Take note that I posted the article and while I agree with most of the tone and substance, the specific words weren't mine.
I think private background checks carried out by businesses are a choice made by the business (or they should be). If a private individual or business wants to find out about you, they can use the existing tools available. I may not like it, but that's their right to set those bars for choosing employees (or customers). There's a common misconception (which I'm not saying you're making) that people make in regards to things like the first amendment and free speech. A company that requires a background check prior to employment or to selling you a gun is not infringing on your rights. You can always choose either not to seek employment there or to do your business elsewhere. You have a choice. Therefore it's not (technically) an infringement on Liberty.
But lawmakers in the wake of Sandy Hook and Aurora are writing bills that if made into law would change that. I feel they are crossing the line. I feel that the current crop of gun bills violate the 2nd amendment. And I'm no longer as confident of the Supreme Court's wisdom on the constitutionality of laws these days. The court is too evenly split and could go either way. They should rule against these laws when they are challenged. I don't know for sure that the court will make the right decision though.
I do not like the idea of a central database on gun owners held by the federal government. That's "the slippery slope" and frankly it's already begun. And they are trying to control and track private ownership of guns even sold privately between individuals. That's the hard line I personally draw. "This far and NO FARTHER." What if a gun is passed down from father to son? What if you let someone borrow a gun and they have to use it to protect themselves? The way that some of these bills are written would have you go to jail for doing that even if no lives were lost! And much of these laws and regulations are un-enforceable in any case. It's stupid.
Going off on a bit of a tangent here -
Making cigarettes illegal or prohibitively expensive via taxation has created a thriving underground market for them in places like NY. Prohibition made alcohol illegal. What did that do? Made organized crime into the power that it was. The Mafia owed it's ascendancy to prohibition. What's the drug war done? Given power to the drug cartels in Mexico. Look at what happened there. Look at what's happened to us. There's no upside. Make guns illegal? Same thing. People will start trading and selling them illegally without reporting them. It already happens to some extent, but normally law-abiding people will start doing so.
I guarantee you - the minute that those same Mexican drug cartels figure out that they can run GUNS across that border and make a profit? You think things are ugly on the border already? That's going to be full-scale war.
And you just know some official pencil pusher somewhere is going to make the mistake of sending out a SWAT team to the wrong place one way or another. At some point, either they're going to run into resistance that gets many of them killed, or worse, they force entry into the wrong house by mistake and take innocent lives. (That last example has already taken place multiple times in the last few years. The militarization of the police should worry more people. But it hasn't been reported on enough.)
I'm pretty much in agreement with you on the Mental Health angle in general terms.
I think private background checks carried out by businesses are a choice made by the business (or they should be). If a private individual or business wants to find out about you, they can use the existing tools available. I may not like it, but that's their right to set those bars for choosing employees (or customers). There's a common misconception (which I'm not saying you're making) that people make in regards to things like the first amendment and free speech. A company that requires a background check prior to employment or to selling you a gun is not infringing on your rights. You can always choose either not to seek employment there or to do your business elsewhere. You have a choice. Therefore it's not (technically) an infringement on Liberty.
But lawmakers in the wake of Sandy Hook and Aurora are writing bills that if made into law would change that. I feel they are crossing the line. I feel that the current crop of gun bills violate the 2nd amendment. And I'm no longer as confident of the Supreme Court's wisdom on the constitutionality of laws these days. The court is too evenly split and could go either way. They should rule against these laws when they are challenged. I don't know for sure that the court will make the right decision though.
I do not like the idea of a central database on gun owners held by the federal government. That's "the slippery slope" and frankly it's already begun. And they are trying to control and track private ownership of guns even sold privately between individuals. That's the hard line I personally draw. "This far and NO FARTHER." What if a gun is passed down from father to son? What if you let someone borrow a gun and they have to use it to protect themselves? The way that some of these bills are written would have you go to jail for doing that even if no lives were lost! And much of these laws and regulations are un-enforceable in any case. It's stupid.
Going off on a bit of a tangent here -
Making cigarettes illegal or prohibitively expensive via taxation has created a thriving underground market for them in places like NY. Prohibition made alcohol illegal. What did that do? Made organized crime into the power that it was. The Mafia owed it's ascendancy to prohibition. What's the drug war done? Given power to the drug cartels in Mexico. Look at what happened there. Look at what's happened to us. There's no upside. Make guns illegal? Same thing. People will start trading and selling them illegally without reporting them. It already happens to some extent, but normally law-abiding people will start doing so.
I guarantee you - the minute that those same Mexican drug cartels figure out that they can run GUNS across that border and make a profit? You think things are ugly on the border already? That's going to be full-scale war.
And you just know some official pencil pusher somewhere is going to make the mistake of sending out a SWAT team to the wrong place one way or another. At some point, either they're going to run into resistance that gets many of them killed, or worse, they force entry into the wrong house by mistake and take innocent lives. (That last example has already taken place multiple times in the last few years. The militarization of the police should worry more people. But it hasn't been reported on enough.)
I'm pretty much in agreement with you on the Mental Health angle in general terms.