What is the point of owning guns?

[Lonestar]

Nah, sole purpose of a gun registry is for future confiscation. That's it.

I suppose that it could theoretically be used to return a firearm that was stolen from you, but if you didn't report that firearm & serial number stolen to begin with, you're a ****ing idiot.

Registration has historically been used for confiscation and forced buybacks in the Commonwealth countries, and in the US you have places like New Orleans which used a permit and registry list as a means to confiscate lawfully owned firearms after Katrina.

If you had asked me 5 years ago I would have said "it's all ado about nothing", but since Obama has kept up the NeoCon procedure of indefinite detention, warrantless wiretapping, etc, it doesn't seem a bridge too far for forced buybacks at a later date.

[SlowwHand]

I was listening to this Men's Auxiliary member at the VFW. They join off their parent's or grandparent's service, but never served themselves, and he was saying how he didn't have a gun, but he thought the right should be protected. He's also pro-Obama. After I listened to him long enough, I pointed out that by the time he realized his right was going, it would be gone; and it would be his boy that did it to him. I'm correct. People are going to be sheep until they see they're at the slaughter house. By then, they won't be able to transform into a wolf.

[Aeson]

The reason we don't have licensing and registration for guns is because the potential for abuse by the government is very very high.

The "potential" for abuse by government is very very high with everything. You could be drafted and sent to fight in some barren desert wielding nothing but a shield with a depiction of Mohammed on it. Selected for jury duty every weekend for the rest of your life. Audited by the IRS time and again. Your children could be taken away and put in foster care.

Privately owned guns don't keep us free. Votes do. Economic interest does. It costs money to do stupid **** like chain you up in some dank prison somewhere. People lose customers and employees if lots of people start disappearing. It doesn't make any sense for anyone unless you're really being annoying.

Take that protection away and put a gun in your hand, and you're at best a couple of weeks on the national news about some nutcase who took down civil servant or two before being killed ... this has played out over and over again. Not one nut with a gun the last 200 years has beaten the US government. (And if you feel tempted to mention the Revolutionary War, just remember we formed a government and army to fight that, it wasn't just a bunch of private individuals with guns.) Not even the slavers who had their own army and better generals.

Even Killdozer was taken out in the end ...

[SlowwHand]

How can you cite the examples you use in the 1st paragraph and follow it with the 2nd? Voting is important, but don't assure a thing.
I voted. Look at the piece of garbage running the country.

[MRT144]

How can you cite the examples you use in the 1st paragraph and follow it with the 2nd? Voting is important, but don't assure a thing.
I voted. Look at the piece of garbage running the country.

PFFFFFFFFFFFFFT, yeah, okay.

[DinoDoc]

Privately owned guns don't keep us free. Votes do. Economic interest does. It costs money to do stupid **** like chain you up in some dank prison somewhere. People lose customers and employees if lots of people start disappearing.

China is managing.

[Hauldren Collider]

The folks in charge of banana republics don't give a **** about the economy as long as they can keep having their luxuries.

[SlowwHand]

I have to admit, that's a compelling argument, MRT.

[MichaeltheGreat]

Awww, cry me a river about indefinite detention of al Qaeda members. That really links to confiscation of private firearms by US citizens.

Warrentless wiretapping? Yeah, the government listens to everyone.

[SlowwHand]

I feel sorry for anyone that follows me around and/or listens to my calls. They must be bored ****less. I know I am. I can't even imagine second-hand.

[DinoDoc]

That really links to confiscation of private firearms by US citizens.

The blueprint for this was the registry NO had as Lonestar stated:

Confiscation of civilian firearms

Controversy arose over a September 8 city-wide order by New Orleans Police Superintendent Eddie Compass to local police, U.S. Army National Guard soldiers, and Deputy U.S. Marshals to confiscate all civilian-held firearms. "No one will be able to be armed," Compass said. "Guns will be taken. Only law enforcement will be allowed to have guns." Seizures were carried out without warrant, and in some cases with excessive force; one instance captured on film involved 58 year old New Orleans resident Patricia Konie. Konie stayed behind, in her well provisioned home, and had an old revolver for protection. A group of police entered the house, and when she refused to surrender her revolver, she was tackled and it was removed by force. Konie's shoulder was fractured, and she was taken into police custody for failing to surrender her firearm.[79][80] Even U.S. Army National Guard soldiers, armed with M16 assault rifles, were used for house to house searches, seizing firearms and attempting to get those remaining in the city to leave.[81]

Angered citizens, backed by the National Rifle Association and other organizations, filed protests over the constitutionality of such an order and the difficulty in tracking seizures, as paperwork was rarely filed during the searches. Wayne LaPierre, CEO of the National Rifle Association, defended the right of affected citizens to retain firearms, saying that, "What we’ve seen in Louisiana - the breakdown of law and order in the aftermath of disaster - is exactly the kind of situation where the Second Amendment was intended to allow citizens to protect themselves." The searches received little news coverage, though reaction from groups such as the NRA, the Second Amendment Foundation, and Gun Owners of America was immediate and heated, and a lawsuit was filed September 22 by the NRA and SAF on behalf of two firearm owners whose firearms were seized. On September 23, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana issued a restraining order to bar further firearms confiscations.[79]

