Donal Fagan constantly reminds the TTAG team to look for the truth beyond the official version of a story. Specifically, beneath the main text. And so we scan the comments section under posts like a sooth-sayer examining used tea leaves—except that our analysis isn’t based on pseudo-science and intellectual / emotional exploitation. (As far as I know.) Here’s an example of a coherent middle ground response to a wide-ranging editorial on gun control; a piece that reads like a teenager borrowing his Daddy’s Porsche (i.e. going nowhere fast). Writing for North Carolina’s thedailyadvance.com, commentator carydude (perhaps only one “r” away from holstering his pro-registration rhetoric) points the fickle finger of fate at the gun industry profits, from whence cometh gun grab hysteria. Allegedly. Reckon there’s any truth to that?
I’d love to know where the fear of Obama taking people’s guns came from. He never said anything in the campaign about taking away people’s arms, only statements about supporting a locality’s right of governing restrictions should they choose to do so.
Those types of restrictions go back to the days of the Old West when towns banned firearms in the city limits for public safety. And those people hoping that Supreme Court’s ruling goes against the City of Chicago are most likely the same people who scream for state’s rights at other times so aren’t they contradicting themselves if they are one and the same?
Personally, I have never seen the need in a regular citizen owning an assault rifle and have no problem with any government, big or small, banning them as their very name indicates they’re not for defense, but offense.
As for handguns, I’d like to see them all banned but am also realistic enough to know that will never happen so I won’t fight their existence or one’s ability to own one. I do find it odd however that it seems like one has to go through more to get a driver’s license than a gun permit though I know that’s not the case.
The only changes I’d make (and yes, if this is already part of the laws in NC, I plead ignorance as I’m not a gun owner), would be to make you register every firearm you own and maintain that registration yearly, just like you are required to do for a car. Is that too big a price to pay for your freedom? Not really.
Back to the original question of where did the fear about losing your guns come from. I’d bet a dime to a dollar the gun industry came up with it as a marketing tool b/c there is no greater motivator than fear.