Quoth Brian Holtz: ----- it's quite inaccurate to say I "believe in gun control". What I believe in is A-bomb control, mustard gas control, grenade control, Stinger missile control, smallpox bullet control, and yes, machine gun control. -----
Rather than approaching this from an ideological pissing match perspective, I'm going to hit it from the pragmatic angle: - A-bomb, mustard gas and Stinger missile production/procurement require a high level of technology/organization/finance which, if undertaken with the intent of initiating force, would comprise a criminal conspiracy preceding and de facto independent of the actual production/possession of A-bombs, mustard gas and Stinger missiles. Therefore, there's no particular need for "A-bomb and mustard gas control" -- you've already got criminal counts in hand before you reach that issue. It's a dead end unless your political target is the hysterically paranoid set. - Grenades, poisoned (with organic or inorganic toxins) bullets and machine guns simply aren't susceptible to control. Given a normal household, common tools and, in the case of machine guns a collection of common semi-automatic rifles, a competent individual can produce grenades, poisoned bullets and machine guns (or simulacra thereof, e.g. the "Hellfire switch") to his heart's content (simple chemical weapons, too, btw). There's no practical ability to "control" that, and no practical reason to want to, since malicious use of said tools would themselves constitute prosecutable offenses. - As a matter of practical politics, I'm unaware of any significant constituency for the position you stake out. "Gun control" advocates aren't going to accept unregulated possession of handguns or semi-automatics (indeed they go out of their way to confuse people into thinking that semi-automatics are automatics), and gun rights supporters aren't going to buy into the idea that Brian Holtz should get to decide what guns they can and can't have. On this matter, you are a starry-eyed ideologue. Your "beliefs" are in the same league as others' beliefs in Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy, and of little or no application to the real world or to political advantage. Tom Knapp
