Reply #122: Why, yes, I do live a rich fantasy life

[krispos42]

Reading lots of hard sci-fi and alternative-history books will do that... :-)


But, no, my previous post is an amalgamation of various gun-controlling ideas that are either law, or have been attempted to pass as law.

All civilian ownership of handguns is a major felony. No new handguns can be bought by any citizen. Citizens that already own them have to register them with the government. Existing handguns cannot be sold, given, traded, inherited, or otherwise transferred to anybody except the government.

Example: Washington, DC, although because it is a local ban I presume DC residents can sell their guns to dealers out-of-state rather than have to have them get chopped up. Cook County, Illinois and San Fransisco, California either have something similar in effect or have tried to legislate something similar.

Concealed or open carry of handguns is a felony.

Licenced concealed carry is illegal in Illinios and Wisconsin, and virtually nonexistant in many states, counties, and cities.

All civilian ownership of semi-automatic and repeating long guns is a major felony. No new semi-automatic or repeating long guns can be bought by any citizen. Citizens that already own them have to register them with the government. Existing semi-automatic and repeating cannot be sold, given, traded, inherited, or otherwise transferred to anybody except the government.

Proposed gun-control law HR1022 would ban all semi-automatic rifles. In California and maybe a couple of other states, firearms designated "assault weapons" and registered with the State cannot be sold, given, or otherwise transferred to anybody else in the state except a gun dealer or the police. This includes bolt-action and single-shot .50 BMG rifles.



While pump-action, bolt-action, and lever-action guns are to date not limited or banned, I'm sure it's on the list somewhere. :shrug:

No more transfers of Title III fully-automatic weapons or destructive devices will be issued. Citizens that already own them have to register them with the government. Existing fully-automatic weapons and destructive devices cannot be sold, given, traded, inherited, or otherwise transferred to anybody except the government.

Considering the flash of panic that ensued here after Kansas repealed its machine-gun ban, I'm sure this will pass at somepoint just because there are so few owners of them they will simply be brushed aside.

All remaining firearms (single-and double-barreled rifles and shotguns) are registered with the federal and state governments.

While this assumes an as-let-unlikely ban on bolt-action, pump-action, and lever-action long guns, nevertheless, mandatory gun registration is often pushed.

All new firearms must have a microprinting system that etches the gun's serial number on every fired cartridge.

I believe this already passed in California. "Microstamping".

They are required to be stored in an unloaded and disassembled state in a locked safe. Ammunition is stored in a separate locked safe.

The "ammo in a separate safe" part might be a bit overdone, but the first part is more or less what is required in DC and the United Kingdom.

Periodic surprise inspections of firearms and ammunition are made by the police. This must happen at least once a year. Ownership of a firearm or ammunition means you are required to allow the inspections. Failure to allow inspections results in immediate arrest and confiscation of all firearms.

That is roughly how they do it in the UK. I don't know if the bobbies can arrest you if you refuse an inspection, but it seems to be a reasonable extension. After all, if you refuse a blood-alcohol test your driver-license is automatically suspended, right?

Anybody wishing to buy or inherit a firearm must go through a background check of criminal and mental-health records. If those are passed, the person must be screened for mental-health issues. There is no obligation to process these checks in a timely manner. The prospective gun owner will pay a hefty fee for those checks.

The first part we already do. The screening by a mental-health expert prior to buying a gun is something I've seen bandied about here in the Gungeon and in GD. The slowness of completing checks and fees are documented in the recent post about a guy in New York getting his permit.

A person must also have a firearm owner ID card to buy or inherit a firearm. The ID card is issued only after the above criminal and mental screenings are complete. The ID card has all of the calibers and serial numbers of the guns the owner possesses and must be used to purchase ammunition. Only ammunition for the calibers listed on the card will be allowed to be bought.

A person must have their firearm ownership ID card on them at all times when carrying or transporting firearms. They are only allowed to transport or poses their own firearms, as listed on the ID card.

These ideas are things that Illinois and Hawaii do. They don't print your gun's make, model, serial number, and caliber on your firearms licence, but in Illinois you need to have your FOID card on you at all times while in possession of your gun. In Hawaii they are trying to pass a bill (HB2999)that says you can only buy ammunition for the caliber of gun you have registered with them.

