The constitution doesn’t guarantee the right to keep and bear phosphorous-tipped matches. You can tax unsafe things to prevent people from getting them, but not guns, because preventing people from getting guns violates the constitution.
bullets aren’t guns
I suppose the courts would make a ruling one way or the other. Still, the automatic weapons tax has withstood challenge.
But are they “arms”?
With over a century (of these laws on the books) what has been the result? Are handgun crimes any less prevalent in NYC? Here in MA, we have a law called Bartley-Fox. It states that anyone found to be in posession of a handgun, found guilty of a crime, has to serve a one year mandatory jail sentence. What do the judges do? They ignore this law. So don’t think that any laws regarding guns are going to have any effect on crime.
Which is why (even though I don’t own a gun) I agree with the NRA-we DON’T need any more laws-enforce the ones we have! In MA we have judgews who treat violent criminals like kids-a recent case: a man who sereved 15 years for the slaying of his mother, left court (he was released on personal recognizance). He moved to Washington State, and murdered a married couple next door to him.
I take issue with this line of reasoning. A gun without bullets is as much a weapon as a mallet. The Constitution doesn’t say we have a right to bear weapons, we have a right to bear arms. I’d contend that ammunition is an inseparable part of the term “arms.” If we issued cops guns but no bullets, for example, I wouldn’t say that we have an “armed” constabulary.
Therefore, if one takes the view that the Second Amendment protects an individual right to bear “arms,” then that must include guns and bullets. It would make equally no sense to construe “arms” as meaning bullets but no gun as it would to say it means guns but not bullets.
Not just sales tax. There is a Federal Excise Tax on all firearms and ammunition. Currently something like 10-15 percent. Ever wonder why the ATF is part of the Treasury? Or what alcohol, tobacco and firearms have in common? They’re all taxed by the federal government, and the ATF was created to ensure Uncle Sam gets paid.
IIRC, handguns are not illegal in New York; you just need a special permit to own one legally.
Good luck getting one of those permits, though. As in, “don’t hold your breath.”
From my understanding the permit to own and keep a pistol in your home in NYC is a long and expensive process, but you will be granted one as long as your criminal check clears.
The hard one is the carry permit when you want to have it on your person in public. Good luck with those…
This is basically how marijuana was originally outlawed. I’m fuzzy on the details, but originally it wasn’t thought you could ban it outright, so a law was passed that taxed it, and all marijuana had to have a stamp on it proving the tax was paid. But the government refused to make any stamps actually available, and therefore mj was effectively banned. I believe it was even challenged in the Supreme Court and upheld. I’m not sure if they ever revisited the issue, or why/how it was decided that they didn’t need to use trickery anymore and could just ban it outright…
Another possibility: Somehow it was decided that although we have the right to bear arms, it’s ok to ban certain arms from ownership by the average citizen (nukes, missiles, etc.). Theoretically we could ban all arms except say, knives…
Are you defining “arms” as “firearms”? Is a man with a sword “unarmed” in your estimation?
The original framers of the 2nd pretty much looked at ‘arms’ as ‘firearms’, yes. Regardless, his point stands…it would be like saying you have the right to bear a sword (to use your example) but you can’t have the blade part. You could use the hilt to bash in someone’s head though. Are you armed?
I really hate these dishonest lines of thought. It’s this continuous underhanded attempt to get rid of guns that make the gun advocate types so rabid. If you want to get rid of guns then amend the Amendment. Get some backbone already (this isn’t aimed at you btw but at those who are doing such things)!
-XT
Uh, they arlready do. People who take guns seriously make their own amunition. Take a known weapon that fires a 225 cartridge. I’ve met shooters who machine their own rifle barrels and match the explosive grain of gun powder to match the barrel. It’s a serious science.
Google gave me 3.3 million hits on the words “gun parts”; quite a few of the linked websites offer drawings as well as parts. As things stand now, any competent machine shop can produce any number of guns by using drawings that are simple to obtain.
Better outlaw or prohibitively tax gun parts and/or assembly drawings of guns while we’re at it.
Better yet, if you don’t like guns or bullets, don’t buy any and leave the rest of us alone.
Though I haven’t been able to dredge up much with Google, I think this is largely a myth: When not confined so that the burning powder can build up high pressures, the bullet acquires little energy.
The law was overturned on the basis of self incrimination. You had to have the pot to get the stamp, but possessing pot without a stamp was illegal. In essence you had to confess to a crime in order to comply with the law. By that time the winds had shifted on the court, and Congress was able to ban pot simply through their power to regulate commerce.
You will never, ever get rid of guns in the hands of criminals. Britain has outlawed handguns, but the criminals still have them. Hell, guns have been made in prisons. A gun is not a hard device to make. You get some explosive (which you can easily make, or even use black powder), and you constrain its force in a barrel and put a projectile in it. Anyone with a half-assed machine shop can crank out ‘zip guns’ all day long. The harder regular guns are to get, the more demand there will be for illegal or homemade guns.
Ammo is even easier. And in the criminal underclass, ammo is about the cheapest thing there is. You know why? Because gang-bangers and robbers don’t spend their days at the shooting range. Six bullets is a lifetime supply for most criminals. There are already untold billions of brass cartridges kicking around, and plenty of reloading equipment. Black market bullets might be expensive, but not THAT expensive. So what if you have to pay $100 for a box of shells, instead of $15? That box is all you’ll ever need.
It’s a stupid idea, just like most other forms of gun control.
And the Global War on Terror will never, ever eradicate terrorists and terrorism from the world.
Guess we ought to ditch that too, huh?
Um, yeah. As a concept, a “War on Terrorism” is a stupid paradigm for preventing or reducing terrorism.
Anyway, remember kids, guns don’t kill people, bullets kill people.
Well, I did know some people who’s house burnt to the ground. I was suprised as they live in town. They explained that the fire department came in plenty of time but since the ammo stored in the house started to go off, the fire department pulled out the firemen and let the house go rather than risk the men being shot. This was in the '80s.