more guns (was: Reply to Margaret)

Wojtek Sokolowski sokol at jhu.edu
Fri May 7 07:13:51 PDT 1999


At 03:40 PM 5/6/99 -0400, Margaret wrote:
>My objection to the gun-control deal, I guess, is that
>it's very classist and more than slightly fraudulent.
>It's a facile thing to do: we can congratulate
>ourselves that we've Taken Action. It's like
>targetting the socially-marginalised kids, the gamers
>and goths. It's a feel-good act that allows us to
>scapegoat the powerless while maintaining the illusion
>that the powerful are blameless. It's 'aspirin for a
>brain-tumor headache'. It's like eroding the Fourth
>Amendment. The asset-forfeiture law is passed to get
>at the major drug dealers, and a few years later an
>innocent woman no longer has a car to drive because her
>husband got caught soliciting a prostitute. How many
>of the ruling elite ever go to jail for dope offences?
>How many of them ever go to a serious jail for any
>offence? How many ever get their property confiscated?

I see your point, but I also think there is something in between a total ban some propose and virtual laissez faire that exists now. In fact, the Second Amendment cleraly stipulates effective regulation ("well-regulated militia") - and I am surprised that victims of school massacres involving fire arms did not sue their respective states for the violation of the Second - namely their failure to implement effective regulation of fire arms.

The absence of such regulation can be clearly demonstrated by comparison with driver licensing. Every owner/operator of a motor vehicle is required to register the vehicle, obtian liability insurence and pass driver competence/safety test before he/she is issued a licence. None of these regulations abridge in any way the "right" to own a means of transportation, even though no constitutional law stipulates that such transporation sould be 'well-regulated'.

So the fact that similar regulations have not been enacted in relation to gun ownership can clearly construed as a state's violation of the Second - resulting in gund falling into the hand of minors who subsequently inflicted substantial harm on others. I am surprised that such a strategy has not been pursued in courts, or was it?

A broader point is that regulation can greatly improve gun-related safety and provide effective means to prosecute criminal elements for gun law violations than no regulations at all.

Wojtek



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