Reply #140: There's no registration in place...

[MrBenchley]

""I think the BATF should be allowed to release to the public the names of gun sellers whose guns turn up in crimes." I agree, but only if there are intelligent regulations"
The current regulation is that the BATF is forbidden from revealing the names of gun stores who sell guns used in crime, even under subpoena. That was the GOP response to the NAACP lawsuit against the gun industry, which found that just 120 gun sellers supplied one in every seven guns used in crimes throughout the US; fewer than 40 of those gun sellers had ever been inspected by the BATF, but three quarters of those that had been inspected were in violation of the law.

"As far as "assault weapons" go, how do YOU define an assault weapon?"
I'm quite happy to go with the definition in the bill John Kerry co-sponsored last year. It's worth noting gun nuts only think there's a mystery as to what assault weapons are when the question of public safety arises; they don't have any doubt when gun sellers peddle them.

"After all, the products (guns) DO work as they're supposed to: pull the trigger, and a bullet exits at high velocity. Not a defective product, dangerous, sure, but not defective."
So what? If a bartender serves underage patrons, it doesn't matter if the alcohol does what it's designed to do. If a car seat has parts that can be pulled off and choke a child, it doesn't matter that the car seat works as a car seat.

The notion that a gun manufacturer can advertise how much fun it is to shoot somebody, that a gun show operator can set up a gun show so the industry can avoid background checks, that a gun seller can avoid giving a background check to the crook he sells it to by going to a gun show and announcing he's a "priivate collector" and that they all should be given a pass from civil liability laws if the gun kills my grandmother because that's what the gun was meant to do is sophistry, not law.

Here's a perfect example of the reason the gun industry wants to head off these lawsuits.

http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/1027/p09s01-coop.html

"The spirit of the 2nd Amendment would be unalterably undermined by these provisions."
Not so. Tell us, where is there any mention of gun sellers in the amendment?

"The whole idea is that if Uncle Sam's present, or potential future iteration descends into tyranny, we as civilians will be nominally able to defend ourselves."
With a well regulated state militia.