Posted on 09/17/2016 3:10:25 PM PDT by PROCON
States are seen as the laboratories for democracy. They can be places to cite great public policy successes and highlight the many horrible failures. As more Democratic states adopt more anti-gun policies, there are fears that the groundwork for confiscation is being set. Of all places, you would think that California, or New York, would be the place that Second Amendment rights advocates fear would be the test area for such policies. Nope. Its actually Hawaii. The Aloha State is the first in the country that requires its gun-owning residents to enter a federal database (via NRA Hunters):
Hawaiis new law requires current and future gun owners to register in the FBIs Rap Back system. The FBI calls it their Next Generation Identification Program, which is currently used to track the actions of people who are part of ongoing criminal investigations. If someone enrolled in the database has contact with law enforcement, an alert is issued through the FBI. Now the program will be used to track the actions of all law-abiding gun owners in Hawaiiand not just residents. SB 2954 requires law enforcement to request a Rap Back on anyone requesting a firearm license or registering a firearm. Translation: Hunters who intend to visit Hawaii to hunt will find themselves enrolled in an FBI database meant for criminals.Two other additions to the states gun control legislation are found in House Bill 2629. One prohibits anyone convicted of certain stalking offenses from owning firearms. The other requires law-abiding gun owners who have been diagnosed with a significant behavioral, emotional or mental disorder, or due to emergency or involuntary admission to a psychiatric facility to surrender their firearms and ammunition. If they do not comply, their local police chief can seize the guns and ammo.
(Excerpt) Read more at bearingarms.com ...
Um, no thank you.
That is why no one protests in Hawaii about second amendment rights, no matter how loudly you may scream about it.
I didn't SCREAM or SHOUT about anything in my response.
My objection was to the "so there is no pressing need to own a handgun" fallacy.
If there's a single potentially violent criminal in the entire state of Hawaii (and there are many), that is certainly a pressing enough need.
After all, Thomas Magnum, P.I. needed his trusty Colt Government .45 several times during his sojourn in the state. ;-)
If (God forbid) you were suddenly assaulted by a violent attacker one night when your husband wasn't home, you might quickly reconsider what constitutes a "pressing need".
And the fact that "no one protests in Hawaii about Second Amendment rights" is doubtless a primary reason that any American who decides to own a gun in that state is now going to end up on a government watch list.
I'm not trying to be strident, but I maintain that it's important to protect Unalienable Rights even when one chooses not to exercise them, because when that doesn't happen, the State starts to treat such rights as if they are merely privileges.
Vote Trump!
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