From: rmk@rmkhome.UUCP (Rick Kelly)
Organization: The Man With Ten Cats
Date: Tue, 5 Jan 1993 01:00:22 GMT
Reply-To: rmk@rmkhome.UUCP (Rick Kelly)

In article <1i9o21INNguh@transfer.stratus.com> cdt@sw.stratus.com (C. D. Tavares) writes:
>In article <9301021327.48@rmkhome.UUCP>, rmk@rmkhome.UUCP (Rick Kelly) writes:
>> In article <1hvjpgINN1o3@transfer.stratus.com> cdt@sw.stratus.com (C. D. Tavares) writes:
>> >In article <9212311212.23@rmkhome.UUCP>, rmk@rmkhome.UUCP (Rick Kelly) writes:

>> >Or can't pass a written test, or a shooting test, or can't get letters 
>> >of recommendation from three other citizens, or doesn't belong to a
>> >bona-fide sporting club ($100-$200/year).
>
>> These requirements have changed over the last decade.

>Don't teach your grandmother to suck eggs, son.  I went through the
>entire process I described no more than THREE MONTHS ago.

And I went through the process in the late 70's.  It was a snap.

And before that I went through the process of getting an FID card when
they first issued them, since I owned a couple of rifles at the time.
Before the FID card, you didn't need anything to buy a rifle or ammo
except proof that you were over 21.

>> >My wife is stalled on her permit because all of the people she's known
>> >for any length of time in the area are anti-gun.
>
>> That's life.
>
>Maybe her life.

What was her reason for getting a license for the protection of life and
property.  Business?  A substantiated attack?

>She considered asking our next-door neighbor for a character reference.
>He's well known in town; selectman for two terms, minister of two local
>churches for over a decade.  Mack Mitchell -- maybe you've heard of him,
>he's been in the news.  He's now in MCI Concord for six years on two 
>counts of rape of a minor.  But character references are so infallible,
>so I guess it wouldn't be reasonable to do without them.

Well, you have to play the game since the state makes the rules.

I'm actually surprised, when I saw Stratus I thought maybe you lived in
Marlboro, where the police are very reluctant to even issue FID cards.
I would have thought that your town would be an easy town to get a
permit in.

>Wow, what an incredible asshole I must be to insist that the police 
>assume that citizens are innocent until they are proven guilty.  What 
>would America be like if that were, like, a general rule or something?

How would you have them do this if there were no licensing procedures
for guns?  How do you screen out people who already have a criminal
record?

>Don't ask me.  Ask your newspaper.  And demand an answer.  And turn on
>your bullshit alarm first.  Then come back and tell us.

The Framingham edition of the Middlesex News reports extensively on
the comings and goings of the police.

And if you believe the recently published statistics, you wife is in
the greatest amount of danger from you, and my SO is in the greatest
amount of danger from me.

It's very sobering to look at the police news in the paper, and see the
multiple daily arrests for Domestic Violence.  Either women are reporting
it more than they used to, or a lot of men are taking out their frustrations
at home.

-- 

Rick Kelly    rmkhome!rmk@merk.com    merk!rmkhome!rmk    rmk@frog.UUCP