Hey Rick,
> The first family to settle Schenectady had a lot more land than I do.
> Is that fair? The guy who built his farm stand in a neighbourhood
> that gradually became hideously wealthy gets to keep his crappy
> looking plywood farm stand next to the mansions because he was
> grandfathered in the zoning laws. Is that fair?
Nothing is stopping you from becoming as hideously rich as them except
your own ambition and the limitations of capitalism. The government,
theoretically, isn't holding you down, nor is the first family or the
farmer.
Not holding me down, but that initial homestead grant isn't available
to me as it was to them. I felt it was as accurate an analogy to
'Grandpa could own a pistol but not me' as I could come up with.
> I stubbornly maintain that what the gun control people _want_ is not
> what they _got_ and is probably not what they're _going_ to get. Yes,
> yes I completely agree that they _want_ to ban guns of all kinds, but
> they won't get that.
in the short term, their goal is to incrementally increase gun control
laws that everyone knows won't do squat, and them complain that it's
because we're not doing enough. It's the ratchet effect.
I agree. This is how laws work everywhere. Don't forget that the NRA
is a very powerful counter-force in this area though.
> I'm saying that 'only criminals will have guns' is
> a highly successful marketing campaign
> and not reality.
wouldn't your grandfather clause insure
that only criminals and gun nuts have them?
Handguns, yes. Shotguns and rifles, no.
I agree that there's no good answer. The millions of pistols are out
there and they're not easily coming back. So a ban is pretty much
useless until the existing pool of pistols rust away.
On the other hand, criminal pistol users dramatically outnumber lawful
pistol users. I think that argues for some sort of action.
On the other, other hand, the 2nd amendment doesn't let us strip
citizens of arms.
There's no simple answer, but I can tell you that this armed society
is not particularly polite.
--buck
