Posted on 12/17/2015 7:04:17 AM PST by marktwain
For a number of years, there has been an attempt to require people who exercise their Second Amendment rights to report to the government if any of their firearms are stolen. While this may seem innocuous to the naive, it serves much deeper disarmist purposes. The obvious purpose of this law is to make the exercise of Second Amendment rights more legally dangerous, in stark opposition to ownership of other common items, such as gasoline, vehicles, or common poisons. It singles out the exercise of a single Constitutional right for increased scrutiny, and it creates a reason for the state to have a registration list of all guns, so that it can determine when someone has violated this law.
The idea, of course is to push the meme that ownership of guns should be tightly regulated by the state; and that complete legal control of gun ownership is desirable.
Indiana passed a strict gun preemption law in 2011. It is unlikely that this ordinance will pass legal muster. From indystar.com:
Shrugging off looming legal concerns, the City-County Council on Monday approved an ordinance requiring gun owners to report lost or stolen firearms to the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department or pay a fine.Those opposing the ordinance had some of their arguments succinctly stated before the ordinance was passed. From wibc.com:
The proposal was sponsored by Democratic Councilman Kip Tew and passed 15-14, along party lines. But it appeared unlikely that it would take effect, with concerns out of the mayor's office pointing toward a likely veto.
Relford says the proposed ordinance has three inherent problems: 1) It targets the victims of a crime by fining them for being robbed. 2) It is completely unenforceable, since there is no gun federal or state mandated registration, which would make it nearly impossible to prove individual gun ownership. And 3) It violates state statute, and opens the city up to nearly unlimited potential lawsuits.I suspect that the law will be vetoed. It accomplishes nothing, at the moment, except to push the idea that it is in some weird way sensible. The only way that it is "sensible" is if you accept the idea that the state should have absolute control over all guns and all gun sales.
Consider that it punishes the victim.
Where is jurisdiction for the offense? What if you live in Marion County Indiana (Indianapolis) but the gun is lost or stolen outside of Marion County? Perhaps in a tragic boating accident?
The Democrat-controlled City Council passing a patently ILLEGAL law that is essentially defacto registration.
It should be noted that the FIRST act of this council after the new Dem Mayor was elected, was to vote THEMSELVES a 44% pay increase.
Now they are talking about a City-County Gasoline Tax of “Just 5 cents!”. (How’s that working out in Chicago these days?)
The city council ought to be concerned with the murder rate in Indy, almost all committed by the urban thugs.
If you own more than a dozen guns (let alone hundreds), how in the heck would you even know if one was lost or stolen or missing within 24 or 48 hours of it’s loss? I’ve had some disappear for a few years, without even realizing it until I suddenly discovered them in the “camping gear” closet, or once even under a guest bed.
Indianapolis is a liberal hole these days. I’ll go to jail before I report anything to them... they can suck it.
"Section 32. The people shall have a right to bear arms, for the defense of themselves and the State."
I say put out a rumor in the Amish community that the City Council will be holding a meeting about how a very large drug seizure should be dispensed with and that it will be in the council chambers and just let nature run its course...: )
A friend of mine tried to purchase a firearm years ago in the state of California. He hadn’t realized the week he did in a Florida lock up as a teenager was a felony conviction preventing him from owning a firearm. After being denied his purchase, a special unit in CA showed at his door asking if he had any other firearms. He did and he handed it over. This happens often in CA. The special unit shows and confiscates your weapons if you are a felon, exconvict, restraining order victim, or in any other way not qualified to own a weapon. It is not commonly known that the unit exists or that it roams the state seizing weapons. Illegal purchase attempts and possessions are have never been prosecuted to my knowledge.
I had a gun (publicly purchased at Gander Mountain) stolen from my locked car. I wanted to report it stolen immediately. I wanted to make sure that if it was found at the scene of some crime and it got traced back to me that there would be a police report to confirm that it had been stolen.
“The special unit shows and confiscates your weapons if you are a felon, exconvict, restraining order victim, or in any other way not qualified to own a weapon.”
It is incremental confiscation. Keep increasing the categories of people not allowed to own guns.
Keep increasing the categories of guns not allowed to be owned.
Keep confiscating those so deemed.
How do these people explain that this will be useful in solving crimes? Criminals often remove serial numbers from stolen guns.
If I have a stolen gun that is stolen, would I be required to report that too?
I can appreciate that there are some challenges when owning a large number of firearms...but losing track of any of them in such a fashion is not safe or reasonable.
Not attacking...just stating my personal opinion.
Most people want to report stolen guns.
That is not the issue. The issue is being forced to report stolen or lost guns to the police under threat of law.
It is a non-problem. The forced reporting is the problem, for the reasons given in the article.
Let us stipulate I was a complete idiot and willingly lived in New York.
Let us further stipulate my guns were stolen.
Let us stipulate also, that I did not notice them gone. Perhaps I do not check up on them for years at a time.
So, in keeping with our current police-state climate, would I be severly penalized for being wholly unaware I had been robbed?
It is breathtaking how quickly we have become the Soviet Union.
“I can appreciate that there are some challenges when owning a large number of firearms...but losing track of any of them in such a fashion is not safe or reasonable.”
Do you believe the same for chain saws, cans of gasoline, and prescription drugs?
“It is breathtaking how quickly we have become the Soviet Union.”
Yes. The model for this sort of mentality is:
Everything that is not mandatory is forbidden!
From the town that gave us Andre Carson.
First off, I'm am against this ordinance and I live in Indianapolis. But the three reasons given in the article as being put forth at the hearings were pretty unpersuasive and misleading. My problem with this is that it's clear that virtually all proposed anti-gun legislation is intended to be just an incremental step toward confiscation. The libs have admitted as much. We already have over 30,000 "common sense" gun laws in this country and we just need to enforce those.
or propane tanks, crock pots, pressure cookers, pipes,...
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.