Something has to be done about gun laws.

[ProSense]

Here's a great comment that deserves to be spotlighted:

The 2nd Amendment reads:

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.

Militias are groups of armed civilians who can be called to military service on short notice and can bring their own weapons to defend the state against whatever violent threats it may face. Militias are not the National Guard or the Reserves. To have a militia, the state must have an armed citizenry in possession of personal weapons. The problem we face today is that we have a citizenry armed to the teeth and no militia to justify it, as if just owning a gun was a right without a responsibility. If the need for a state militia has passed, the Constitution should be amended to reflect that and the uninfringed right to bear arms curtailed.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=2001157

That's not complicated to understand: Times have changed, and the interpretation of the 2nd Amendment seems to have gradually shifted to incorporate a meaning never intended in the context of the law even at the time it was enacted.

We've reached a point where it's being used to justify excess and as apologia for slaughter.

Ind. man with 47 guns arrested after school threat
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022000045

Each slaughter of innocents seems to get more appalling. A high school. A college campus. A movie theater. People meeting their congresswoman. A shopping mall in Oregon, just this Tuesday. On Friday, an elementary school classroom.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/15/opinion/death-in-connecticut.html

I've seen the analogies comparing the slaughter resulting from gun violence to car-related deaths.

So let's think about this: Should guns be physically inspected and registered periodically like cars?

What about this:

6 bullets an hour.

Thats my proposal. Anything that fires more bullets than that, at a higher firing rate than that, make it a federal crime to buy, sell, OR possess. A felony, with one of those 20 year mandatory minimum prison sentences we usually only reserve for REAL baddies, like nonviolent drug users.

If (you've got two hands), that means you can fire 12 bullets in an hour. That should be plenty for hunting, or to defend your house from an assailant.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=2003904

Add this:

Regulated and secure environments allowing those who want the thrill (I assume that's it) of higher firing rates to use such weapons. (Or would that open a loophole for abuse?)

Something has to be done.

[MichiganVote]

1. Please keep posting re: school safety. We can't have this anymore.

Assault weapons and 5 year olds-don't mix.

[ProSense]

2. Kick! n/t

[ProSense]

3. Another.

Sure is quiet in here.

[ProSense]

4. jody has a comment:

Your post starts by discussing militias and the 2A but you ignore Congress has all the authority it

needs for militias in Article I, Section 8, Clauses 15 and 16.

The Second Amendment is about an individual's right to keep and bear arms for self-defense as SCOTUS said in Heller.

Your proposal "guns be physically inspected and registered periodically like cars" and "Regulated and secure environments allowing those who want the thrill" is not accompained by your theory of how that would reduce violent crime with firearms.

Are you afraid to post your ideas in DU's RKBA group?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=2005438

My theory is that a gun that fires six rounds per hour is likely to reduce the carnage caused by guns with significantly higher firing rates.

Also, if people were required to take each gun inspected and registered periodically that would be a disincentive to owning dozens of guns.

Thanks for commenting.