(10-03-2017, 08:26 AM)Frailbones Wrote:

(10-02-2017, 03:39 PM)americus 2.0 Wrote: In NC it is not easy peasy to buy a gun of any kind. You go to a gun show and you will sit there and wait for them to do a background check on you. And since you're not the only one there to buy a gun, you'll be there for a while. After there were many robberies in our area several years ago we went to a local gun/pawn shop to buy a shotgun and had to wait for a background check there as well. Private gun sales are another matter. Unless the seller is super careful and does a background check on the buyer, that is an easier way to get one.

Each state has different laws. It may be easier to get one in FL or NV than in NC.

Wouldn't this be a great place to start?

Why do people even need semi automatic or automatic weapons? Why are they trying to legalize silencers? How come some people on the no fly list can own a gun or people with mental illnesses?

Saying "Welp. He was just a bad guy. Nothing we can do about that." seems really weak in my opinion. I'm not saying to take away anyones guns so calm down but I'm saying that just sitting back and doing nothing doesn't seem to work.

It's up to a private gun owner to decide how they want to handle a transaction.  There's additional cost involved for Joe Q Public to run a federal background check on someone.  In most instances with private sales, the sellers usually ask for documentation showing the buyer is properly permitted.  That is a good indication that someone has had the necessary background checks.  If they don't have it, no sale.  Most gun violence is perpetrated by people who aren't going through legal channels to get a weapon, so you can pile on more regulations that will only punish the law abiding people.  It's not going to fix a damn thing.

Do you even know what a semi-automatic weapon is?  If you do, and you think it's unnecessary for someone to own one, what's your suggestion?  Ball and musket?  Seriously.  All a semi-automatic weapon is is a gun that loads a round into the chamber and discharges the shell afterwards.  Even in a revolver, the gun advances to the next round automatically.  It just doesn't discharge the casing.  There's nothing about a semi-automatic weapon that should be considered unnecessary.  It helps tremendously with self defense.  They are arguably some of the safest and most reliable guns you can purchase from a shooter's perspective.  If I need to discharge my weapon, I don't want to stop, load the gun powder and ball, punch in the wadding, drop in the flint, and then shoot.  I want to lock a bead on my target and fire.  In my case, I'll be doing so with custom trigger pulls that allow me the ability to fire with more speed and precision.  Don't want any stray bullets.

As far as silencers go, they're legal in just about every state.  In some countries outside of the US, they're actually required for firearms.  As someone who goes to ranges quite a bit, I'd love to have a suppressor on my guns because it reduces the need for ear protection, and it actually assists with the improved accuracy.  It also makes it much easier to hear what's going on around you in an active situation.  Anyone who has fired a gun without ear protection is well aware of the way it impacts your hearing immediately afterward.  That's reduced significantly with a silencer.

Short of banning all guns, all you can do is say that this guy flew under the radar with background checks and didn't seek any help with mental health issues that would have put up big flags preventing him from purchasing weapons.  The guy was supposedly an avid hunter who had a pretty robust cache of weapons.  That's not unusual.  Neither is having thousands of rounds of ammunition.  I buy it any time I see it on sale somewhere, especially range ammo.  I've probably got close to 3-4,000 rounds stored right now.  A good day at the range will burn through a quarter of that, especially if I bring my wife, daughter, and her boyfriend along.

Sometimes crazy people do bad things.  If we ban every possible method of doing harm to others, you couldn't drive, cut a steak, drive a nail, or do anything that might be able to used to injure others.  If someone has a will to do harm, they'll find a way.  If no gun is available, they move on to knives, pressure cookers, fertilizer, rope, or a UHaul rental.  What else do you want to regulate?

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