Jacksonville shooting

Yes, guns are designed primarily to kill people, unlike cars. And yet, we treat cars as more of a state interests than devices specifically designed to kill people. I view a device designed specifically to kill other people as being a more compelling state interest than a device to move you from point a to point b (which tyrannical governments do often restrict).

Much like cars, you should also have to affirmatively prove your fitness for the ownership and operation of guns, not just lose the right after you kill a ton of people. With so many of these killings, the barest of scrutiny would have discovered a highly dangerous individual who should not be walking around with devices designed to efficiently kill people.

 

Sounds like he played stupid games and won stupid prizes

 

I would argue it actually holds more. What do you plan to do should that imposition of tyranny occur? Just roll over? It can originate anywhere on the political spectrum

Not really. Registries around the time of the revolution existed to ensure that every able bodied (white) male owned a sufficiently capable rifle as the purchase of certain equipment was mandatory and everyone was part of the unorganized militia and charged with taking part in defense of their settlement should lawlessness or invasion by foreign or domestic enemies occur. I don't, however, believe you're suggesting everyone of draft age be mandated to buy an M4 carbine and a few hundred rounds of ammo, are you?

There also is not an amendment that says "A well-regulated transportation system, being necessary for the mobility of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear (cars, horses, carriages, etc), shall not be infringed." Nor is interest balancing a thing when it comes to the 2nd amendment in a post-Bruen world. Anyone who has driven around central FL and had to pay its insurance premiums can also tell you that auto registration requirements doesn't exactly do a great job at making sure all of the cars on the road are registered or even that the people driving them are licensed.

The problem you run into is that the the part that makes guns so tremendously important in the context of the 2nd amendment is the same thing that makes them terrible in the wrong hands. That amendment is not about hunting or sport shooting, it is about using weapons, or at least the non-empty threat of using weapons, against other human beings. The writers of the constitution and the bill of rights viscerally understood this point, as uncomfortable as it is. While we value and want to preserve life, in a world full of imperfect and sometimes evil people, it is not always possible in every situation, and we are not always able to know who the evil people are before they actually do something evil.

In this case, it sounds like the shooter was clearly off his rocker, but as he had never committed any crimes, had been evaluated but found not meeting the necessary standard for involuntary commitment requiring an adjudication of mental incompetency, and met no other prohibited person criteria (i.e. no restraining orders, not an illegal alien, not a drug user, etc). What exactly would you have the government do? At that point we have to rely on people closest to the situation to engage the authorities when there is a credible threat. Sometimes these types of people are good at masking their intentions, and in others, loved ones are unwilling to report because of human biases and/or a desire to protect a loved one from the known consequences of reporting that will impact them for the rest of their lives.

 

Desantis’ BS is partly to blame imo also.

 

Exactly Desantis’ BS.

 

In general, I agree with everything said, but when you have an obviously mentally ill person it gets murky. Too many of mentally ill folks hold onto a concept like a superball ricocheting around a box car. The thought can’t get out and becomes and obsession. Absolutely rhetoric affects them differently.
Now there are a whole bunch of folks who share his views that would never act on them. Doesn’t make them good people, just the low bar of not murderers.
I would ban anyone ever bakeracted from ownership. It would mostly effect suicides, but the links are there.
Of course I also think national background checks and age limits are a no brainer. Ammo thru the mail? I don’t know how you would have real background checks against mental illness, the scale is just too big.

Random thoughts, ymmv

 

Jacksonville shooting: DeSantis booed at vigil for victims of racist attack

 

Boo'd and heckled. . . . what he deserves.