# NRA to Sue Arizona over Destroying Buyback Guns **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [January 9, 2013, 1:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nra-to-sue-arizona-over-destroying-buyback-guns/646623 "2013-01-09T13:17:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 11
**Author:** ![YogSothoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/8edcca/32.png) [@YogSothoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YogSothoth)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2013, 6:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nra-to-sue-arizona-over-destroying-buyback-guns/646623/201 "2013-01-10T06:06:19Z")
> [@brazil84](#): > > No, but I’m not sure I understand your point. Are you saying that the NRA is forcing everyone to buy guns and attacking those who don’t as unAmerican? Are you familiar with the NRA at all? ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2013, 6:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nra-to-sue-arizona-over-destroying-buyback-guns/646623/202 "2013-01-10T06:32:00Z")
> [@Debaser](#): > > Cite for anyone “applauding” the death of Travon Martin? > > His death was unfortunate. Every gun owner I know agrees with that. But his shooting was justified. If he didn’t go around attacking people he would still be alive. It’s sad, but no crime was committed. I don’t applaud it and I challenge you to give a cite of any NRA member doing so. Your post is the cite. If I applaud you for doing something, it means I think you did the right thing. When you say something someone did was “justified,” it means that you think that person did the right thing. You are thus right now applauding George Zimmerman for the death of Trayvon Martin. And note the correct spelling. It’s not even that uncommon a name. ---
**Author:** ![gamerunknown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/6bbea6/32.png) [@gamerunknown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gamerunknown)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2013, 8:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nra-to-sue-arizona-over-destroying-buyback-guns/646623/203 "2013-01-10T08:50:28Z")
> [@Kable](#): > > Well if she agreed to turn it in with the contingent agreement that it be destroyed I could see her having a gripe. If not then it’s government property with value, and auctioning it to the highest bidder might be the best way to do right by the tax payers. Who knows, those guns could still save lives. They’re providing a service. If you don’t approve, vote in a new legislature or police sheriff. > [@Jack\_Batty](#): > > to spill the blood of \*\*TYRANTS \*\*if necessary!!! Oh yeah - the blood of patriots and tyrants refreshes the tree of liberty, whereas the blood of martyrs nourishes the shoots of social revolution. Who knew? ---
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2013, 9:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nra-to-sue-arizona-over-destroying-buyback-guns/646623/204 "2013-01-10T09:15:30Z")
> [@gamerunknown](#): > > Oh yeah - the blood of patriots and tyrants refreshes the tree of liberty, whereas the blood of martyrs nourishes the shoots of social revolution. Who knew? I didn’t. That’s why I flunked Bio. ---
**Author:** ![brazil84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8491ac/32.png) [@brazil84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brazil84)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2013, 9:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nra-to-sue-arizona-over-destroying-buyback-guns/646623/205 "2013-01-10T09:44:32Z")
> [@YogSosoth](#): > > Are you familiar with the NRA at all? Yes. Now please answer my question – I am trying to understand your point. Are you saying that the NRA is forcing everyone to buy guns and attacking those who don’t as unAmerican? A simple yes or no will do. ---
**Author:** ![Lobohan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobohan/32/79_2.png) [@Lobohan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobohan)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2013, 10:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nra-to-sue-arizona-over-destroying-buyback-guns/646623/206 "2013-01-10T10:58:35Z")
Think about the typical _gun nut_. They are angry. Angry and afraid. So they want to lash out. If someone is offering to buy guns and destroy them, that angers them because it’s a win for the people they are angry and afraid of. Mind you, I’m not talking about gun owners, I’m talking about hysterical morons like Alex Jones. ---
**Author:** ![Steophan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steophan/32/9595_2.png) [@Steophan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steophan)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2013, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nra-to-sue-arizona-over-destroying-buyback-guns/646623/207 "2013-01-10T12:51:37Z")
Here’s a solution that should please the lefties. Take the guns that are bought back, and sell them at a low price to poor people who can’t afford guns, helping them to exercise their right to bear arms. That’s what you want, right? The government helping people to get what they should have a right to have? Also this - > [@BigT](#): > > Your post is the cite. If I applaud you for doing something, it means I think you did the right thing. When you say something someone did was “justified,” it means that you think that person did the right thing. You are thus right now applauding George Zimmerman for the death of Trayvon Martin. > > And note the correct spelling. It’s not even that uncommon a name. - is possibly the stupidest thing you’ve ever written. Which, given your posting history, is a pretty amazing achievement. ---
