General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: What I Fear, What Made Me Drag my Feet on Gun Control: Brady-Style Gun Control [View all]TPaine7
(4,286 posts)If there is a will, there is a way to keep unfit people from getting guns. In my view, selling to a unlicensed person should make you an automatic accessory to any crime subsequently committed with that weapon. (Straw purchasing and selling 20 weapons could get you life in prisonand you would never see it coming until the weapon got traced back to you.)
Unfortunately, the government has given gun owners (as well as blacks, Asians, handicapped people, GIs, Native Americans and many other groups) lots of motivation to doubt their goodwill. It has also failed the general public (see the OP for one example among legion).
This nation was founded on distrust of governmentit's in our DNA. My namesake called government a "necessary evil" at best, and I agree. All governments are corrupt, IMHO, it's simply a matter of degree. That being said, distrust of government can go too far, and has in the case of many gun owners.
I think the anti-gun crowd could go a long way towards easing the distrust by collectively and unambiguously declaring that there is a right for sane, adult, law-abiding citizens to keep and bear arms throughout the United States with limited exceptions.