Re: Silenced Machine Guns Are Safer Than TWA

[qut@netcom.com (Dave Harman OBC)]

tcmay@got.net (Skippy) wrote:

! At 4:33 AM 9/2/96, qut@netcom.com (Net God) wrote:
! 
! >Contrary to popular fiction, ALL firearms have been permanently
! >registered since the 1968 Gun Control Act.  The media monopoly lies when
! >they say the contrary.
! 
! Nope. Gun sales between individuals without any paperwork were fully legal
! in some places until recently (and may still be fully legal...I can only
! speak of California).

So?  I was talking about NEW sales of firearms from license holders.  Let's
consider improving the future rather than preserving the past, shall
we?

! >From 1974 until a couple of years ago, I bought and sold a dozen or more
! rifles, handguns, and even Evil Assault Weapons, mostly through fully legal
! gun shows. I even sold a .357 Smith to some guy, made a joke about how
! great these gun shows were and how great it was to be able to just take
! cash and hand over a gun without any paperwork...the guy laughed and said
! he was a San Jose cop. I felt nervous for a few seconds, but quickly
! realized there was no law *I* was breaking, so I laughed too.
! 
! Most of these guns I kept no records on, nor did any laws say I had to.
! 
! (A few years ago it became necessary for even private citizen-units to
! obtain the proper firearms transfer papers from the gubment. I wanted to
! sell a laser-equipped Heckler & Koch SP-89 without creating a paper trail
! (as I'd not had one when I acquired the piece a few years earlier), so a
! friend of mine used his friendly neighborhood libertarian FFL dealer, who
! has a policy that the stack of transfer forms he is required to keep on
! file will mysteriously burn up if the Feds ever seek out his records. (Who
! knows if he'll abide by this policy, but the point is that there are
! literally tens of thousands of these "kitchen table FFL dealers," and no
! computerized filing of records. This is one reason I quit the NRA: they are
! advocating the "instant check." Such an instant check would mean massive
! computerization of all files, and of course cross-referencing to files on
! citizens. This would be much worse than the "paper chaos" of stacks of
! firearms paperwork sitting in dusty filing cabinets. I'll take a 10-day
! ineffectual waiting period to a Big Brother database of all purchasers.)

So you'ld prefer the security of obscurity?  I'd prefer to have much more 
government protected rights, openly.  Do you belive the civil courts
have a role in protecting people's rights?  If so, then "government
protected rights."

! >BTW, I muse that the issue of guns, drugs and censorship make an
! >excellent litmus test for libertarians: either you support the
! >legalization of, all of, or your a fake.
! 
! I'm not sure what the "legalization of censorship" would mean, though I
! support the right of anyone to screen out what they choose not to read or
! view. And I support the right of companies to decide what materials to buy,
! have viewed by employees, etc. (So if the "Valley Lesbigays" want to show a
! tape at Hewlett-Packard, H-P can just say "Nope--we're not interested.)
! 
! I fully support legalization of all drugs, all guns, and am unalterably
! opposed to any form of government censorship.

I meant the good side of the censorship issue!

But I also support enforcement of the anti-trust laws, so some would view
the court enforced break up of illegal collusion of the media to crush
competition as "government censorship."