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Originally Posted by S&Wshooter
Just fucking kill them. That's what we would have done a hundred years ago
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I have no idea how serious you are about this, but unless you want us to become like one of the fascist/communist countries that conservatives and libertarians bitch about endlessly, I'd hope you understand this is contrary to American principles. Killing people who have committed any felony involving firearms (and remember that murder isn't the only one) would make us more like Saudi Arabia, China, or Nazi Germany than all of the health care bills Obama could ever push through Congress.
Quote:
Originally Posted by BurtReynoldsMoustache
If it makes me safer by permanently locking up psychopaths AND allowing me absolute liberty to wheel and deal as I please with firearms, then yes, I would gladly pay the higher taxes.
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Until you see how high those taxes are.
Anyway, you already can wheel and deal as you please with firearms, provided you aren't using them for illegal purposes. This is not about whether you sell a gun to somebody who you had no reason to believe was a murderer. This about whether you sell a weapon to somebody who you know for sure is
planning to use it to kill somebody, and you do it anyway. Obviously, that's not a situation an average FFL or even most private sellers in the U.S. would experience. But
metaphorically, this is the equivalent of what Viktor Bout did.
Personally, I don't regard a law which makes it illegal for me to sell weapons to criminals as an infringement on my personal liberty, or collective liberty. I regard it as common sense. So do most Americans, including those who own and sell guns. Actually, I would think that selling weapons to bad people who you know will use them in murder, and not feeling any guilt about your actions whatsoever, is characteristic of a "psychopath" (bearing in mind that lack of empathy and remorse are key sociopathic personality traits). I'm sure that a psychological profile of Viktor Bout (and most men like him) would identify him as a textbook sociopath or possibly psychopath.
And I hate to break it to you, but just because somebody is not considered trustworthy with firearms doesn't mean they need to be locked up. That's an extremely fallacious assumption. There's a good reason why it's illegal for minors, those with mental illnesses, or even people who have committed minor criminal acts to own firearms. Do you lock up all of those people because they aren't considered trustworthy to own firearms?