RANDOM THOUGHTS FROM A (MULTIPLE) GUN OWNER:
I suggest that the reason the Scond Amendment is in the Bill of RIGHTS, to provide the people with the means to resist a tyranical government, is just as valid today as when the Bill of RIGHTS was passed. Anyone who does not understand this is, in my opinion, naive. Our liberties are being surreptitiously eroded at best and obliterated at worst by our government. Our rights are in the hands of elected representatives who allow themselves be stampeded when someone yells "threat" and so goddamned worried about reelection that they follow the pack rather than take a courageous stand. Throughout the Western world, power is being taken from the people and consolidated in the hands of the powerful.
Before any government can truly hobble its citizens, it must first disarm them. Shitstorm is absolutely right about that. That Genocide Chart that she put up was copyrighted by Jews for the Preservation of Gun Ownership. Ask the Jews. They know all about it. Tell THEM it can't happen and that the right to bear arms is superfluous.
Care to argue that the chances the citizens of the United States WILL need to protect themselves against the government are so small that eliminating or critically impairing the right to gun ownership so as to render it meaningless probably won't matter? The chances of you having an automobile accident are also slight. How many of you drive around without insurance? Why not? Because if you lose, you lose BIG. The right to own firearms is INSURANCE!
The other reason the right to bear arms should not be crippled is home defense. Michael Moore once made a comment that the areas that have the highest level of firearm ownership have the lowest crime rates. He thought that he was being smart and asked if they had the lowest crime rates, why did the residents need firearms to protect their homes? The dumb fuck didn't stop to think that there may have been a cause and effect relationship at work. I suggest that the reason these areas have lower crime rates is because where a significant portion of the population has firearms (ie. rural areas), the criminals KNOW IT.
I'm certainly not saying that there should be NO restrictions. There are two types of people who should not be trusted with firearms: criminals and crazies.
With respect to criminals: face reality, people. You CAN'T STOP the criminals from getting their hands on firearms. What you CAN do is make them awfully damned sorry that they DID illegally possess or use a firearm. Massachusetts, for example, had VERY strict penalties for illegal gun ownership. You go to jail or prison. PERIOD. Penalties for a criminal act should increase exponentially if a firearm is involved and the sentence should be automatic.
As for the crazies, one thing that you can do that would be effective and would stand a chance of becoming law is creating a means of checking the psychiatric history of people who attempt to legally purchase firearms. There is a question about psychiatric treatment on the Federal Firearms Application (can't remember exactly how it's worded, been a while since I've purchased a weapon - anyone help me out?). If you indicate that you have received a certain level of psychiatric care within a certain period of time, you will not receive permission to make the purchase. But there is no method for the government to check whether or not you are telling the truth when you answer "no".
I suggest, for the sake of discussion, mental health professionals being required to make reports of the names of those they feel too dangerous or unstable to possess firearms to a central registry which the government can access ONLY for the purpose of checking firearm purchase applications. Any who apply to purchase a firearm would be required to sign a waiver of their right to privacy SOLELY to the extent that the government could check to see if his/her name is in the "banned" pool.
Final thought: Ultimately, the nuts and bolts of regulation is done by the states. I live in New York, where fully automatic weapons and magazines with a capacity of more than 10 rounds is prohibited. In order to own a handgun you must have a permit, as you must to carry a pistol concealed. Next door, in Vermont, they have NO regulations on fully automatic weapons, magazine capacity, pistol ownership or the right to carry concealed weapons.
Vermont. That's right. That raging hotbed of right wingers and conservative lunatics.
It is actually something social liberals/progressives/anarchists (like me) and conservatives can agree upon.
That and distain for all the "We have to do SOMETHING even if we don't have any idea WHAT" Chicken Littles out there who pop up whenever these tragedies occur.
P.S. After the horror had faded, my next reaction was astonishment that in a western state like Colorado, at a midnight movie showing, NOBODY but the crazy was packing. Might have been an entirely different outcome if one brave person with a weapon had been in the crowd.
NUFF SAID