Every rifle sold, new or used, must be test-fired and the bullet given to the police forensics lab. During the periodic surprise inspections, the police will also test-fire the gun and take a new fired bullet to the forensics lab. The police will have a portable bullet-capture unit in a vehicle and will publicly perform such a test.

Several states, including Maryland, already mandate that new firearms sold in that state must each have a factory-fired and factory-recovered bullet and brass case turned over to the state police so that so-called "ballistic fingerprinting" can be done. To quote from a Ruger manual...

WHY ARE WE INCLUDING A FIRED CARTRIDGE CASE
WITH EVERY RUGER PISTOL AND REVOLVER?

Certain states and jurisdictions now require that all newly manufactured pistols
and revolvers must be accompanied by a cartridge case, which has been test fired
from that gun at the factory. The case must be placed in a sealed container
bearing certain information concerning this test cartridge.

At the time of retail sale in those jurisdictions, firearms dealers must forward
such test cartridge to a designated destination such as their State Police
Laboratory. As independent Ruger Distributors have nationwide markets without
territorial restrictions, we have decided to include a fired cartridge case with all
new Ruger pistols and revolvers, to minimize the possibility of inadvertent noncompliance
with these laws.

Retail customers located in other states, where laws or regulations do not require
the dealer to so act, may be assured that the fired cartridge case they receive with
the firearm at the time of retail purchase is proof that your new Ruger firearm
has undergone our normal test firing procedures during manufacture.

Now, trying to ballistic-fingerprint new guns is a pretty bad idea, simply because any mechanical. device undergoes the most physical changes when it is being "broken in". As the part of a new gun wear in, the rifling marks on the bullet and chambering marks on the brass is change more in the first 200 rounds than any other point in the gun's service life. Taking a fresh ballistic fingerprint every year or two is the best way to keep track of the marks a gun makes on the bullets and casings. And such a system could easily be mounted in a van.

A person may only buy one firearm a year, for a maximum of 5 owned.

Some states already have limits on the number of firearms you can buy a year. Once we've been reduced to single-shot and double-barreled firearms, how many do you truly need? A single-shot single-barrel .22 for target practice, a single-barreled single-shot varmit gun, a double-barreled big-game rifle, a double-barreled 12-gage for ducks, geese, and pheasant, and a double-barreled 28-gage for grouse and quail give you just about all possibilities for hunting beast and bird in North America.

All person-to-person sales of firearms are prohibited. Firearms can only be sold to and bought from federally licensed dealers.

Something that has several DUers, such as FightTheGoodFightNow, upset is private-party transfers without background checks. Solution: require all sales, public and private, to go through a federal dealer and the attendent background checks and waiting periods.

All ammunition sales will be recorded forever in a government database. All of the ammunition in the box will have a unique serial number, which is also registered. Posession of unregistered ammunition, even if it is of the proper caliber, is a felony. No secondary transfer of ammunition is allowed.

I think California's General Assembly just passed this law this year. I don't know if the Governator signed it, though. I believe that the law only included the most popular handgun cartridges, but I'm not positive.

Reloading components are no longer allowed to be sold.

Logical extension of above. Otherwise hand-loaders will be able to produced unmarked, untaxed, unregistered ammunition.

There will be a $1-a-round sin tax on all ammunition sold.

This tax was introduced in California a few years ago, a 10-cent-per-round tax. Didn't go anywhere, but they tried, and probably will try again.

All firearms must carry $500,000 dollars worth of personal-injury insurance and $10,000 of property-damage insurance.

Following the cars-are-registed-and-insured-so-why-aren't-guns? argument, it has been suggested that guns should have insurance policies on them so that if they ever choose to leap out of somebody's closet and shoot up a Denny's, the injured and dead will have some coverage.

Is that from a science fiction novel? Projecting much? The goal of people "like me", Krispos, is to try to have a civilization in this country where people stop shooting children and innocent people, where the mentally ill and the addicted cannot carry a gun, and to try to limit the carnage that guns cause families in domestic violence cases.

The "goal of people like me" is to reduce gun violence. The goal of people like me is to prevent law-abiding citizens from being intimidated by people with guns so that they can "feel secure in their persons".

Don't you think the plan I outlined above accomplish would accomplish these goals?