[marktwain]

If a person cannot be punished for possession of a firearm from which the serial number has been removed, the entire scheme of government control of the ownership if firearms falls apart.

It was always unconstitutional.

[Travis McGee]

[Tupelo]

“It was always unconstitutional.”

True. However we now live in a post constitutional country.
So.....................

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

If the West Virginia decision stands, I’ll be getting my Dremel tool some new bits.

[Coffee... Black... No Sugar]

Click

[Yo-Yo]

We shall see if this ruling:

1) Survives appeal to the Fourth Circuit, and

B) Gets incorporated to the states, some of whom have their own firearm serial number and registration schemes. (I am a Michigander and all of my handguns are registered by State law with the Michigan State Police.)

[Joe Brower]

Ping to the FreeRepublic RKBA interest list. I have resumed this task until FReeper PROCON gets back on his feet.

For articles flagged with the FreeRepublic "banglist" keyword, please click HERE .

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

*** Nelson T. “Pete” Shields of Handgun Control, inc. laid out the plan in 1976:***

Here is the complete statement from Nelson Shields on how they planned to get the handguns, one step at a time! They have since added rifles to their list of “to be banned” items.

Nelson T. ‘Pete’ Shields
Founder of Handgun Control, Inc.(Now the Brady Center)

“I’m convinced that we have to have federal legislation to build on. We’re going to have to take one step at a time, and the first step is necessarily — given the political realities — going to be very modest.

Of course, it’s true that politicians will then go home and say, ‘This is a great law. The problem is solved.’ And it’s also true that such statements will tend to defuse the gun-control issue for a time.

So then we’ll have to strengthen that law, and then again to strengthen that law, and maybe again and again. Right now, though, we’d be satisfied not with half a loaf but with a slice. Our ultimate goal — total control of handguns in the United States — is going to take time.

My estimate is from seven to ten years. The problem is to slow down the increasing number of handguns sold in this country. The second problem is to get them all registered. And the final problem is to make the possession of all handguns and all handgun ammunition — except for the military, policemen, licensed security guards, licensed sporting clubs, and licensed gun collectors — TOTALLY ILLEGAL.”

-Pete Shields, Chairman and founder, Handgun Control Inc., “A Reporter At Large: Handguns,” The New Yorker, July 26, 1976, 57-58

“Yes, I’m for an outright ban [on handguns].”

-Pete Shields, Chairman emeritus, Handgun Control, Inc., 60 Minutes interview

HCI, around 1984, made a grab for the semi-auto rifles and shotguns, and missed. Then Josh Sugarmann tuned in. This has been the mantra ever since.
“ Assault weapons’ menacing looks, coupled with the public’s confusion over fully-automatic machine guns versus semi-automatic assault weapons —anything that looks like a machine gun is assumed to be a machine gun— can only increase the chance of public support for restrictions on these weapons.”

– Josh Sugarmann

[sauropod]

Yep.