This weekend’s mass shootings come as the country mourns the victims of its deadliest mass shooting this year. Days earlier, 18 people were killed in a shooting in Lewiston, Maine.

  • sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works
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    1 year ago

    DC vs Heller

    Yeah, DC vs Heller was essentially a blanket ban on handguns. I’m a little surprised that they also struck down the requirement that rifles and shotguns need to be stored unloaded or trigger locked, but perhaps that’s because it was combined with the prohibition on handguns.

    And we don’t have universal background checks yet, because organizations of gun owners and gun manufacturers fight tooth and nail to keep gaping loopholes open

    That link really doesn’t have much information, all it says is that there are problems with it (the only specific thing it mentions is adding in juvenile records). I hear this a lot, but I have yet to see a list of actual problems.

    The one issue I’m aware of is that private sales don’t have to go through background checks, and I think that could be a legal requirement consistent with the court’s statements on the 2A. So if you want to sell a gun, you need a gun retailer (or potentially a police officer) present to check whether the buyer can legally buy it before the transfer can proceed.

    I’m not a fan of a gun registry, or at least not one that gov’t employees can easily search, mostly on the grounds that it could lead police to treat suspects differently if they can confirm that they own guns. However, if it requires a search warrant, it could be effective and preserve privacy. The only valid search here IMO is to confirm whether person X owns gun Y, which is necessary for processing sales (i.e. can the owner actually sell the gun?).

    each gun transfer through a licensed arms dealer be approved only after the police are satisfied of a genuine reason for ownership

    This part certainly wouldn’t fly here in the US, but a lot of the rest might.