On Constitutional Rights.

Steve, excellent post, well thought out, good analogy to car ownership, ( even enjoyed the dig on Cheney) However, my response will be very brief:


Owning and operating a car IS NOT ( let me repeat that it IS NOT) a constitutionally protected right. Owning a gun is. There, I'm done in record time.



(but of course I have a few more thoughts)

Believe it or not, I actually am OK with having some (read that word strongly - SOME) regulation/registration and/or licensing but it seems that the powers that be are moving to use these as a method or restricting gun ownership which I do not support. There are even restrictions in an unnamed state which prevent you or at least put you through months and months of waiting and extra loopholes to jump through if you have ever received any mental health treatment. I have a friend who saw a therapist for a few months after the loss of his mother, years ago, and he has had to wait over a year and get a signed and notarized statement from a psychiatrist ( though he never saw an MD in the first place) in order to get his permit approved. (Talk about attaching more stigma to going to a few counseling session, 8 years ago to manage grief). In another stat, he'd have no problem. Lets make it reasonable and realistic in all states and I am in. No matter the laws criminals will get and use and abuse weapons. The more onerous the laws the more you restrict legal gun use, not illegal use. Interesting statistic out today that overall murder rate has dropped over the past year. Coincidentally, the overall percentage of gun ownership has risen over the past year.. Hmm.... could there be a correlation?


As for trying to legislate responsibility and common sense- best of luck with that-no matter the issue, there will be those that are and those that are not, all the laws in the world won't stop stupid.

Speaking of this car ownership analogy (I am happy to slide into a new topic). I am struck with how popular it has become and has even been used by our President as an example of how it is OK to require everyone to have health insurance, like they require car insurance ( Of course he also conveniently forgets that not everyone owns cars).
So shall we tackle heath care next?