even with testing, licensing, etc.

plus you can drive drunk too and follow every other law and regulation.

.... No responsible car organization argues for eliminating driver's licenses, lane markings, insurance requirements, etc.

That is not their sole purpose.

There is no comparison between a car and a gun.

and guns (if you buy them legally) are regulated.

just wasn't catching the comparison - it didn't make sense to me.

for a sane person.

Auto violations result in increased insurance rates, fines and even loss of the privelege of driving.

Same should apply to guns.

blah blah blah

about how they'd use the list to round up the gun owners, or at least confiscate the guns. Look, I'm all for the right to own a gun, but I want the police to know exactly who owns a gun and that they're sane enough to own it safely.

They used to do the, "in Switzterland everyone owns a gun" until the actual requirements of having that gun came to light and how rigid those requirements were.

So, no.

Those two words in the Second Amendment are conveniently left out of discussions on this.

a violation of the Second Amendment in any way. There is nothing unconditional about the 2nd Amendment.

... WELL REGULATED" mean?

This was proposed back in the 60's and the NRA went nuts.

The higher population, the higher the insurance premiums. Make them go to classes every YEAR with annual registration, and make the lines go out the door. LOL! You want to vote and carry a gun, you have to wait in line. I wouldn't advise line cutting, could be deadly.

Even under the recent revisionist interpretations of the second amendment from Scalia and company, licensing and registration are constitutional. The problems are not constitutional, they are political.

tight. The federal government could easily set federal standards that would set minimum requirements. There are already federal limitations in place, and those have passed muster with the SCOTUS. They can be extended.

Currently it's illegal to sell a gun to someone who's been found mentally incompetent. What does registration add to that?

there would be a way for these people to be reported.

What registers what, when? You mean make rifles and shotguns like handguns, where you have to register them and pass a background check to buy them? Fine with me, though mentally ill people still get handguns way too often, so while I'm not against this I'm not seeing what it will do.

to get hold of guns would REDUCE the number of such incidents, even though it couldn't eliminate them.

What it would do is save some lives. Wouldn't that be worth it?

I don't know that I agree with you that it would make it more difficult enough to prevent any murders, but it's worth a shot.

to go through the licensing and registration procedures than a law-abiding hunter.

I don't trip out much over the constitutional issues, for the most part, I just can't think of many gun laws that would do much to actually keep people who want a gun from getting one.

Last edited Fri Dec 14, 2012, 03:33 PM - Edit history (1)

Edited for more complete answer.

Okay, here's the text (as if it hasn't been posted about a million times)

"A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed."

A militia is an organization of people. You can't have a militia without people. The second amendment specifies the regulation of militias. It asserts the unrestricted right of the people to keep and bear arms. So if you're a strict constitutional constructionist, the letter of the law precludes any regulation of firearms kept and borne by the people.

Nobody that I know of (who has anything meaningful to say about the subject) is that much of a strict constructionist. The supreme court, conservatives and all, have interpreted the constitution to allow the regulation and carraige of firearms. And that is as it should be.

I know we can't because we are a country half filled with freaks. But it needs to go in order to have any hope of civilization.

as far as I'm concerned. We can't just keep hoping for better, we're going to have to fight for it.

it seems we are al asking for a change the the culture of our country. Without getting that, there's no way to force, or MAKE people stop shooting because they KNOW it a bad thing to do. I hove no idea how you go about changing our culture.

home to some pretty tight firearms restrictions. To own my handgun, I had to apply for a license, part of which was a background check for felonies and mental health. My gun is registered to me. Every legal gun can only be sold after a waiting period and must come with a child-proof lock. All gun owners must be 21 or older. Fully automatic guns are illegal. In Cook County, gun owners are required to take a special permit class, as the OP suggested. Other counties do not require it but strongly encourage it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gun_laws_in_Illinois
http://www.csmonitor.com/Photo-Galleries/Lists/States-with-the-strictest-gun-laws/%28photo%29/259368

To my deep sadness, none of this has stopped gun violence and murder in my state. The majority of these crimes are not committed by legal gun owners with legally purchased firearms. They committed by unlicensed owners with guns purchased "under the table". A few months ago, a gun shop in my city was robbed not once but twice by the same people--two teens, stealing hundreds of weapons, with the intent of selling them on the street. They were caught in the act during the second burglary.

While most the attention-getting public shootings seem to be done with legal guns (please see Aurora, Virginia Tech, NIU), the gun violence that daily grinds away at our society is done with illegal guns.

Perhaps the answer is not new gun laws. Maybe the answer is better enforcement of the ones we have. I think it may be time to end the war on pot and focus the attention of police to this matter.

It's about State National guards

i don't know the answer to your question. i can't imagine how it could, but if so, the amendment could be thrown out and another amendment that makes sense could be added.