A TV news outlet in California is shocked to find out that despite California’s stringent gun laws, there’s still a lot of illegal guns, and that at gun shows, people sell magazines in a manner that isn’t illegal. One guy at a gun show tried to sell his firearm privately, only to be warned by dealers that it was a felony. Seems like the guy wasn’t a criminal, but just that he didn’t know.
One reason I oppose many of the laws proposed by our opponents is because it has great potential to ensnare the unaware, but otherwise non-criminal. Even thought a civil penalty or low-level misdemeanor is enough to discourage the law abiding, our opponents insist on felony penalties for activities that are not commonly understood as being unlawful. Being a gun owner should not require a law degree in order to avoid getting in trouble, but in most cases, when it comes to gun, if you get into the hobby enough you will need to know a lot of gun laws in order not to get in trouble. Our opponents are fine with this, and deride our concern about honest people getting thrown in jail as paranoid ramblings, and then wonder why we oppose them ferociously, even over things that they believe are eminently reasonable.
That’s what they want. They want lawful gun owners to be so afraid of being sent to prison over felony charges that they obediently turn in all of their firearms, because it would be difficult at best to determine what was actually still a legal firearm.
North Carolina is another state where an unsuspecting seller at a gun show can find himself in trouble. All handgun transfers, including private sales, require the purchaser to have a permit to purchase issued by the Sheriff’s Department or possess a Concealed Handgun License. State agents regularly attend shows and attempt to make buys from private sellers to see if they are requested. Then if a sale is made without either, so is an arrest. I know from first hand experience, this particular sting was attempted on me at a show in Hickory, NC a couple of years ago.
Well said.
And Commiefornia anti-gun law keeps mutating into ever more crazy and dangerous forms, making it a full-time job to keep on the right side of the law. I can hardly wait to earn my pension and then escape across the border into Free America.
You poor poor gun owners. You practically need a law degree to avoid getting in trouble inadvertently.
Sorry, but your example of the guy who didn’t know he shouldn’t be selling a gun privately is really silly. So ignorant of the most obvious laws, was he?
I do agree there is a terrible mish-mash of overlapping laws to contend with. This should be re-organized. As to there being too many felony laws, I don’t think so. But that’s just me.
You ought to know mike, since you have admitted violating American gun laws. So in your case was it accidental or deliberate?
Funny thing mike, the weapons laws are so crazy here in Commiefornia, even the cops can’t seem to keep straight what is legal and what is illegal. The vagueness is so bad, it just might doom the law against so-called “assault weapons” because that law is so vague it violates the due process rights protected by the U.S. Constitution!
Yeah, sure Brad, if you say so.