My mother used to drag my father into some of the world’s most expensive stores. She’d point out how ugly something was (my Mom has impeccable taste). “At least it’s expensive,” my father would pronounce. That’s how it is with gun control. Not only is civilian disarmament ugly — in terms of trampling on Americans’ right to keep and bear arms — it’s also an enormous waste of taxpayer money.
To wit this little gem from Connecticut’s stamfordadvocate.com: “State police are seeking 39 additional workers — at a cost of $2.6 million — to handle an avalanche of new duties brought on by gun laws passed after the Newtown school massacre.” Pah! That’s a drop in the bucket. The real cost of the Constitution State’s unconstitutional gun laws is . . .
. . . the Office of Fiscal Analysis estimated the legislation would cost up to $17 million through the 2015 fiscal year, including more than $4 million for state police.
And we all know how good the government is at estimating costs. Come what may (i.e. a doubling from original estimates) gun owners and tax payers (and especially tax-paying gun owners) are on the hook for Connecticut’s feel-good security theater gun control.
Some of the cost of the gun bill will be defrayed by $35 fees for eligibility certificates to purchase guns and ammo, but the remainder will ultimately be borne by taxpayers . . .
Taxpayers would cover most of the $1.9 million in wages and $700,000 in fringe benefits needed to pay civilian employees to process paperwork for background checks, gun registries and permits established under the nation’s toughest gun legislation.
I don’t think the word “tough” means what the Advocate thinks it means. I’m thinking tough means unconstitutional, expensive and burdensome.
Administrators recently told a legislative committee that as of the end of last year state police had 1,000 gun transactions to log into its system. That number has now swelled to 62,000.
There are also 2,720 sets of fingerprints to be processed for pistol permits, along with 9,326 applications.
Which doesn’t include the new requirements for ammunition purchase. Can’t wait to see what that’s doing to the system. Meanwhile, here’s a heads-up from a reader named Brad in Maryland where legislators also “got tough” on legal gun ownership . . .
Have you guys been following what is pretty much infringement on 2nd Amendment rights in Maryland with respect to the background check process? Even now, before the dreaded new “Gun Safety” bill goes into affect on Oct 1st, the waiting period is horrendous. People getting the “Not Disapproved” back from the MD State Police has bee averaging about 70 days. The MDS has stated that it takes them a week to get through 1 day’s worth of applications.
Should these and other slave state wise-up and roll-back their gun control regulations, or should they be forced to do so by the U.S. Supreme Court, the bloated bureaucracy created by these laws will be a lasting legacy, and an ongoing threat to personal liberty. In case you didn’t know.
“tax payers… are on the hook…”
You misspelled “victims of theft.”
I prefer the term “confiscation” to describe these fees and taxes as we can actually access and read the gov’t rule book (public law).
I reserve the term “theft” for unwritten shadow gov’t rules like “currency debasement through monetaty inflation”.
Until you understand the big game Money Power is playing you will never truly understand all the little games, including gun control, that feed into it.
The political parties represent a false dichotomy designed to keep the small people distracted and squabling amongst themselves while being slowly herded into serfdom. They are bookends propping up the edifice of The One True Party. The Party that is laughing all the way to the bank while we quarell. Withdrawl your support and the edifice falls.
I was born a free man, and I intend to die a free man…one way or the other. That is the only choice left.
I was born a free man, and I intend to die a free man
Me too. Preferably of old age in my sleep.
Seems to me like you’re already dead.
they will have to be forced by the courts to roll back the laws, because they still think Heller was an anomaly and that there is no individual right to bear arms.
There you have it…the REAL reason for gun control.
Legislators ….find a NEW way to tax the citizens. Seek an issue – ignore facts – claim to represent – write a bill – pass bill – cite graves of children – collect TAX.
REPEAT – Repeat – Repeat – until all you have is surrendered to some one else including your rights.
Exactly what is happening in California. A 10% tax on ammo, a “permit” (as yet no announcement as to what the fee will be) to purchase ammo AND a proposed (sure to be passed) bill for a 5 cent surcharge on every bullet! And oh by the way, a ban on all Internet ammo purchases. I’m not in a position to move, I live too far from Nevada or Arizona to drive there for ammo, so I’ll probably have to give up this hobby. Where’s the all powerful NRA? Not in California.
Unfortunately for you, the NRA are not all-powerful.
And California is a lost cause. The best we can hope for is that their ultimate failure doesn’t bring down the entire global economy with it.
Since you keep insisting moving “is not an option”, I’m afraid you’d better suck it up and cease whining.
