>>>>>>>>It's only 6 minutes long - but I think it explains it excellent.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/17/jon-stewart-nra-limiting-atf-law-enforcement_n_2495301.html
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>So now everyone quit telling me that we don't need to change anything other than to enforce the laws we got.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>If Jon's analysis is correct, then once again I am reminded at how well the NRA protects the 2nd Amendment and how poorly the rest of the Constitution is defended. Well done NRA! ;)
>>>>>>
>>>>>>Dude that has to be the dumbest response possible...I'll assume that was a joke.
>>>>>
>>>>>I am quite serious about the NRA's success at protecting and defending the 2nd Amendment. There are few if any other political organizations that have their track record of success. If the DS analysis is correct (and complete) then this is yet another example of the NRA's effectiveness. Further, I DO wish that the rest of the Constitution had such effective advocacy behind it, perhaps the old girl might even be understood by the man who upon taking his most recent oath to uphold her, included this gem - "that preserving our individual freedoms ultimately requires collective action". THAT is the dumbest thing I've heard this week.
>>>>>
>>>>>I am not one who advocates "enforce the laws we got"
>>>>>I advocate that many of the existing anti-gun laws are unconstitutional and should be removed. Non-enforcement is an end-run around the bad laws but not ultimately good enough IMO.
>>>>
>>>>The NRA's success is getting guns in the hands of as many people of possible and preventing the ATF from actually doing their job. Don't you agree that they've castrated the ATF from doing the simple obvious things that could help? As for the 2nd Amendment - that was written when we had muskets not AK-47's and I think it's intent was to allow citizens to protect themselves from the Army should their ever been any sort of problem. I don't think it was intended for every bonehead to own a streetsweeper automatic gun.
>>>
>>>These last two sentences are mutually exclusive. If you think it's intent was to allow citizens to protect themselves from the Army then one can reasonably conclude that those citizens would need at least the same firepower as the Army. Yet you don't think it was intended for every bonehead to own a streetsweeper automatic gun.
>>>
>>>???
>>
>>Yeah - you're proving my point. It was written 200+ years ago - when it was actually possible for a group of armed citizens to fight off a group of armed military personal. If you want to apply the 2nd Amendment as it was intended 200 years ago to today's standards then every American should be able to own a F-14 fighter plan and atomic weapons too.
>
>While your specific example of the F-14 is not presently available, your general point is not as valid as you seem to imply. Private citizens can and do own military grade weapons and vehicles, including fighter jets.
>http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/13.10/kirlin.html

You're incorrect. A citizen can not own anti-aircraft weapons, nukes, grenade launchers..etc. A MiG with all the weapons removed is not quite the same thing.

>There's a MiG (not sure what type specifically) which can be seen flying in & out of The former Mather Air Base here in Sacramento on a daily basis. I've heard that the owner is a big-time lawyer who spends a lot of time at the State Capital who lives in S California and uses the jet for his commute. He flys over the highway I use to get to and from work every day.

WOW. Well that's one way to cut the commute time!

>>>>My big complaint is the politicians have blackballed the ATF from being able to enforce the laws we have and the NRA is behind it. It's not about rights or protecting people - it's about money and selling more guns (at any cost to society).
>>>
>>>Everything politicians do is related to money. No surprise there. If you want to limit the influence of money on politicians then limit politicians power. The money will head to more profitible ventures.
>>
>>Ok look - saying "well this is just business as usual" is not an acceptable argument for allowing the NRA to screw up the ATF. Did you actually watch the video? The ATF can't even keep a simple database that would ...OMG just watch the video.
>
>I did watch the video.
>
>I do not agree with the idea of national centralized databases of individual citizens be it for guns, fingerprints, medical conditions or parking tickets. It's a gross invasion of privacy and contrary to the founding principals of this country.

Interesting point of view. So you don't think that database we have that keeps all the criminals fingerprints should exist huh? Seems like that would sort of ..ummm... a really bad idea. Do you understand the benefits of having a centralized database of guns and gun sales transactions? I'm a strong believer in privacy as well - but there are limits to this thinking. If all these bad gun transactions can be traced to just 1% of the gun dealers, don't you think it would be nice to weed out those 1% of bad dealers that are screwing it up for everyone else? It comes down to privacy vs safety perhaps? Of course this is easy for me to say because I've never owned a gun so I won't be showing up in this database - but hey if I DID ever decide to get one I wouldn't care if that info was in some government database either.
Let me ask you this - what is the harm in having the database? What possible problem would that cause any legal gun owner? What sort of evil-doings by the feds to you envision that would somehow effect your privacy as a result of this? Ok so the feds know you have a gun. - big deal who cares? So what if they know?
Isn't it W.K. out here that has friends that are cops? I wonder what his take on this is. As matter of fact I haven't heard any police organizations commenting on this at all now that I think about it...

Years ago I had the idea that before any new gun is sold that they record the ballistics of each gun and keep that information in a database. That way anytime a crime occurs and you can salvage a bullet from the crime scene you'd know right then who's gun was used. Think of how handy that would be!