From: larryd@milton.u.washington.edu (Larry Desoto)
Subject: Re: Licenses for guns.
Keywords: license gun concealed carry cars laws politicians yuck
Organization: University of Washington
Date: Thu, 23 Jul 1992 21:49:54 GMT

wood@eisley.akita.com (Ken Wood) writes:


>In article <1992Jul23.014011.9270@polari> 
>           merrillg@polari.online.com writes:

>>We need a drivers license to drive a car, but any citizen can go out and
>>purchase a gun.  Does this make sense?   

This is not true.  Try legally purchasing a gun in NYC, Washington, DC,
Chicago, Morton Grove, etc. and see how far you get.  Even in other places
there are almost always more restrictions on gun ownership than on car
ownership/use.

>     There is a difference here.  You do not need a license to buy a car 
>nor to drive it on private property.  You ONLY need a license to drive 
>it on the public roads.  Similarly in this state you do not need a 
>license to buy a gun.  You only need one to carry it in public.  
>Unfortunatly, unlike the car you do have to wait to buy a gun if you 
>don't have the license.  Also in many states you can not get a license 
>to carry a gun.  In some you can't even own certain types.  Now try 
>applying that to the car analogy.  States where you can't get a license 
>at all or you can't own certain types of cars.  Sounds kind of absurd, 
>maybe even oppressive, doesn't it?

>>I will be the first to support legislation for background checks, and taking
>>some form of test to prove competancy.  
>>
>>I will also be the first to stand up and oppose a law forbidding an average
>>citizen from obtaining a weapon after he/she has expressed his/her competancy
>>with the weapon.
>>
>>Theres a lot of area between these two statements, but the NRA globs them toget
>>opinions against the rights of gunowners everywhere...

>     In principle I would support this for Carry permits ( not ownership 
>).  The problem I have, and I think the problem the NRA also has ( I'm 
>not a memebr so I'm not sure ), is that the test and license requirments 
>are very often used by the government as gun bans.  There are several 
>places where this has been done.  Tests that are only given a few times 
>a year with limited class size, excessive test fee's, police approval, 
>or political signatures.  These have all been used in the past ( and 
>today in many places ) to prevent the general populous from haveing 
>firearms.  Unless the law is written very carefully politicians can and 
>will abuse it.  This is happening today in this state.  Some police 
>chiefs will place requirments on when you can apply for a carry permit 
>so as to increase the waiting time.  By Wa. law it can be no more than 30 
>days from the date of application.  A certain police chief in a certain 
>Wa. city is requiring all applicants to make an appointment for putting 
>in an application 6 weeks in advance.  Thereby more than doubling the 
>waiting time.  This is a minor example but it is right here in our own 
>state.  Yes I would support minimum safety training requirments for 
>carry permits if the RIGHTS of the people could be protected, but this 
>is a very difficuly process at best.  Never underestimate the 
>cleaverness of a politician.

>    By the way, just for reference, no I don't own any firearms 
>personaly.

>    Ken Wood

Chicago is a classic example.  It is illegal to own an unregistered
handgun there.  The city does not accept or even issue registration
forms.  What do you suppose that means?

The big objection with the Brady bill is the five day wait.  It does
not require a background check so it is only harassment for the
purchaser.  The really big flaw is that the waiting period begins 
when the *police department* acknowledges receipt of the purchase
request.  They are not required to acknowledge the request and the
waiting period doesn't begin until they do.  Perhaps you can see
the possibilites for abuse?

--
Larry                                   |   Thunder makes all the noise;
                                        |   lightning gets the job done.
larryd@milton.washington.edu
I have my opinion; the university has its own.
Newsgroups: seattle.general