While I personally don't own firearms and don't ever expect to own any, I tend towards Second Amendment absolutism...if for no other reason than the plain fact that Pandora's Box has long since been opened in the United States...and there are plenty enough certified gun nuts to guarantee a blood bath should anyone ever attempt to effectively regulate them.
I mean, geez--when even G. Gordon Liddy, a convicted felon, manages to get around the ban on felons owning firearms (if I remember right, because they're registered in his wife's name), it pretty much makes a mockery of regulations, however well intentioned.
No, we've already passed the point of no return...if there's any small comfort, it's that most gun owners are responsible. Otherwise, believe me, the every-day violence this society has become used to would be even worse.
Not that I think it's necessarily a win-win situation/compromise, but perhaps a different and effective tack on the gun issue would be to give the gun nuts their Second Amendment, while in return insisting that other amendments--like the First and Fourth--be enforced with equal vigor. For that matter, the Ninth Amendment isn't just for show.
Effective registration and statutes that REALLY penalize gun offenders certainly wouldn't hurt...and one thing I'd support strongly would be some sort of crackdown on wholesale arms dealing, which rarely is even a topic of debate in this country (again if I remember, the largest exporter of arms/weaponry by far)...
Compromise...it's not something I like, but I'll deal with it.
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