Wow, a lot of stff, where to start?
Dargo, you don't believe the call-in polls, but you claim to know how the public really thinks. How do you know this? Is it the entire public, or just the public of which you are aware? Have you ever talked to people of different economic status or different backgrounds? Different education levels? Do you really try to understand how they may have arrived at their views, or do you see everything through a wealthy guy's glasses?
I don't listen to any talk radio. Those guys are all producing their shows in such a way that they only get views they agree with, or they ridicule any other views. There is nothing more slanted or biased. By the way, there is only one progressive in the list you mentioned - all the rest are about as radical right as you get, and, like most radical rightists, blindly opionated.
My opinions are based on observation and my own conclusions, not on what someone else tries to tell me to think, or out of fear of not being accepted. My primary sources are CSpan and government web sites. I do watch cable news (CNN, MSNBC, Fox) and I do read newspapers (our local conservative Scripps paper and the more progressive Palm Beach Post), but they are balanced, and I primarily watch them to see the spin (from both sides). I'm amused by the spin.
Voting records -- I looked through that list, and I saw absolutely nothing that said anything about taking away guns. Brady Bill, assault weapons ban, large capacity clip ban, trigger locks, gun show loophole, internet gun sales, cop killer bullets, and manufacturer liability -- but nothing that would prohibit gun ownership. I support every one of the bills Kerry supported. One of the titles was "School Safety Act", and the stupid web site said that Kerry voted "against gun owners". What, gun owners are in favor of less safety in the schools? That proves my point that gun fanatics care more about their damn guns than they do even school kids. Same with cop killer bullets, assault weapons and large capacity clips. They ought to be ashamed. Most states have vehicle inspection laws because the things can limit certain types of guns and ammo if they are exceptionally dangerous and useless for any "normal" use of a gun?
Bob , did you think you'd get away with your sneaky little qualification, "They did require the selected guns had to be either turned it, or shipped outside of the jurisdiction." (Emphasis added by me). I'd like to see the specific "bans" you mentioned; sounds like the assault weapons ban, to me, or maybe Saturday night specials. I do not know of a single jurisdiction in the United States that has an outright ban on possesion of any and all guns, which is what taking away guns means. If there is still one gun in private hands anywhere in the jurisdiction, then guns have not been taken away. "Guns taken away" is what regimes like dictators do. Any administration that could appoint John Ashcroft as Attorney General is much closer to a tyrannical dictatorship than any Democrat has ever conceived.
California, I'm impressed. Great minds and a single track, and all that stuff. I once conceived an organization known as "ARGO": Association for Responsible Gun Ownership. I even started to set up a web site, but got sidetracked with something that actually affected my life, rather thann rhetoric.
The idea was that there is a chain of responsibility involved with guns. If a manufacturer never builds one, no one can use one improperly. However, I'm enough of a conservative to be unwilling to regulate free enterprise. Therefore, the next step in the chain is initial purchase. If no one bought a gun, there would be no guns to use improperly, because manufacturers would soon stop production if no one bought them.
Therefore, once a person has purchased a gun, thereby introducing it into the world, so to speak, like giving it birth, then the purchaser becomes liable for whatever is involved with that gun. The precedent is the responsibility of the parent for a child. If a parent does not want that responsibility, the choice is clear -- do not have any children. If a person does not want ultimate responsibility for the use of a gun, do not purchase the gun.
If a person makes the decision to purchase the gun and introduce it to the world, that person -- especially if they are a true conservative who values individual responsibilty, should accept the responsibility that gun ownership involves. One must protect one's gun to the extent that it cannot be stolen or acquired by anyone who might misuse it.
I understand and respect the idea that guns don't kill people; people kill people. I also understand that guns make it easier to kill people, and safer for the killer, because they operate at a distance, with easy concealment, and with a greater speed and more finality than any other weapon manageable by one person. With a gun, I can hide behind a tree and kill you from across the street. With a knife, I have to come within arm's length of you. There are similar analogies for any other form of weapon.
Therefore, the gun, and only the gun (and tasers with fatal levels, and death rays, and terminal lasers, and anything else that can be defined as ballistic or operates from a distance like a ballistic weapon, such as a cross bow), must be subject to special conditions because of its special nature.
ARGO had a simple credo: you can own any arms you like, from a Saturday night special to a suitcase nuclear device, but (1) it must be registered when you purchase it, and all subsequent sales must be registered; and (2) you must accept ultimate responsibility for any use to which the weapon might be put.
This includes theft of any sort. If you are responsible for the existence of a gun, and that gun is subsequently used in a crime, you are equally guilty of the crime. Don't want the responsibility? Don't buy the gun.
I am constantly amazed at the folks who preach responsibility for one's actions, and then try to create special circumstances if their gun is stolen. The damn gun wouldn't exist if you didn't buy it; therefore no crime could be committed with it if you didn't buy it; therefore if it is used in a crime, it's your fault. Don't duck your responsibility. I don't give a damn how many guns you have, but you better be able to account for all of them.