I think it’d be useful to document, from an almost anthropological standpoint, what happens in a “progressive’s” mind when they talk about “common sense gun laws”.
For example, when Virginia attorney-general Mark Herring – a Democrat, natch – says “let’s implement a common-sense measure ending reciprocity in carry permits with other states”, what he really means is “let’s make sure that people from other states who have documented histories of being reliably law-abiding citizens can’t carry their guns legally in Virginia“.
Criminals remain free to carry whatever they want, as always.
Seems commonsensical to me.
You know what else sounds like common sense? Minnesota should refuse to honor Virginia driver’s licenses until they honor our carry permits.
Because we wouldn’t want dumbass Virginians on our roads, now, would we?
I imagine if you polled Americans, you would find that nearly 100% of respondents agreed that we need common-sense gun laws. I know that I am in favor of common-sense gun laws.
The problem is that calling a new law ‘common-sense’ doesn’t make it common-sense (exhibit A is the so-called ‘common-sense’ gun laws against assault rifles and large capacity magazines).
In my state, a person who has received evaluation or treatment of any kind for a mental health or addiction issue is denied a permit to own a firearm. Not carry; no one other than judges, cops, and their families gets carry permits in my state. We are talking permit to own.
Makes sense, right?
Well, not really.
People may seek mental health treatment for reasons that have nothing to do with the state of their mental health. Some health workers are required to go through substance abuse evaluation as part of their job training. Others may be ordered to undergo evaluation as a civil legal matter unrelated to gun or violence issues (divorce, perhaps). The ‘escape hatch’ for this requirement is a letter from a doctor or other health care provider stating that the applicant is free of mental health or addiction issues that would make it improper for him or her to own a firearm.
Obviously there are due process red flags all over the place with these requirements. Why should your doctor get to decide if you should own a gun? There is no appeal process.
The lack of due process seems to be the problem with most proposed ‘common-sense’ gun laws. They condition gun ownership on essentially arbitrary judgments by bureaucrats or elected officials. Why is it okay to have a magazine that holds ten rounds, but not eleven? Why is a rifle with a pistol grip considered more dangerous than a rifle without a pistol grip? (by definition, all hand guns have a pistol grip). As far as I know, police are not paid assassins. Like ordinary citizens, they are allowed to use firearms to protect themselves and others. Citizens should be allowed to use any weapon the police are allowed to use, under the same restrictions.
FYI, I picked up the hand gun I bought my wife today. She needs it for self-protection. We live in a rural area and I am gone about 12 nights each month. We were burgled about five years ago, when I was working out of town and she was away from home. It’s a spooky feeling. They never caught the team that broke down the door, ransacked the house, and made off with several thousand dollars in tools, cash, and jewelry.
The procedure here on the Big Island was:
a) Take an approved hand gun course from the NRA, $125, eight hours over two days, including range time. The classes are only given one weekend a month in my town.
b) Find a shop, choose and pay for a handgun (there are two or three in Hilo, which has 30 to 40 thousand residents). After you pay for it, the shop gives you the paperwork and keeps the gun, pending your permit approval.
c) Apply for the permit at the police station. This took us two hours. There is a lot of paperwork. You are fingerprinted and photographed, and have to be a US citizen or permanent resident, not be a felon or under indictment for a felony (I think the system failed to detect Dylann Roof’s felony indictment), or have a domestic abuse conviction, or be or not be a dozen other things (there are 14 questions).
d) Wait two weeks. They always make you wait the maximum, which is two weeks.
e) Get your permit from the police station. This just takes a few minutes.
f) Go to the gun shop with the permit. Filling out their paperwork (much of which duplicates what you have filled out at the police station) takes about an hour. You walk out with a gun, but you are not finished yet.
g) Go back to the police station with your hand gun. The clerks there verify that the gun you are permitted matches the gun you have applied to own. As far as I could tell, this consisted of measuring the barrel length and noting the serial number. You have to sign more paperwork, and they give you a copy with a state seal that shows this gun is registered.
h) You are done! But you are not allowed to transport your gun anywhere but between the police station, a firing range, and your home, unloaded and not accessible to the driver . We stopped and had lunch at the Coconut Grill in Hilo (recommended). This was a felony, for all I know.
Remember this the next time you hear some pundit say that in America, there are no gun laws, and anyone can go into one of myriad gun stores, and buy whatever gun they want, whenever they want.
BG;
Just out of curiosity, do you know what percentage of your state and local elected officials are native born Hawaiians?
My sister and bro in law lived there about 10 years ago and they felt that there seemed to be a lot of Japanese immigrants somehow getting elected.
For a number of reasons ethnic Japanese are over represented not only elected office in Hawaii, but in the state and county civil service, and the management ranks not only of local companies (like the electric utility), but in local branches of mainland and multinational companies.
One way to look at it is that every society requires an educated management class. In Hawaii, for cultural and historical reasons, this class is dominated by ethnic Japanese. It has a racial aspect, but is not in itself racist. In Fiji, ethnic Indians make up the management class. I understand that in Indonesia ethnic Indians and ethnic Chinese make up the management class.