Gun Laws
I am sometimes amazed by the vast amount of people that completely, totally, and thoroughly do not understand gun laws. I don’t expect everyone to have a minute knowledge of every section of the law that relates to firearms. There’s a lot of laws, both federal and state, and few people are motivated to keep up with the changes in all of them. Having said that, there are two cases in which you should familiarize yourself with gun laws. The first is if you own or plan on owning guns. It’s always good to keep abreast of what laws will affect you. Most firearms laws, especially on the federal level, carry the possibility of some serious jail time. It would suck to go to jail by accident, I think. The second is if you’re going to bloviate about gun laws and what changes in gun laws are necessary. You should probably have some understanding of what those laws are before you go flapping your gums.
A handy reference for gun laws is, not surprisingly, provided by the ATF. (Incidentally, I note the ATF is now in charge of Explosives as well.) They publish a guide to state laws every so often that can be downloaded here. This is pretty much the canonical reference work, aside from digging through the statutes on your own. They also publish a guide to federal laws and regulations here. They even publish a quick reference guide to the federal stuff found here.
Of course, people have so many misconceptions about guns in general that it’s almost not worth discussing the issue. I can’t even think about how many times I’ve had the discussion about assault weapons vs. automatic weapons vs. semi-automatic with clueless gits. Of course, I'm pretty rabid on the subject. I seriously considered a number of years ago getting a FFL. Of course, I mainly wanted it to be able to play with interesting things without going to jail. The possibilty of making money with it was a distant second consideration.
Anyhow, knowledge is power, or in this case, a preventative measure. Plus, it really annoys people arguing for gun control when you can make it clear to them that they don't know what they're talking about.
A handy reference for gun laws is, not surprisingly, provided by the ATF. (Incidentally, I note the ATF is now in charge of Explosives as well.) They publish a guide to state laws every so often that can be downloaded here. This is pretty much the canonical reference work, aside from digging through the statutes on your own. They also publish a guide to federal laws and regulations here. They even publish a quick reference guide to the federal stuff found here.
Of course, people have so many misconceptions about guns in general that it’s almost not worth discussing the issue. I can’t even think about how many times I’ve had the discussion about assault weapons vs. automatic weapons vs. semi-automatic with clueless gits. Of course, I'm pretty rabid on the subject. I seriously considered a number of years ago getting a FFL. Of course, I mainly wanted it to be able to play with interesting things without going to jail. The possibilty of making money with it was a distant second consideration.
Anyhow, knowledge is power, or in this case, a preventative measure. Plus, it really annoys people arguing for gun control when you can make it clear to them that they don't know what they're talking about.
posted by T at 1:46 PM
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