Mrs. Weer’d found this article this morning. I think it raises some good points:
But how do we know who is dangerous? The Brady Campaign mentions “convicted felons,” “convicted domestic abusers,” “terrorists,” and “people found to be dangerously mentally ill.” It omits a crucial category: people with dangerous ideas.
Wade M. Page, the Army veteran identified as the gunman who was shot to death by police after killing six people and injuring three at the Sikh Temple of Wisconsin, had documented ties to white supremacist groups….In other words, Page’s scary views were well-known long before he bought the 9mm handgun he used in this week’s attack. Yet he was still able to pass a federal background check.
Federal law currently bans gun ownership by felons, illegal drug users, people convicted of misdemeanors involving domestic violence, and people “committed to a mental institution” or “adjudicated as a mental defective.” Amazingly, there is no ideological test for gun ownership, even though someone like Page, “who fed and was fueled by hate” (as the Times put it), is far more dangerous than the average pot smoker or mental patient.
Now the article is a parody (later on the author points out that Thomas Jefferson fit the bill to have his rights removed), still I think the point is really solid. The anti-rights boilerplate of “Criminals”, “Mentally Ill”, and “Terrorists”, is pretty clear. Obviously the first two are already federal law, and I suspect they’re mentioned for confusion (tho I suspect they want to broaden “Mental Illness” to everybody who ever took an aspirin for a headache….certainly that whole “Due Process” part currently in place is too lenient! Remember “anti-freedom”, not “anti-gun”) but “Terrorist” means anybody on the Terror Watch List, which is full of non-terrorists, devoid of many KNOWN terrorists, and completely without oversight or the ability to challenge the citation.
The antis want to ban all guns…but the Constitution and public sentiment won’t let them do that, so they can simply declare us all “unfit” and leave the guns for the handful of political elite who can manipulate the system for their own gains!