**Author:** ![Kable](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ed655f/32.png) [@Kable](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kable)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2013, 12:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nra-to-sue-arizona-over-destroying-buyback-guns/646623/208 "2013-01-10T12:58:48Z")
> [@Lobohan](#): > > Think about the typical _gun nut_. They are angry. Angry and afraid. So they want to lash out. > > If someone is offering to buy guns and destroy them, that angers them because it’s a win for the people they are angry and afraid of. > > Mind you, I’m not talking about gun owners, I’m talking about hysterical morons like Alex Jones. Reminds me of the typical anti-gunner. If someone is offering to return guns to the public, it angers them because it’s a win for the people they are angry and afraid of. Not the one’s that just don’t want guns for themselves. I’m talking about those that want to repeal or rewrite the 2nd amendment. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2013, 1:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nra-to-sue-arizona-over-destroying-buyback-guns/646623/209 "2013-01-10T13:10:49Z")
Jeez, you go away for just one night, and look at what grows while you’ve been working and sleeping! There’s tons of stuff here to comment on, but it’d take too long, and others have been commenting, and I have a heave workday in front of me. I just don’t want people to think that I’m one of those posters who starts a thread and thenabandons it when the going gets tough. Pretty clearly this issue touched a very sensitive nerve. ---
**Author:** ![Jack\_Batty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jack_batty/32/3201_2.png) [@Jack\_Batty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Batty)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2013, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nra-to-sue-arizona-over-destroying-buyback-guns/646623/210 "2013-01-10T13:43:07Z")
> [@Bricker](#): > > Is that it? You think they’re haunted? You think the spirits of anyone shot with a gun follows the gun around for eternity, and only by destroying the gun can they go into the light? > [@Bricker](#): > > Yes, as many people have hinted that this is the real reason as have said that the NRA is the Church of the Holy Gun and it’s blasphemous to destroy that which they worship. Text book fucking projection. The NRA most certainly worships guns; what other reason is there for them to freak out because an inanimate object is being destroyed by its rightful owner? But you have to whip out this moronic “what, do you think they’re haunted” hilarity on me. No, Chuckles, I don’t think they’re haunted; I think they’re weapons. What do you think they are? Little demi-gods that will make the Baby Jesus weep if they’re melted down? See? Two can play this stupid game you’ve invented. Dick. ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2013, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nra-to-sue-arizona-over-destroying-buyback-guns/646623/211 "2013-01-10T13:44:50Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > Jeez, you go away for just one night, and look at what grows while you’ve been working and sleeping! > There’s tons of stuff here to comment on, but it’d take too long, and others have been commenting, and I have a heave workday in front of me. I just don’t want people to think that I’m one of those posters who starts a thread and thenabandons it when the going gets tough. Pretty clearly this issue touched a very sensitive nerve. No. At least not for me. I think this issue raises lots of fruitful areas of discussion, and has thus invited lots of commentary, but I don’t regard the issue as sensitive. It’s an interesting question of law raised by the lawsuit, which I believe will most likely go against the NRA; at the same time the will of the legislature in Arizona was pretty obviously to force police departments to sell confiscated guns instead of destroying them. If I were a judge, I’d rule against the NRA. If I were a SuperJudge™, I’d rule in their favor. NB: a SuperJudge™ is the liberal fantasy of a judicial superhero, empowered to discern what the law should mean in a decent society and then rule accordingly, unencumbered by the actual text of the law. Of course, if _I_ were a SuperJudge™, I’d have the power but not the liberal inclinations, making me (in liberals’ minds) more of a SuperVillainJudge™. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2013, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nra-to-sue-arizona-over-destroying-buyback-guns/646623/212 "2013-01-10T13:48:08Z")
> [@Bricker](#): > > It’s an interesting question of law raised by the lawsuit, which I believe will most likely go against the NRA; at the same time the will of the legislature in Arizona was pretty obviously to force police departments to sell confiscated guns instead of destroying them. And if those guns were being confiscated, you’d have a point. But, for the umpteenth time, they _weren’t_. ---
**Author:** ![Lobohan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobohan/32/79_2.png) [@Lobohan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobohan)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2013, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nra-to-sue-arizona-over-destroying-buyback-guns/646623/213 "2013-01-10T13:51:34Z")
> [@Kable](#): > > Reminds me of the typical anti-gunner. > > If someone is offering to return guns to the public, it angers them because it’s a win for the people they are angry and afraid of. > > Not the one’s that just don’t want guns for themselves. I’m talking about those that want to repeal or rewrite the 2nd amendment. Yes, yes, you’re not that smart and you’re trying hard. Good show. ---
