Quote:
Originally Posted by clydepepper
Second, I would move the legal age to purchase a firearm up to 21. There are no guarantees that any steps will work, but NOT DOING ANYTHING DOES NOT WORK.
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'Putting military-grade weapons in the hands of the general public.' has been their goal.
As astonished as I am by all the blood-thirstiness of the country in which I live, I just cannot understand why there is ANY opposition to universal background checks, for gun shows; pawn shops; or retailers like Academy Sports where the AR-15 type assault-rifles are called sports rifles.
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Edited out some stuff, just commenting on the bits I left.
I just don't see how raising the age to 21 would change much. being responsible or irresponsible doesn't magically change at someones birthday.
I don't know about elsewhere, but here in Mass, most of the big sporting goods stores that sold guns changed their policy to only sell to 21+. One of the most responsible people I know worked at one at 18 in the gun dept. (very apt, as he was a licensed instructor) He quit over that policy change, seeing the inherent dishonesty of an 18 year old being able to sell a gun, teach courses on safety etc, but not buy one.
Military grade weapons have nearly always been in the hands of the public.
At times, what was available to the public has been superior to what our military commonly used. (and aside from full auto being highly restricted, potentially may still be possible)
The US government ran a citizen marksmanship program starting I believe in 1903 that gave participants the ability to buy a surplus rifle.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civili...anship_Program
I'm not at all against universal background checks. The way they are implemented is not particularly good.
The Texas guy passed his background checks, despite several things in his past that should have been on some record. But none of what he did was something that could be acted on in a meaningful way.
Mass put in a requirement that private sales must include background checks. But they didn't open up the background check system, preferring instead to have all those checks be done by licensed dealers. And since in populated areas there are few licensed dealers, that isn't much more than a financial gift the places like Dicks Sporting Goods.