[...]
> > I particularly like the domestic violence category.
>
> >From what I've heard/read, the people who are against this one claim
> that there's a lot of women who, in the middle of an un-friendly divorce
> proceeding, get a restraining order against their soon-to-be-ex
> specifically in order to trigger (ahem) this part of it: it's
> revenge --
According to a friend who works in a County office dealing with PFAs (in PA, a restraining order is called Protection From Abuse) this does actually occur. She says that many divorce lawyers tell women to get a PFA so they can use it as a bargaining item in the proceedings.
[...]
> The current federal law does have some loopholes, the biggest being that
> the laws about transferring firearms only apply to licensed dealers; I'm
> not sure why this was ever the case, but I note that many states
> regulate ALL transfers (not just those by a dealer) and those that don't
> are typically from the former Confederacy ... Virginia, North Carolina,
> Florida to name a few. I understand this loophole (the popularized "Gun
> Show Loophole" but really it applies to any private transfer) is on its
> way out ... my guess is that it's probably some special-interest
> issue.
In PA there is no loophole, and PA is one of the most gun-liberal states. *ALL* transfers except for black powder guns require compliance with the background check laws. However, this isn't enforced, because it just is not enforceable, like most victimless crime laws. But calling this a gun show loophole is silly. Gun shows are crawling with LEOs so one would have to be dumb to take their criminal black-market gun dealing operation to one. But do many people do person-to-person transfers all the time and not pay the fee and get the background check? Sure. How could one stop that? Registries and random searches? That pesky Bill of Rights gets in the way there. Registries are fought against because they historically lead to confiscation (e.g. CA).
The real problem of violence in the US has nothing to do with guns. If the anti-gunners directed their resources to anti-drug-war groups they might actually be able to save lives. The classist and racist drug war should be the issue, not the weapon of choice used to fight the war.
Matt
-- PGP RSA Key ID: 0x1F6A4471 aim: beyondzero123 PGP DH/DSS Key ID: 0xAFF35DF2 icq: 120941588 http://blogdayafternoon.com yahoo msg: beyondzero123
The technology that extends our senses is increasingly difficult to distinguish from the technology that creates our senses.
-Richard Thieme