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The answer to that is a resounding YES we would be willing to do that if we are wiling to disarm the victims of crime in order to punish gun owners or would be gun owners. It is simply ludicrous to suggest owning a gun is an indication of wanting to commit a crime. Since vehicles are equally if not more used in major crime nobody is suggesting making "so called criminals" walk will reduce crime for obvious reasons. Why are these self same reasons not seen when it comes to guns?
I support background checks. They help gun stores ensure they aren't selling guns to people on probation/parole. I am against registration.
Let me try this crazy thing called being "open minded" and "objective", and see if I can look at this despite tending towards the other side.
Background Checks
There are a variety of reasons under the law that individuals are not allowed to purchase a weapon, such as having certain mental illnesses or felonies on their record. Background checks allow for a seller to identify these disqualifying factors through a verifiable system, allowing them to deny a sale.
This makes it more difficult for these individuals to obtain a firearm, increasing the likelihood that they do not purchase a firearm OR that they are apprehended upon attempting to make such a purchase.
The first portion of that occurs because as you make it more difficult to do something you decrease the pool of people who will do it, as there are those who will stop due to laziness/frustration/lack of knowledge with the process.
The second portion of that occurs because there is a greater likelihood that illegal sellers of guns would be monitored and tracked by law enforcement than legal sellers.
Registration
The way registration would "work" as it relates to gun crime is by providing an initial track to begin a search for evidence and potentially to help identify a criminal.
For the latter section, the reality is that some criminals are stupid and others act on emotion; neither of these things can be disputed.
While a smart criminal would use a firearm that is not registered to him, a smart criminal wouldn't do many of the things you find them doing in police blotters every day. Many of those who engage in crime are far from "masterminds", and those who act in a suddenly emotional or chaotic fashion are prone to poor reasoning due to panic. Where it'd potentially be more valuable though, is tracking how and where a gun came from that is found at a scene. If the gun was not used by it's register owner, then it at least leads the cops to said owner and can then begin the process of finding how the gun went from there to the crime scene, potentially uncovering who took it in the first place which may provide an indication of who used it for the crime.
Now, are these two things also very open to abuse? Absolutely. Do they work in terms of stopping or deterring crime? I think the first likely does to an extent, the latter less so. Are they constitutional? The first moreso than the second I think. How do the possible abuses and the potential benefits balance out, that's the big question that has to be asked.
But it's really not hard looking at either things and understanding how, in theory, they're meant to "work".
Unquesionably, MANY people who are prevent from legally owning a gun or purchasing a gun would and could end up going the nefarious route to purchase one; but I think the notion that just anyone would, as if there would be 0 difference between the number of people wrongfully obtaining a firearm if there wasn't background checks and if there are, is a flawed one.
The gun grabber thought process runs along the lines of "the only reason a private citizen could possibly want a gun is to commit a crime therefore anyone who wants a gun must have criminal intent. Even if we can't prove that intent we are better off removing that right in the interests of public safety." Basically they believe that trust in the good judgement of their fellow man is unreasonable because people ( except for themselves) are inherently evil.
How about private sales.
Are we really concerned about "just anyone", though?
I agree that we would see some difference in the number of people illegally purchasing guns if the "loophole" were closed, but are those really the people we're truly concerned about?
I would think that the reason we'd want to keep guns out of unauthorized hands would be to prevent the many mental-illness-related mass shootings that seem to have become the fashion, and to prevent other firearm shootings and murders, and armed robberies, and firearm-related assaults, and drive-by shootings, and things like that.
And I wonder if the guy who is willing to carry an illegal gun around with him on a somewhat regular basis, and use it to rob, assault, shoot, and kill other people is the kind of guy who would be deterred by an administrative loophole closing when, as we know and as you've suggested, there will still be plenty of illegal guns available for illegal purchase, they'll just be a little bit more illegal and a little bit harder to obtain.
To use your drug example, the guy deterred from purchasing a dime bag of marijuana while on vacation because of the social consequences of getting caught with marijuana in his system isn't the kind of guy who would buy an illegal gun and then use it to go out and commit strong-arm robbery or home invasion.
He might buy an illegal gun if he thought that nobody would be any the wiser but it's unlikely that he'd use it as a tool for mischief, or worse.
If we had to think of a drug use analog for the kind of person who would buy an illegal gun and then use that gun to do still more illegal stuff with it we're looking more at the 10 bag a day heroine addict, and we know that existing draconian drug laws are little deterrent for that kind of person.
To me this whole argument comes reminds me of the old adage that, "locks were made to keep honest people out".
If you're willing to respect a lock, or social pressure to not use drugs, or the closing of an administrative loophole, then you're not really someone to worry about.
But if you'd kick down the door to rob a place, or if you're the kind of guy who smokes crack despite the numerous draconian laws prohibiting the drug, then you're also in the class of people who would use an illegal gun to commit even greater crimes, and if locks and drug laws aren't preventing such people, at all, from doing their thing then what realistic expectation can we have that gun laws would make a difference.
Let me get this right, the reasons you suggest have been tested and found to be desirable in combating crime and therefore should just be adopted without question?
There are a number of disturbing qualities to this disqualification and what assurances innocent people will not be impacted?
This is theory of course.
Is it possible to dissuade a person from committing a crime by denial of a legal firearm?
I think that is the real question that must be asked.
I'm on the fence, to be honest. The private seller is required to ensure the person he or she is selling to is of legal age, right? Why not have them check if the person is legally permitted to own a gun? As long as the system to check is simple and "free".
