You're allowing the government to decide whether you're entitled to self defense or not.
Self-defense is an inalienable right. They shouldn't be able to take that away from people.
Same goes for weed, booze, kinky sex, obscene speech and vice in general. These things fall under self-determination. The government should have no power to restrict them.
edited 4th Apr '11 5:59:41 AM by SavageHeathen
You exist because we allow it and you will end because we demand it.To a degree they are, since they are making the decision as to whether you can be trusted with the means of self-defense, and what means are available to you.
Now, this may be a reasonable compromise because individual freedom is not the only principle that drives government decisions and the drafting of laws, but it's hard to argue that it's not restricting freedom to some degree.
A brighter future for a darker age.It's different in that there are not strong political lobbies arguing that nobody should be allowed to drive.
People who advocate the right to violent self-defense have seen firearm licensing as the first step in a slow ratchet toward complete bans, and prominent anti-gun advocates have indeed advocated for that kind of slow "weaning off" approach.
A brighter future for a darker age.Australia's firearms laws
are in fact fairly restrictive.
That's something that quite a few people would have a problem with in the US, at least.
A brighter future for a darker age.Well, gun licensing in America wouldn't have to be as restrictive as them.
I still feel like it's a fair trade-off. My right to own a gun isn't as valuable to me as the right to not be gunned down by some loony who walked straight into a store and bought a gun.
I still disagree that gun control is 'cartoonishly evil'. Restrictive, yes, but not evil.
Be not afraid...If gun licensing could be introduced in the US in a fashion that was NOT intended as a stalking-horse for taking guns away from law-abiding residents, restricting the ability to act in self-defense, or for the purposes of political grandstanding by politicians, then I would support it. However, I don't see that happening. It's the polarization of American politics at work. Sensible solutions the people as a whole would support appear to be way too uninteresting, or something. You can't fight over sensible.
A brighter future for a darker age.^^ And my right to own a gun and use it in self defense trumps the concerns about some loony on the street. Better to have a gun and not need it than need one and not have it.
Considering every state in history that has restricted or outright banned firearm ownership was at one point a tyrannical regime (yes even the "enlightened" states of Europe), I'm not taking any chances letting some bureaucrat decide all I can get. I don't give a damn if the streets are safe because of it or not.
edited 4th Apr '11 6:41:40 AM by MajorTom
I would say I dislike my government more than I distrust them and that is more just down to a disagreement in values than anything. Wouldn't say I exactly trust them either, I just expect them to do what they do, maybe attempt to infringe on the Human Rights Act now and again, but nothing too unpredictable.
Problem is, those laws more often than not are unconstitutional in the US. Just because many of them haven't yet been struck down by the Supreme Court doesn't give them the credibility to stand.
Also, self-defense laws are popular in many areas of the South and West. In Colorado, you can legally kill a man if you find your life to be in danger. (Say from a home break in or a mugging on the street.)
edited 4th Apr '11 7:08:50 AM by MajorTom
Well, that's stupid.
I'm not entirely sure on how it works in Wisconsin, but you can kill someone to prevent a felony from occurring. It has to be reasonable, though; if you kill someone when nonlethal force would be feasible or kill someone when there wasn't a felony in progress after all it's 2nd-degree intentional homicide.

Gun control is not cartoonishly evil, by any stretch of the imagination. My government does it, my rights aren't being oppressed in the slightest. Sure, I can't go down to the store and buy a gun in 10 minutes. But I could still get a gun if I wanted one, it'd just take a lot longer.
Be not afraid...