Comments on: Prosecutions http://www.snowflakesinhell.com/2008/04/09/prosecutions/ Where There's Snow, There's Firepower Wed, 03 Dec 2008 03:16:31 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.3 By: Turk Turon http://www.snowflakesinhell.com/2008/04/09/prosecutions/#comment-21222 Turk Turon Wed, 09 Apr 2008 16:22:31 +0000 http://www.snowflakesinhell.com/?p=3167#comment-21222 EXACTLY! The crooks are already using false reports of thefts and burglaries as a cover for sales of guns to felons - at least three of them in this story. So what point is there in a law that would require such reports? The SCOTUS has already ruled (Haynes? In 1969?) that the gov't cannot require criminals to register their guns because it violates the Fifth Amendment. So I think a good case could be made that proposals to punish gun-owners who fail to report <i>legitimate</i> thefts would target only the law-abiding and not those whom the law claims to target: felons selling guns on the black market. The real purpose of such laws (and so many others) was laid out in the now-infamous 1976 New Yorker interview with Pete Shields, the founder od Handgun Control, Inc: to slowly, slowly, tighten the noose; using regulations, licenses, taxes, fees, and the media, until nobody could AFFORD to own a handgun, at which point it would be easy to pass a law to ban them. EXACTLY! The crooks are already using false reports of thefts and burglaries as a cover for sales of guns to felons - at least three of them in this story. So what point is there in a law that would require such reports?

The SCOTUS has already ruled (Haynes? In 1969?) that the gov’t cannot require criminals to register their guns because it violates the Fifth Amendment. So I think a good case could be made that proposals to punish gun-owners who fail to report legitimate thefts would target only the law-abiding and not those whom the law claims to target: felons selling guns on the black market.

The real purpose of such laws (and so many others) was laid out in the now-infamous 1976 New Yorker interview with Pete Shields, the founder od Handgun Control, Inc: to slowly, slowly, tighten the noose; using regulations, licenses, taxes, fees, and the media, until nobody could AFFORD to own a handgun, at which point it would be easy to pass a law to ban them.

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