State of the Union

[bossy22]

What do you guys thinking Pres. Obama will say about guns in the state of the union tonight (if anything)

My belief is that it will go something like this "We must make sure that we keep guns out of the hands of criminals and the mentally ill by doing stronger background checks"

[slackmaster]

1. I hope your prediction is correct. I'd be in complete agreement with him if he said that.

:hi:

[shadowrider]

2. Then again

"We must make sure that we keep guns out of the hands of criminals and the mentally ill by doing stronger background checks by passing common sense reguations to ensure they can't get guns".

which I would be firmly against

or

"We must make sure that we keep guns out of the hands of criminals and the mentally ill by doing stronger background checks and utilizing existing laws to ensure that happens".

Given his anti-gun background, this one is a toss-up.

[safeinOhio]

3. Stronger background checks

could start with having background checks on private sales in the same manor they are done on retail sales. They have proven to work at the retail level and have not stopped any sane, law abiding citizen from purchase.

[Flyboy_451]

4. I do not wholey disagree....

but I can foresee problems with this as well. If NICS were opened up to anyone wishing to sell a firearm, I would be more inclined to accept this type of requirement. However, if the transaction must be performed through a dealer, I would be opposed to it. This could too easily lead to heavy fees being applied to providing this service, and can also lead to accessibility problems. There are parts of the country where there simply are not any licensed dealers within reasonable distances to people.

Then the problem of government involvement of intrastate commerce has to be addressed. It is my understanding that this type of requirement would run afoul of laws preventing this.

And finally, the most difficult part...How would it be enforced? How would the government know whether or not a firearm was sold without a background check being completed? If the answer is a federal database, forget it. you will never get support for that idea, and I am also pretty certain that it has been ruled that such a database would violate the 2nd amendment. I see no other way to enforce this requirement. Perhaps a better solution would be to simply open NICS to individual use, on a voluntary basis. I think that most people who are "pro-controls" would be quite shocked at how many individual sellers would take advantage being able to screen potential buyers.

JW

[Hangingon]

5. If NICS is opened to the public, how long before it

becomes a forum for any nsy person to check up on their neighbors?

[ManiacJoe]

6. They can do that now.

Not via NICS, but lots of other ways. The fee to use the service would certainly cut back on the abuse. So would the possible NICS responses of { yes, no, wait }. Plus, how well do you know your neighbors to supply all the needed personal information?

[safeinOhio]

7. About as long as I have been bothered by

nosy neighbors finding out information about me on my personal income tax forms.

[X_Digger]

8. Looks like the answer is nada..

http://www.nationaljournal.com/whitehouse/exclusive-obama-to-declare-the-rules-have-changed--20110125

[Katya Mullethov]

9. Si , Mucho Nada

Vacuous come to mind .