taken.
References:
Gun-Show Customers’ License Plates Come Under Scrutiny: Federal agents enlisted local police to scan cars’ plates at shows’ parking lots: http://www.wsj.com/articles/gun-show-customers-license-plates-come-under-scrutiny-1475451302
Annotation 12 - First Amendment: Right of Association: http://constitution.findlaw.com/amendment1/annotation12.html
Obama’s Abysmal Record Before the Supreme Court: http://www.cato.org/blog/obamas-abysmal-record-supreme-court
Showing posts with label license. Show all posts
Showing posts with label license. Show all posts
Wednesday, October 5, 2016
Wednesday, June 15, 2016
Should High Capacity Firearms Be Licensed?
What we know about the Orlando massacre is that the shooter used a "223" AR-15 to do most of the damage. He legally bought it by passing a background check. For those who don't know, the AR-15 and all of its variants is essentially the civilian version of the military's M-16, and has standard magazine capacities of 20 and 30 rounds. That's a lot of shots available to someone who wants to kill a lot of people. Larger magazines are also available.
The normal argument for owning one or more of these high capacity military-style weapons is "for self defense". Arguing that there are bad guys out there with similar capability. This is a reasonably sound argument since Americans have bought tens of millions of them. Others say they are just gun enthusiasts who want them as part of their personal collections.
However, because of the widespread killing power of the AR-15 and other weapons like them, I think that a new federal license coupled with a more thorough background check should be required before a purchase can even be attempted. Perhaps, even a mandatory interview by the FBI or other law enforcement agency. Additionally, there should be an enforced waiting period of two weeks or more before a dealer surrenders the weapon to its new owner. Also, the number of high capacity magazines should be limited to only two purchases per year.
These restrictions would not bar qualified individuals from owning these guns, and, as such, would not be a violation of one's 2nd Amendment rights. It would simply put qualifying time and purchase limits on buyers so that those who intend to kill would be stopped or abandon the plan; especially if they have to be interviewed by an FBI agent. Would this program have prevented the Orlando shooting? I don't know. People who want to kill will always find some way to do so. Just look at the Boston Marathon bombings.
Lastly, while high capacity rifles tend to show up in mass shootings, they, themselves, are rarely used in the commission of homicides. According to the FBI's statistics on homicides by weapon type, out of nearly 12,000 murders in 2014, just 248 victims were killed by rifles (of any kind). This represents a year-after-year decline since 2010 when 367 were killed by rifles. The reality is that rifles are not the weapon of choice by murderers because they are difficult to conceal. Therefore, even if we did ban all assault rifles, the impact on the murder rate in America may only be negligible.
References:
Hillary Clinton Calls For A Ban On AR-15 Rifles After Orlando Massacre: http://uproxx.com/news/hillary-clinton-ar-15-ban-assault-weapons/
FBI — Expanded Homicide Data, 2010 to 2014, Table 8: https://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/crime-in-the-u.s/2014/crime-in-the-u.s.-2014/tables/expanded-homicide-data/expanded_homicide_data_table_8_murder_victims_by_weapon_2010-2014.xls
The normal argument for owning one or more of these high capacity military-style weapons is "for self defense". Arguing that there are bad guys out there with similar capability. This is a reasonably sound argument since Americans have bought tens of millions of them. Others say they are just gun enthusiasts who want them as part of their personal collections.
However, because of the widespread killing power of the AR-15 and other weapons like them, I think that a new federal license coupled with a more thorough background check should be required before a purchase can even be attempted. Perhaps, even a mandatory interview by the FBI or other law enforcement agency. Additionally, there should be an enforced waiting period of two weeks or more before a dealer surrenders the weapon to its new owner. Also, the number of high capacity magazines should be limited to only two purchases per year.
These restrictions would not bar qualified individuals from owning these guns, and, as such, would not be a violation of one's 2nd Amendment rights. It would simply put qualifying time and purchase limits on buyers so that those who intend to kill would be stopped or abandon the plan; especially if they have to be interviewed by an FBI agent. Would this program have prevented the Orlando shooting? I don't know. People who want to kill will always find some way to do so. Just look at the Boston Marathon bombings.
Lastly, while high capacity rifles tend to show up in mass shootings, they, themselves, are rarely used in the commission of homicides. According to the FBI's statistics on homicides by weapon type, out of nearly 12,000 murders in 2014, just 248 victims were killed by rifles (of any kind). This represents a year-after-year decline since 2010 when 367 were killed by rifles. The reality is that rifles are not the weapon of choice by murderers because they are difficult to conceal. Therefore, even if we did ban all assault rifles, the impact on the murder rate in America may only be negligible.
References:
Hillary Clinton Calls For A Ban On AR-15 Rifles After Orlando Massacre: http://uproxx.com/news/hillary-clinton-ar-15-ban-assault-weapons/
FBI — Expanded Homicide Data, 2010 to 2014, Table 8: https://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/crime-in-the-u.s/2014/crime-in-the-u.s.-2014/tables/expanded-homicide-data/expanded_homicide_data_table_8_murder_victims_by_weapon_2010-2014.xls
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