"You believe gun ownership is completely unregulated in the US?
You can differ on what the meaning of "well" is in this context, but gun control in the US has not been completely ignored. There's a whole cottage industry of lawyers around to try to figure out where the myriad of gun control laws overlap and/or conflict. Guns are way more regulated in the US than cars are.
---snip---
Want a full list of who cannot possess a firearm in California?
http://oag.ca.gov/sites/all/files/pdfs/firearms/forms/prohibcatmisd.pdf
For me, that seems pretty well regulated.
/jordan
---end quote ----
I concede, you did not use the word "onerous" - but your statement implies that you consider gun regulations quite substantial. I do not. I think far, far more could be done, for example:
1. Ban on fire arm possession in all public places (akin to ban on smoking in public places) - for everyone except trained personnel in their official capacity who have a permit to carry arms in public places. In reality, many jurisdictions encourage carrying weapons in public places (concealed weapon permit)
2. Ban of fire arm sales by anyone but a licensed professional (akin to ban on practicing medicine by anyone but licensed physician, or for that matter on public sale of food by anyone but licensed vendor) - what we have instead is a loophole that you can drive a truck through allowing private gun sales by anyone to anyone
3. Mandatory registration of all guns and requirement to carry registration tag all the time (akin to car registration) - stiff penalties for possession of unregistered weapons.
4. Mandatory background check and waiting period (akin to employment or rental application) - which exists only on paper, since the Republicans and the gun lobby gutted all enforcement mechanism
5. Mandatory safety requirements, including mandatory training and passing a periodical test (akin to driving license), restricted and controlled access to weapons (e.g. weapons can be stored only approved safety boxes that are securely locked and that allow temporary blocking of access by anyone in the household).
These I would consider moderately ADEQUATE measures, and not necessarily very onerous ones.
On Wed, Dec 19, 2012 at 12:49 PM, Jordan Hayes <jmhayes at j-o-r-d-a-n.com> wrote:
>> You said that, not me.
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>
> [...]
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>> You seem to believe that the US has too onerous gun regulations
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> You said that, not me.
>
> /jordan
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-- Wojtek
"An anarchist is a neoliberal without money."