Category: guns

Some ideas to curtail gun violence

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Earlier I had posted a comment on Facebook and I thought it would bear a post to WP too.

So here are three things we should require of gun purchasers:

1) Liability insurance – if it’s required to drive a car, it most certainly should be required to keep guns.

2) Psychological evaluations for at a minimum the purchaser of the gun(s) if not members of the family too.

3) Require proof of purchase of a gun safe. Prices can get steep for a long barrel gun but lock boxes for handguns all hover in the $100 to $150 range. You can see a whole bunch of options here.

I might add, just that last part – requiring a gun safe may well have saved the mothers life in the Newtown tragedy as well as the lives of 26 other people.

In essence what I’m suggesting is requiring a level of responsibility on gun owners that wouldn’t necessarily ban weaponry, but make you think a little harder before you bought one.

Put it this way , a .45 ACP pistol will cost about $1,000. A gun safe about $150, and a psych eval probably in the $500 to $600 range. Insurance will cost $960 per year. So fixed costs are $1,750, with first year being $2,710 and subsequent years being the $960 insurance cost.

Make it not cheap to buy and own a gun.

Watch your rights just disappear

· 2 Comments ·

The NRA has a nice little video on YouTube about police confiscation of weapons after hurricane Katrina had hit the gulf coast. I used to be a member until they started getting a little too strident. But now I see why they were being so strident.

Police do not serve us, they serve their government masters. Also keep in mind that police are by and large a reactive force. If you’ve been robbed, or have a burglar in the house they do nothing to prevent it from happening, but they’re there AFTER the fact to try to put together a case.

It makes me happy that Rhode Island of all places has Castle Doctrine (RIGL 11-8-8). What that means is that if someone breaks into my home, I don’t have to prove fear or any such thing, nor do I have a duty to retreat. I can shoot your ass dead and I’m completely shielded against criminal and civil penalties.

And here’s the thing, if a cop smashes down my door I wonder if Castle Doctrine would still apply. After all, there’s a reasonable fear on my part that someone is breaking in. And who’s to say I heard them ID as police. But sadly that wouldn’t be the case since the elements necessary under section 11-8 aren’t met when police have a warrant. Too bad, I wonder if I could sneak through a modification of the law.

So next time you see that friendly officer on the street remember, he is NOT your friend. He serves his masters.