The Firing Line Forums - View Single Post - Only 4 Gun Laws Needed

bclark1 · January 29, 2009, 11:11 AM

To answer your last question - how to keep guns from lawless people - you can't. They are by definition, lawless. Laws won't regulate their behavior. How do we stop the flow of drugs? We can't. Illegal visitors? We can't. Gray market goods, other contraband? We can't. Many of these are as hard or harder to conceal and transport than guns and ammo. The market will deliver whatever people want, whether it's on the up or under the table. The best you can do is hope that society is prepared to deal with the byproducts of those uncontrollable incidences. Goes back to a quote often attributed to Jefferson: "The laws of this nature are those which forbid to wear arms, disarming those only who are not disposed to commit the crime which the laws mean to prevent." You cannot regulate those that do not submit to regulation.

All gun laws are inherently preposterous. It's illegal to kill, batter and assault without strong justification. It is always illegal to steal or vandalize. Why do we need to clutter, complicate and inconvenience most people's lives because we lack the spine to enforce the existing laws?

I've said it before, I'll say it again. Gun laws are the ultimate in beauracratic redundancy. Paraphrasing, they say "Hey, let's make it illegal to do something that's already illegal." That'll teach those crooks, they are now exponentially criminal! Certainly, life plus six months is a greater disincentive to violate than just life!

Europe's gun-free zones still have huge violence problems. A desire for gun-control, while scoring "feel-good" points that seem to run the country today, shows a complete lack of understanding on the issues. Very rudimentary logic would suggest that it is unlikely that any benefit will be realized. Prevention in violence is better served by the deterrent of an equal or better equipped nonviolent civilian populus, or perhaps going the other direction and forfeiting a great deal of the liberties that allow people the freedom of motion to contemplate lawbreaking in the first place. The latter is no possibility in the US, but there are plenty of places elsewhere that would respect that desire.

January 29, 2009, 11:11 AM	#32
bclark1 Senior Member Join Date: January 5, 2005 Location: Ohio Posts: 1,531	To answer your last question - how to keep guns from lawless people - you can't. They are by definition, lawless. Laws won't regulate their behavior. How do we stop the flow of drugs? We can't. Illegal visitors? We can't. Gray market goods, other contraband? We can't. Many of these are as hard or harder to conceal and transport than guns and ammo. The market will deliver whatever people want, whether it's on the up or under the table. The best you can do is hope that society is prepared to deal with the byproducts of those uncontrollable incidences. Goes back to a quote often attributed to Jefferson: "The laws of this nature are those which forbid to wear arms, disarming those only who are not disposed to commit the crime which the laws mean to prevent." You cannot regulate those that do not submit to regulation. All gun laws are inherently preposterous. It's illegal to kill, batter and assault without strong justification. It is always illegal to steal or vandalize. Why do we need to clutter, complicate and inconvenience most people's lives because we lack the spine to enforce the existing laws? I've said it before, I'll say it again. Gun laws are the ultimate in beauracratic redundancy. Paraphrasing, they say "Hey, let's make it illegal to do something that's already illegal." That'll teach those crooks, they are now exponentially criminal! Certainly, life plus six months is a greater disincentive to violate than just life! Europe's gun-free zones still have huge violence problems. A desire for gun-control, while scoring "feel-good" points that seem to run the country today, shows a complete lack of understanding on the issues. Very rudimentary logic would suggest that it is unlikely that any benefit will be realized. Prevention in violence is better served by the deterrent of an equal or better equipped nonviolent civilian populus, or perhaps going the other direction and forfeiting a great deal of the liberties that allow people the freedom of motion to contemplate lawbreaking in the first place. The latter is no possibility in the US, but there are plenty of places elsewhere that would respect that desire.