**Author:** ![Kable](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ed655f/32.png) [@Kable](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kable)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2013, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nra-to-sue-arizona-over-destroying-buyback-guns/646623/214 "2013-01-10T13:55:31Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > And if those guns were being confiscated, you’d have a point. > But, for the umpteenth time, they _weren’t_. You’re point has been made Czarcasm. We know you want them guns melted down. ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2013, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nra-to-sue-arizona-over-destroying-buyback-guns/646623/215 "2013-01-10T13:56:58Z")
> [@Jack\_Batty](#): > > Text book fucking projection. The NRA most certainly worships guns; what other reason is there for them to freak out because an inanimate object is being destroyed by its rightful owner? > > But you have to whip out this moronic “what, do you think they’re haunted” hilarity on me. No, Chuckles, I don’t think they’re haunted; I think they’re weapons. What do you think they are? Little demi-gods that will make the Baby Jesus weep if they’re melted down? > > See? Two can play this stupid game you’ve invented. Dick. Ah, I see. Your tly justified; ridiculous exaggerations are perfectly justified; mine are absurd. Of course, that’s nonsense. They’re not “freaking out” --they are calmly pursuing lawful remedies to a government action they contend is being undertaken without legal authority. You, on the other hand, are inventing hysteria where none exists, perhaps to mask your own superstition and dread about a hunk of metal that has killed once somehow gaining a taste for human blood and wanting to kill again. ---
**Author:** ![Jack\_Batty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jack_batty/32/3201_2.png) [@Jack\_Batty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Batty)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2013, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nra-to-sue-arizona-over-destroying-buyback-guns/646623/216 "2013-01-10T13:59:51Z")
> [@Bricker](#): > > They’re not “freaking out” --they are calmly pursuing lawful remedies to a government action they contend is being undertaken without legal authority. On who’s behalf? Guns’? When did they become citizens with full rights? And just to continue to address your hyperbolic bullshit. I don’t care if a turned-in gun was used to kill anybody or not. It doesn’t even remotely enter into the picture. The gun has been turned in. It can now be destroyed by its owner, regardless of how it lived it’s precious demi-god little life of plinking Coke cans and protecting home and hearth. ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2013, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nra-to-sue-arizona-over-destroying-buyback-guns/646623/217 "2013-01-10T14:00:40Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > And if those guns were being confiscated, you’d have a point. > But, for the umpteenth time, they _weren’t_. Sure. But they’re (I imagine, without having read the pleadings) going to argue that the spirit of the law should reach to all used guns that come under the control of the police department, whether by confiscation or by “gun buy back” programs – that surely the legislature did not intend the strange result of forcing the police to sell instead of destroy guns used in crimes, but allowing them to destroy guns with no threatening provenance. They will probably not prevail, but you can’t scoff at that kind of legal reasoning too hard, since it’s the same sort of extrapolation that underpins all sorts of decisions I bet you like. ---
**Author:** ![Lobohan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobohan/32/79_2.png) [@Lobohan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobohan)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2013, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nra-to-sue-arizona-over-destroying-buyback-guns/646623/218 "2013-01-10T14:01:43Z")
> [@Jack\_Batty](#): > > On who’s behalf? Guns’? When did they become citizens with full rights? Maybe that’s what they’re going for. If Guns can just vote, then Republicans 4 eva! ---
**Author:** ![brazil84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8491ac/32.png) [@brazil84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brazil84)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2013, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nra-to-sue-arizona-over-destroying-buyback-guns/646623/219 "2013-01-10T14:02:37Z")
> [@Bricker](#): > > If I were a judge, I’d rule against the NRA. > > If I were a SuperJudge™, I’d rule in their favor. Probably me too, but I think a decent argument can be made on the basis of the Constitution that the practice in question should be prohibited. Imagine if the police were taking part in a program to offer people money to waive some other right. I mentioned abortion previously, but one can think of others. For example, it would be entirely legal for me as a private citizen to offer random people $20 gift cards in exchange for agreeing to march in a big rally against a local politician. Or for agreeing NOT to march in a big rally against a local politician. But what if the police got involved in handing out the $20 gift cards and processing peoples participation in this arrangement? In that case, the ACLU would surely go running into court to challenge the practice. And I think they would probably win, based on the fact that marching in a big rally (or not marching in a big rally) is protected by the First Amendment and the government should not get involved in discouraging people from exercising their First Amendment rights. ---
**Author:** ![Cheesesteak](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cheesesteak/32/3694_2.png) [@Cheesesteak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheesesteak)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2013, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nra-to-sue-arizona-over-destroying-buyback-guns/646623/220 "2013-01-10T14:03:51Z")
> [@Kable](#): > > If someone is offering to return guns to the public, Return? Return what? Nothing was taken from “the public”. Some people decided they wanted to take advantage of a “turn in your gun and we’ll melt it down” program. What about that suggests a duty to return those guns to the open market? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nra-to-sue-arizona-over-destroying-buyback-guns/646623.md?page=10) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nra-to-sue-arizona-over-destroying-buyback-guns/646623.md?page=12)