Absolutely correct. There are no bad things, only bad people who misuse soulless, brainless neutral objects. The felon ban is less objectionable than trying to determine which "arm" is the "assault weapon" of the moment. Constitutional right cannot depend of fads in criminal misuse. Given time, they'll misuse everything. 97% of the population could have a tactical nuke in the closet and no one would be less safe but 3% of humans cannot be trusted with a one foot piece of iron pipe or a pair of pantyhose. As any infantryman or police officer can tell you anything can be a deadly weapon (there are several bowling ball killings every year) in the hands of a human being who has decided (mental act) to injure or kill another person. Consider carefully the experience in the UK which has banned guns and now finds itself considering banning knives. Eventually they'll be doing background checks on rebar (which makes a nice, cheap, readily available deadly weapon, BTW). The focus shouldn't be on "arms," it should be on "infringed." Barring a proven VIOLENT criminal from the possession of arms until he or she has demonstrated rehabilitation should be Constitutional. Barring a competent, responsible, adult from possessing a Barrett Light 50 (or anything else) adds nothing to public safety and should be unconstitutional. ************************************************** Professor Joseph Olson, J.D., LL.M. o- 651-523-2142 Hamline University School of Law (MS-D2037) f- 651-523-2236 St. Paul, MN 55113-1235 c- 612-865-7956 [email protected]
>>> Jon Roland <[email protected]> 06/07/09 10:06 PM >>> The only standard for being too "dangerous and unusual" would be excessive risk to the user or bystanders against whom it is not directed. Anything the effect of which is confined to its target has to be regarded as acceptable. All the rest is misdirection that depends on the use of the weapon by miscreants, and is not an attribute of the weapon itself. -- Jon ------------------------------------------------------------------- Constitution Society 2900 W Anderson Ln C-200-322, Austin, TX 78757 512/299-5001 www.constitution.org [email protected] ------------------------------------------------------------------- _______________________________________________ To post, send message to [email protected] To subscribe, unsubscribe, change options, or get password, see http://lists.ucla.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/firearmsregprof Please note that messages sent to this large list cannot be viewed as private. Anyone can subscribe to the list and read messages that are posted; people can read the Web archives; and list members can (rightly or wrongly) forward the messages to others.
_______________________________________________ To post, send message to [email protected] To subscribe, unsubscribe, change options, or get password, see http://lists.ucla.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/firearmsregprof Please note that messages sent to this large list cannot be viewed as private. Anyone can subscribe to the list and read messages that are posted; people can read the Web archives; and list members can (rightly or wrongly) forward the messages to others.
