Opinion
Fayetteville, AR – -(AmmoLand.com)- “There outta be a law” is the default state of mind of the control freak, and gun control freaks are no exception.
But at times, we do need some rules to govern behavior. One example of this is in how we go about proposing new laws. I’m tempted to suggest that anyone who wants to give some nifty idea the force of government power, that person should have to demonstrate knowledge about the subject to be regulated and to provide evidence that the proposal will do some good.
Two recent examples have made me sense a need for my rule. One is an article by the editorial board of Connecticut’s Greenwich Time, calling for a ban on “ghost and 3-D printable guns” in the state. This notion comes up over and over, and I’m not the only one to have pointed out that guns that are made in private shops without serial numbers are precisely the kind of thing that the law is all but unable to track. Anyone with an Internet connection can acquire designs, and anyone with a car that has up to date license plates and stays within the speed limit can drive into Connecticut with little worry over being searched. If we required a demonstration of competence before exercising the rights protected by the First Amendment, these writers, and their editors would find themselves having to take a class.
But opinion pieces are suggestions, not legislation. Of more significant concern is a bill in the New York State Assembly that seeks to make purchasing more than twenty rounds of ammunition for “assault weapons” in a one hundred twenty day period a felony. The text of the bill doesn’t specify what ammunition is meant but instead refers us to the definition of an “assault weapon” in New York law.
See why my rule about proposing a law is tempting?
An “assault weapon,” according to the State of New York, isn’t defined by caliber. It’s instead, any semiautomatic firearm that has a detachable magazine that holds more than five rounds and one other “naughty feature” that has nothing to do with the operating mechanism. As anyone who watches review videos on YouTube knows, lots of firearms come out each year that New York doesn’t want anyone to own, and they’re chambered in common calibers. This new bill, if enacted, would make the purchase of more than twenty rounds of .223 Remington, 7.62 x 39, 9mm Luger, and .45 ACP, among many others, every four months illegal. Each of those types of ammunition are used by the so-called “assault weapons”, but they’re also used in firearms that the state will still let ordinary people, including police, own—after jumping through hoops—and the proposed legislation offers no way to distinguish rounds purchased for the one and not for the other. And as with printed guns, driving to another state to print out your new “ghost gun” remains an option.
People have the right to their opinions, so I don’t want a law to restrict what they may express as their desires. But at the same time, I have the right to regard their proposals as silly or ill-informed. I would even say that it’s the duty of everyone who cares about rights to point out what’s wrong with a bad idea such as the two above.
About Greg Camp
Greg Camp has taught English composition and literature since 1998 and is the author of six books, including a western, The Willing Spirit, and Each One, Teach One, with Ranjit Singh on gun politics in America. His books can be found on Amazon. He tweets @gregcampnc.
Just keep making everything you do a felony . The back door way to making it impossible for any N.Y. resident to own a firearm.
I saw the writing on the wall 14yrs ago and escaped NY for De. 0%sales tax, under 1k for property tax, every fee is less or isn’t there and all the $ I save goes to fund my militia! Who’s crazy now? (My wife will say me)
The inglorious Emperor Newscum out here in Kalifornistan will be certain to attempt similar attacks on our 2A rights. C’mon, Ginsberg – die already so DJT can appoint another Conservative Justice to clear your stench from the Supreme Court!
I wonder if all these NEW ANTI-gun laws will be observed by LEO’s ? How many GUN OWNERS ,in the state, will comply ? Not to many when the Safe-Act came around.
Does this law make my 10/22 an assault weapon too? The magazine holds 10 rounds. Is it me, or is this law ridiculous?
Just goes to show what most of us already know. The majority of those insisting on silly laws as well as those passing these laws know very little or nothing at all about firearms. All they know is what they hear on the evening news from other know nothings.
Hopefully if it goes as far as the Supreme Court and it will, we have the right justices in place to slap NY back into behaving.
Who is the DemocRATic “icon” who dreamed up the 20 rounds per 3 month period? When a family goes to the gun range more than 200 rounds are fired off during that day’s shooting exercise.
These “icons” need to be dragged onto the “red carpet” to be prosecuted for fighting against the FOUNDING FATHERS of the American Way of LIFE.
I have written off the big cities which control and drive almost all liberal Democratic agendas within every state. Until something is done in every state to give the majority of residents in the rural and small towns a voice in elections (a state version of the Electoral College), Constitutional rights will continue the downward spiral until they are lost.
The majority of gun owners won’t even do some as simple as supporting the NRA or any other gun organization. Most will just line up to get their 20 rounds.
>Make statement about ridiculous nature of gun control
>Immediately follow up with “BUT”
>Invalidate argument
Social ostracism is far superior than laws at controlling human behavior. Men that were far more an intelligent that you or I have made that abundantly clear in their tomes.
Their names are Mises and Rothbard