After refusing to admit that it had any seized firearms, the city revealed in mid-March that it did have a cache of some 1000 firearms seized after the hurricane; this disclosure came after the NRA filed a motion in court to hold the city in contempt for failure to comply with the U.S. District Court's earlier order to return all seized firearms. On April 14, 2006, it was announced that the city will begin to return seized firearms, however as of early 2008, many firearms were still in police possession, and the matter was still in court.[79] The matter was finally settled in favor of the NRA in October 2008. Per the agreement, the city was required to relax the strict proof of ownership requirements previously used, and was to release firearms to their owners with an affidavit claiming ownership and a background check to verify that the owner is legally able to possess a firearm.[82]

Louisiana legislator Steve Scalise introduced Louisiana House Bill 760, which would prohibit confiscation of firearms in a state of emergency, unless the seizure is pursuant to the investigation of a crime, or if the seizure is necessary to prevent immediate harm to the officer or another individual. On June 8, 2006, HB 760 was signed into law.[83] 21 other states joined Louisiana in enacting similar laws. A federal law prohibiting seizure of lawfully held firearms during an emergency, the Disaster Recovery Personal Protection Act of 2006, passed in the House with a vote of 322 to 99, and in the Senate by 84-16. The bill was signed into law by President Bush on October 9, 2006

[MichaeltheGreat]

After refusing to admit that it had any seized firearms, the city revealed in mid-March that it did have a cache of some 1000 firearms seized after the hurricane; this disclosure came after the NRA filed a motion in court to hold the city in contempt for failure to comply with the U.S. District Court's earlier order to return all seized firearms. On April 14, 2006, it was announced that the city will begin to return seized firearms, however as of early 2008, many firearms were still in police possession, and the matter was still in court.[79] The matter was finally settled in favor of the NRA in October 2008. Per the agreement, the city was required to relax the strict proof of ownership requirements previously used, and was to release firearms to their owners with an affidavit claiming ownership and a background check to verify that the owner is legally able to possess a firearm.[82]

Louisiana legislator Steve Scalise introduced Louisiana House Bill 760, which would prohibit confiscation of firearms in a state of emergency, unless the seizure is pursuant to the investigation of a crime, or if the seizure is necessary to prevent immediate harm to the officer or another individual. On June 8, 2006, HB 760 was signed into law.[83] 21 other states joined Louisiana in enacting similar laws. A federal law prohibiting seizure of lawfully held firearms during an emergency, the Disaster Recovery Personal Protection Act of 2006, passed in the House with a vote of 322 to 99, and in the Senate by 84-16. The bill was signed into law by President Bush on October 9, 2006

I'm familiar with the issue.

So, let me clarify. Some people are whining because a city* misused state of emergency powers, seizing some guns for the first time in over 200 years of history in this country, and in the process got *****-slapped by the federal judicial system and then by Congress, creating both explicit statutory provisions and case law precendent to reiterate that such acts were blatantly illegal, and this is the basis for "it maht happen - gummint gon' take are gunz"

Jesus ****ing Christ on a cracker. I guess the fact the Red Baron flew a Fokker Triplane is somehow evidence that we have been visited by aliens fllying UFOs?

* Not just any city, but one whose government has traditionally been closest to that of a third world country of any in the US, with the singular distinction of having not one, but two police officers on death row for murders they perpetrated while active members of the police force. That city?

[Lancer]

You got it all wrong, the Pheonix lights are proof of UFOs, not the Red Baron. He was proof of the doctrine of air superiority.

[Lonestar]

NYC also used a gun registry to get all longarms out of the city under penalty of felony in the early 90s.

Also, I'm not sure shooting hellfires at American citizens or detaining someone indefinitely qualifies as "due process".


(hint: it doesn't.)

[MichaeltheGreat]

al Awlaki forfeited his right to civilian due process by being a member of an unlawful combatant organization killed on a battlefield. If he was concerned about his ****ing due process rights as a US citizen, then maybe he should have turned himself in to the US embassy. He waged war against the US as part of an unlawful combatant organization, so **** him.

And it's not "indefinite" detention. It's only detention for as long as al Qaeda considers itself in a state of war against the US. The alternative, which is perfectly legal, is to have military tribunals try them in the field and have them shot thereafter. Just ask Manfred Pernass, Günther Billing, and Gefreiter Wilhelm Schmidt how that process works.

If this mentality had been common in the late 1700s, we'd all be speaking French and the barbary pirates would be operating in Chesapeake Bay.