Everyone, including you, knows it’s NEVER “not an option.” Unless your feet are nailed to the ground.
You CANNOT have your cake, eat it, and then complain it’s gone. Truly lost causes are few and far between, but California is one. If you remain, it’s because you’ve accepted that eventuality. And the time for moaning about it has come and gone.
+1 🙁
I’m pretty sure that this all fits in perfectly with the Progressive goal of big government.
Right. This is no miscalculation on the part of those who promote big government. It’s more like grabbing another rung on the ladder to complete disarmament. When the laws become too expensive to administer and enforce, the new message will be: “Guns laws are too expensive and impossible to enforce. We really, really tried.” Meanwhile, government will continue to wallow in our money and make a lot of noise.
MD person here, still waiting for a purchqase from the BEGINING of March, got to have patients like budda around here.
Buddha was a doctor?
lol +1 good catch RF, “patience” i meant.
Didn’t you know anyone with an advanced degree is “enlightened” beyond the wisdom of mortal men? It’s where they get the intelligence to craft laws which make no sense.
OH GAWD! It HURTS!!! LOL!!!
They should have legislated Bloomberg to pay for it.
That’s a good looking Taurus; a little too gaudy for me though.
Maryland has been losing hard working people , know how, lots of small companies for 30 years while the welfare state , and crime sky rockets, count the cost of a slave state in many, many billions and it’s a hell hole too….Freedom and Liberty does reward you , but the brick heads will not accept that………
Baltimore…
And don’t forget the increased cost of higher crime rates, as enterprising skells from more-dangerous states (i.e., shall-issue states) move to the disarmed states to prey on the disarmed civilians. Plus the cost of the lawsuits trying to overturn the laws.
Why would politicians care about the cost of gun control? It’s not their money.
They love the cost of gun control. Another opportunity to wallow in our money.
…and there’s more where that came from.
Apparently, the obvious has not dawned on anyone. Imagine how much they could actually reduce violent crime if Connecticut spent those 10s of millions of additional dollars on more cops on the streets or in the schools. Instead, Connecticut would rather suck money away from everyone to employ a bunch of pencil pushers which will do absolutely zero to reduce violent crime.
Now here’s a novel thought. Use that money to train volunteers so volunteers can stand guard in their children’s schools. And when I say train, I mean an entire week of full blown tactical training and marksmanship. (I don’t believe that level of training is necessary but it would remove objections about the feared “danger” of civilians who “lack training”.)
Heck, they would probably even do more to reduce violent crime if they spent all that money on public service campaigns. I cannot believe how low we have collectively sunk.
MORE COPS. Wow. You’re a farking whiz. We’re overrun by liberty-despising, statist cops as is. Your worship of the police state is an outgrowth of arrested sexual maturity.
William,
My position on the police state should be apparent from two details in my comment. The more obvious detail was my advocating for volunteers to to guard our schools. Volunteers means John and Jane Q. Public which reduces the police state. The second detail was more subtle: I specifically mentioned police on the streets to reduce violent crime. And I mean just that: busting criminals who rob, rape, brutally injure, and murder good citizens.
I did NOT advocate for more police to harass citizens or to decide whether citizens may be armed. I did NOT advocate for police to raid homes without knocking because someone may have narcotics or firearms in the home.
Try using a little more discernment next time.
I volunteer for that training. Especially if they supply the ammo. A whole week of shooting without having to pay a premium for ammo.
So in Maryland you don’t get approved, you get “not disapproved”? That’s hilariously sad.
$2.6M divided by 39 employees = $66,666 per employee. What the?
Fringe benefits cost an arm and a leg. Health, hospitalization, pension, vacation etc. Salary is just the tip of a deep iceberg.
“…the bloated bureaucracy created by these laws will be a lasting legacy, and an ongoing threat to personal liberty. In case you didn’t know.”
What’s not to know; that’s all part and parcel to the incrementalist efforts of the gun grabbers initiatives. Chip away a little here, a little there. Having a bureaucracy already in place to implement their efforts only serves to grease the skids.
How many crimes are solved by ATF gun traces? For the police to get the gun, they usually have to have the criminal. If the criminal left the gun, he didn’t buy it in a store. If the criminal bought the gun in a store, he usually doesn’t leave it at the crime scene. If the criminal disposes of the gun, how can ATF trace it? How much money is diverted from society by paying ATF to make sure FFL’s only sell to people who have identification with the name and birthdate matching someone who is NCICS clearable so that traces can help solve crimes?
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