How high of power lasers? :)
Okay, that made me literally laugh out loud. Rabble Rabble Rabble Rabb... wait, lasers?
I think a lot of good points have been made about why background checks are not a great idea. I do believe that they make it harder for criminals to get guns, in certain situations, but there are enough guns in this country that in reality (as you'd know from reading that book I loaned you
) most crime guns are bought in private transfers with no background check. There is no effective way of enforcing background checks on private sales, and I include the use of a national registry in that. Do we expect the police to go into the ghettos in LA and ask the gangbangers to register their guns for the national registry? Detroit, Chicago?
So you know that any actual effect from background checks will harm the law abiding citizen in much greater proportion than the criminal. The criminal can still get firearms through illegal means (theft, black market, etc.), while the ordinary citizen has to pay extra for a background check that can erroneously deny people for firearms. Are they worth it? I don't know, it's hard to quantify. Now consider the possibility that the .gov is keeping records. Are background checks worth it then?
Registration most definitely is a major step towards confiscation and the loss of the 2nd amendment completely. You probably laugh, but this is serious. As mentioned previously, that IS the end goal of certain people with power.
At this point, I say let loose the chains on the concealed weapons permits. Issues with property rights aside, get rid of the damn gun free zones. They don't work now, they haven't worked in the past, and they won't work in the future. Allow those who want to carry and have gone through the difficulty to obtain a permit to do so, to do so! In my mind, there is nothing more to the point that we can do that to give the impression to a would-be violent criminal that a gun lurks in every waistband; in every purse. Criminals want easy targets.
I would also highly suggest
Larry Correia's blog entry on gun control. Very long, but quite well written, and in a no-holds-barred manner he really hammers out the main positions we have and why.
I personally welcome you to our little group here. I love the idea of a devil's advocate in the core of my ideals. It gives those of us who believe strongly, on either side, an opportunity to reflect on those beliefs and try and remove oneself from the dangers of confirmation bias. Secondly, it hopefully gives a fresh perspective on things that maybe we hadn't thought about. While we generally don't do well with compromise, what I mean is that maybe ideas can come of debate. Ideas that can limit the scourge of violence while preserving freedom without infringement. These are the goals I have. An armed society is after all, a polite society.
As I keep saying over and over with these debates, is that we really have to move beyond inanimate objects and really focus on the issues.
Oh and he's not a troll, just a jerk. A jerk who's getting a new copy of
Armed and Considered Dangerous for the next major holiday.