Michael Bane argues that the regulations applied to short barreled rifles, short barreled shotguns, and suppressors, are worse than stupid. I couldn’t agree more. Even most European countries don’t regulate suppressors, and regulating barrel lengths has never made much sense. Suppressors particularly, with more and more shooting ranges under threat from noise ordinances, would be particularly useful for ranges in keeping friendly relations with neighbors. But suppressors aren’t common in the US like they are in Europe, because of their excessive regulation in this country.
I think it’s politically feasible to create a movement against these aspects of the National Firearms Act, but if Obama ends up in the White House, we’ll be two decades just undoing that damage, if we ever manage at all. If gun owners don’t win elections, we don’t win. Michael also isn’t too happy about the candidacy of Bob Barr on the Libertarian ticket. I agree with him that it’s no time for a feel good vote. If Governor Richardson had gotten the nod, I might feel better about telling the GOP to go to hell, but the idea of an Obama presidency scares the ever living crap out of me.
Thomas Sowell said, “John McCain can never convince me to vote for him. Only Hillary Clinton and Barak Obama can convince me to vote for john McCain.”
That’s pretty much how I feel.
If gun rights are ever to be restored, gun owners are going to have to take risks and support pro-gun candidates, not the media-proclaimed winnable candidates.
We all voted for W and ended up with Katrina gun confiscation, an overly aggressive ATF, a solictor general that argued “shall not be infringed” means the government can regulate guns and even ban them, and a President that would have signed the AW ban if it made it out of congress.
McCain wants to close the gun show loophole … which really means he wants to regulate private sales of guns, a precursory to banning all gun sales. What other surprises does he have for gun owners? Sarah Brady for ATF head?
The difference between Obama, Hillary, McCain is which gun control scheme will be enacted.
Lets say Obama is elected, do you really think Hillary and McCain will put aside their egos and work with Obama. Ha Ha Ha. McCain opposed W every chance he got. Hillary will do the same in preparation for her run in 2012. Obama will be mucho mucho in-effective.
Time has come to vote for the pro-gun candidate, Bob Barr.
We all voted for W and ended up with Katrina gun confiscation
That was Nagin and his police chief. Bush didn’t have anything to do with that, and Bush signed the law that prevented police agencies who receive federal funding from doing it again.
an overly aggressive ATF, a solictor general that argued “shall not be infringed†means the government can regulate guns and even ban them, and a President that would have signed the AW ban if it made it out of congress.
That’s a legitimate gripe against Bush, but Obama is going to be far far worse, and a vote for Bob Barr is a vote for Obama.
“Even most European countries don’t regulate suppressors…”
Makes me think of the line in ‘Air America’, when Neely says, “If I wanna shoot lizards at night on my golf course, there’s no reason to disturb the neighbors.”
My sentiments exactly.