To what aim is this check? When you sell a chainsaw to somebody do you check they know how to operate it and are not going to use it for illegal purposes.
Where does this complicity of selling a gun to somebody who uses it to commit a crime come from? Legal judgements? Firearm organisations? Gun control? Police? If your vehicle is stolen or sold to a guy who uses it in a bank robbery or killing spree is this in anyway the fault of the seller?
We seem to have accepted gun controls narrative and now base our decisions on faulty thinking. As far as I know guns still do not cause crime any more than matches cause arson. We would be insulted by anyone who suggested we were complicit.
Strawman
Zyphlin said:There are a variety of reasons under the law that individuals are not allowed to purchase a weapon, such as having certain mental illnesses or felonies on their record. Background checks allow for a seller to identify these disqualifying factors through a verifiable system, allowing them to deny a sale.
Then perhaps that is the question you should've asked in your OP, especially if you were planning on ignoring ACTUAL answers to your ACTUAL OP and instead just post strawman after strawman instead of actual legitimate responses.
Point out this straw man you claim.
How do these work and what will these laws achieve?
Background Checks
There are a variety of reasons under the law that individuals are not allowed to purchase a weapon, such as having certain mental illnesses or felonies on their record. Background checks allow for a seller to identify these disqualifying factors through a verifiable system, allowing them to deny a sale. This makes it more difficult for these individuals to obtain a firearm, increasing the likelihood that they do not purchase a firearm OR that they are apprehended upon attempting to make such a purchase. The first portion of that occurs because as you make it more difficult to do something you decrease the pool of people who will do it, as there are those who will stop due to laziness/frustration/lack of knowledge with the process. The second portion of that occurs because there is a greater likelihood that illegal sellers of guns would be monitored and tracked by law enforcement than legal sellers.
Let me get this right, the reasons you suggest have been tested and found to be desirable in combating crime and therefore should just be adopted without question?
I'm on the fence, to be honest. The private seller is required to ensure the person he or she is selling to is of legal age, right? Why not have them check if the person is legally permitted to own a gun? As long as the system to check is simple and "free".
well here is the problem
1) unless you have complete registration, there is no way to enforce that. it is a feel good proposal that won't do anything positive
2) it may be used to make "felons" out of people who don't comply even if they don't have any criminal or other disqualifying features
3) since private citizens are limited to INTRASTATE sales, federal laws requiring this are just another intrusion into the tenth amendment
2 and 3 are good points. But why would registration be required for universal background checks? If the database contains everyone not legally eligible to purchase a gun and doesn't log searches for people not on the list, why does it necessitate a registry?
Duh, it's a law and people are prohibited from breaking laws. Besides, Brawndo has electrolytes.
I'm on the fence, to be honest. The private seller is required to ensure the person he or she is selling to is of legal age, right? Why not have them check if the person is legally permitted to own a gun? As long as the system to check is simple and "free".
Let's begin with the first one.
Background Checks
There are a variety of reasons under the law that individuals are not allowed to purchase a weapon, such as having certain mental illnesses or felonies on their record. Background checks allow for a seller to identify these disqualifying factors through a verifiable system, allowing them to deny a sale.
This is your strawman.
No where did I indicate the "how" or the results of what I suggested above were "tested". No where did I suggest they were, or were found to be, desirable in combating crime. No where did I suggest they should be "adopted without question".
This makes it more difficult for these individuals to obtain a firearm, increasing the likelihood that they do not purchase a firearm OR that they are apprehended upon attempting to make such a purchase.
The first portion of that occurs because as you make it more difficult to do something you decrease the pool of people who will do it, as there are those who will stop due to laziness/frustration/lack of knowledge with the process.
Well, not "anyone". Your drug thing is actually a great example of this.
Do you deny that there are those who may want or desire something, but would be deterred if it is more difficult to do?
Marijuana use would cost me my career, so even in a place where it's legal at the state level like Colorado, I wouldn't use it. But if my career did not stand to be ruined by such use, I'd absolutely go out and try some weed or a pot brownie if I was out in Colorado, despite it's illegality federally. Why? Because it would be a simple and easy process. I'd be able to go online and quickly and easily find a storefront where I could purchase and partake in such things. I could easily find reviews for reputable places. I could easily talk with friends about their own experiences with a variety of locations. And I could travel to those locations without any sense of nervousness or apprehension.
However, if my career did not stand to be ruined by such use, but I was in a state where it was still illegal, the chances of me actually going out and trying to figure out 1) how to find a drug dealer and 2) actually finding said drug dealer and then 3) actually going to meet and purchase from said drug dealer would be next to nothing. I wouldn't even know exactly how to start the process of figuring that out, and then even once I did the entire process would make me extremely uneasy and problematic. Even though I would theoretically want the weed, the difficulty in procuring it in such a situation would be a deterrent.
Unquesionably, MANY people who are prevent from legally owning a gun or purchasing a gun would and could end up going the nefarious route to purchase one; but I think the notion that just anyone would, as if there would be 0 difference between the number of people wrongfully obtaining a firearm if there wasn't background checks and if there are, is a flawed one.
well if I have sold you a gun and you are on the banned list how does the government prove that the sale took place after the law was passed.
2 and 3 are good points. But why would registration be required for universal background checks? If the database contains everyone not legally eligible to purchase a gun and doesn't log searches for people not on the list, why does it necessitate a registry?
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