Congress also has the right to levy taxes, and the like...
Nice rifle you have there.... now then, to do anything with that that involves taking it outside your home, here's the tax required. Oh, and insurance just in case you do have to shoot someone.... to pay for medical bills, funeral bills and legal costs. And if you don't have the right paperwork... it hurts. Insurance is a nice kicker, because honest enthusiasts with approved training and secure storage will pay lower rates. Like car insurance really.
The same principals apply to another potentially lethal weapon parked in everyone's drive. Here, they seize your car if you're caught in a public place and your paperwork is out of date, then fine you. Taxes can drive behaviour far better than forbidding something outright. Forbidding something makes it desireable. While things that are merely taxed are still attainable, just out of reach by way of cost.
And quite frankly.... what about everyone elses right not to be shot while peacefully going about their daily business? Or for that matter, shot by a paranoid trigger happy police force. Our firearms laws are anally retentive and outdated - for obvious reasons, they were written when the state was subject to an armed insurgency - but it also means I'm not going to be shot by a cop making a mistake. Our police, with the exception of one major unit, are pretty much entirely unnarmed.
Finally. The good thing about constitutions? They can be changed.
________________________________
--m(^0^)m-- Wot, no sig?
Nice rifle you have there.... now then, to do anything with that that involves taking it outside your home, here's the tax required. Oh, and insurance just in case you do have to shoot someone.... to pay for medical bills, funeral bills and legal costs. And if you don't have the right paperwork... it hurts. Insurance is a nice kicker, because honest enthusiasts with approved training and secure storage will pay lower rates. Like car insurance really.
The same principals apply to another potentially lethal weapon parked in everyone's drive. Here, they seize your car if you're caught in a public place and your paperwork is out of date, then fine you. Taxes can drive behaviour far better than forbidding something outright. Forbidding something makes it desireable. While things that are merely taxed are still attainable, just out of reach by way of cost.
And quite frankly.... what about everyone elses right not to be shot while peacefully going about their daily business? Or for that matter, shot by a paranoid trigger happy police force. Our firearms laws are anally retentive and outdated - for obvious reasons, they were written when the state was subject to an armed insurgency - but it also means I'm not going to be shot by a cop making a mistake. Our police, with the exception of one major unit, are pretty much entirely unnarmed.
Finally. The good thing about constitutions? They can be changed.
________________________________
--m(^0^)m-- Wot, no sig?