Re: NRA and National Online Records Check bullshit

[Kent Crispin <kent@songbird.com>]

On Mon, Jun 30, 1997 at 06:37:56PM -0700, Lucky Green wrote:
> The idea is that the criminal has received their punishment once released 
> from prison. 

OTOH, there is no necessity at all to think of it that way.  
Prison isn't the only punishment -- there is nothing in the 
Constitution or anywhere else that says that.  (Certainly, not being 
able to own a gun is in no meaningful sense a "cruel or unusual" 
punishment.)  A court that can impose a life sentence can impose a 
lifetime ban on certain activities -- there is nothing at all 
inconsistent here.

Another fallacy is to think that prison is a temporary phenomenon. 
"Been to prison" is a permanent state -- it marks you for life. 
"Convicted Felon" is a permanent legal condition, a title with
permanent social effects.  

You are probaboy thinking that after a person has "paid their debt to
society" things are just like they were before.  It's a nice theory,
but it's false.  It's not like money.  Your "debt to society" is not
paid off by a prison term.

> Any further infringements on the person's rights are 
> unacceptable. That includes the person's Natural Right to acquire 
> fully-automaticweapons, should he so desire.  [BTW, the nature of the crime 
> committed is irrelevant]. 

"Let the punishment fit the crime".  The crime is *always* relevant to
the punishment, the punishment is *always* a function of the crime.  It
is incoherent and unjust to think otherwise.  

A punishment can certainly infringe your "Natural Rights" -- you can
be executed, after all. 

-- 
Kent Crispin				"No reason to get excited",
kent@songbird.com			the thief he kindly spoke...
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