Higgs Boson wrote:

I hope you'll permit a few modest corrections:


So assault rifles and other multiple-fire devices will continue to be
sold -- to kill little Bambi in the forest, as the NRA piously
pretends.

If, by "multiple fire" weapon, you mean "fully automatic," to buy one, you
must supply fingerprints to the FBI, pass a background check, fill out a
long BATF form, get permission to buy the weapon from the head of your local
law enforcement agency, and pay a substantial tax. Further, the
lowest-priced Class III weapon I've seen lately starts at around $4,000.00.
None have been manufactured for sale to the general public since 1986, nor
have any been imported. If, on the other hand, by "multiple-fire" devices
you mean a weapon that fires once for each trigger pull, you're right. Those
can be bought and have been since the early 1800s.


And you can still go to a gun show and buy any lethal weapon for sale
no matter if you are a terrorist or "merely" a psychotic killer.

Um, sort of. There are two kinds of sellers at a gun show: Federal Firearm
Licensed dealers and individuals.

It is true that a psychotic or terrorist can buy a weapons from a FFL
dealer - gun show or not - if he passes the federal background check (and
has the money). Major Hassan (a terrorist) and Jared Loughner (a whacko)
certainly did. It is also true that a psychotic or terrorist can buy a
weapon from an individual, whether at a gun show or from next door neighbor,
although I can't think of a case where either has done so and gone on to
commit a horrific crime.

At a gun show, there is no difference between an individual who pays $75 for
a "table" to sell, say, six guns he recently inherited and the individual
walking around with an AR-15 sporting a sign "For Sale - $1200.


It's so pitifully obvious that the "men" who need lethal weapons to
prove their manhood are really nothing but scared, sick little
children inside.


I admit there are some who fit that description. Others who need to feel
good about themselves own "muscle cars" or "hogs" or 'six-pack abs," but
itt's not the OWNERSHIP that's a problem. And I don't think psychotics or
terrorists are intent on proving anything - they're simply obeying the
voices in their head (or from the pulpit).

Short-term furor over assassination of a Federal judge (!) and
possible murder (hope not!) of a national legislator, along with
murder of a 9-year-old child and other innocents.

Furor will soon die down. Nothing will be done. The gun lobby will
continue to pay off the whores in Congress who defeat every attempt at
REASONABLE regulation with shrill misreadings of the 2nd Amendment.

One can only hope that nothing will be done in the emotion of the moment. To
paraphrase a legal maxim "Bad situations make bad laws."

As for "shrill misreadings" of the 2nd Amendment, I'm with you there.
Neither you nor I get to define what the 2nd Amendment means. The Supreme
Court is the final arbiter and the court said: a) The business about the
"militia" is so much dross and has no effect, and b) The Amendment asserts
an "individual" right to own a gun.