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Tuesday, January 1, 2013
Many people are in mourning after the senseless slaughter of young, innocent children in Connecticut.
Here is a solution to reduce gun ownership that every state should implement: tax every gun a person owns. Guns would have to be re-registered each year and an amount assigned for each model or size (for example, $25 for handguns; $50 for larger guns).
And no one individual should be allowed to store more than a specified amount of ammunition. Whoever breaks the law would be fined $5,000.
There are taxes on homes, cars, gasoline, cigarettes, etc. Why not on guns?
Maybe if such a law was enacted, there might be peace on Earth.
Rolande Caron, South Paris
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Ms. Caron, You are
Barking up the wrong tree!! Most of these people that created these heinous crimes, were or have been on some psychiatric medications. That is the true common denominator, not the confiscation or over taxing of our God given Rights.
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Would you like to respond? Login or create a new account. You'll need to verify your account before you can respond.Many suggestions have included Armed Police in Schools
So what's the cost of adding one armed Police Officer to every School in the U.S?
The Orange County, CA Sheriff’s Department budgets $13,968 per month including benefits. Lansing, MI about $100,000 per year. Down south and in Maine a bit cheaper. But we must consider salary, medical benefits, pension, liability insurance, etc, etc...
Let's assume $75,000 per year.
How many Public Schools in the U.S? 98,706 http://www.edreform.com/2012/04/k-12-facts/.
Annual cost: $7,402,950,000.
Privately Owned Firearms in the U.S.: 270,000,000 http://www.gunpolicy.org/firearms/region/united-states.
Yearly Cost per Firearm: $27.42.
Let Firearm Owners pay........... Tax would probably be higher with the cost of administering this program and the number of Gun-Owners who would fail to claim their actual number of guns.
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Would you like to respond? Login or create a new account. You'll need to verify your account before you can respond.And these taxes are going to
And these taxes are going to save how many lives?
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Would you like to respond? Login or create a new account. You'll need to verify your account before you can respond.Already are taxed
Pittman-Robertson Federal excise tax funds a very successful program of wildlife restoration. The National Firearms Act taxes machine guns and some other weapons at $200 a piece. So the issue is not to tax or not tax.
A yearly re-registration assumes that guns are now registered; they aren't.
To register the almost 300 million guns in private hands would cost something close to the Defense budget each year and accomplish nothing if the Canadian example applies to us because the registration information was found to be wrong 70% of the time.
Confiscation would be even more impractical. The last folks that tried it here lost. You know the British. We would have years of anarchy if such a proposal was seriously entertained.
Including semi-automatic weapons under the National Firearms Act while offerring a market-priced buyback program for semi-automatic weapons has much more of a chance in becoming law; would be very effective in minimizing the damage done in mass shootings, and does not threaten the Second Amendment Rights of Americans (the NFA is already law and has been upheld by the Supreme Court.)
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Would you like to respond? Login or create a new account. You'll need to verify your account before you can respond.Oh yes, this is a great solution...
...another tax. What a great idea...NOT!
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Would you like to respond? Login or create a new account. You'll need to verify your account before you can respond.Gotta pay for that
'Well Regulated Militia' somehow.......
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Would you like to respond? Login or create a new account. You'll need to verify your account before you can respond.How do you presume
How do you presume authorities deal with the large quantities of guns currently on the streets?
How do you force people to register what authorities cannot and do not currently track?
Moreover, how do you track private sales of unregistered firearms?
I don’t think your solution is a viable one.
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Would you like to respond? Login or create a new account. You'll need to verify your account before you can respond.Failure to pay the tax a Felony - with a grace/turn-in period.
Many people have guns who really no longer wish to have them. This would be a good opportunity to rid themselves of them through a 'Turn-in' program.
Owning a Firearm is a Constitutional Right. It is also a responsibility; if one is unwilling or unable to accept the responsibilities concomitant with a right - then that right may be forfeit.
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Would you like to respond? Login or create a new account. You'll need to verify your account before you can respond.What an Einstein – NOT.
American has one, if not, the highest incarceration rates per capita in the world. With this line of thinking is it any wonder. Let’s fill your jail with drug users and firearm owners who don’t pay their gun tax.
Moreover, this would be a regressive tax for the poor and run counter to your tax policies would it not?
Lastly, of one no longer wants their firearm, this is the is a great time to sell it for profit due to the high demand. Capitalism at work.
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Would you like to respond? Login or create a new account. You'll need to verify your account before you can respond.Responsibility no longer sounds so good......
"CINL" - Conservative in Name Only
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Would you like to respond? Login or create a new account. You'll need to verify your account before you can respond.Firstly, you cannot legislate
Firstly, you cannot legislate responsibility. Your recommendation is just moving us closer to tyranny. Responsibility comes from within, not from legislation.
Secondly, given all the gun owners in the US, only a small percentage of those owners are irresponsible. Compare gun ownership to cars and you’ll find that more people are irresponsible with the way the drive their car then you’ll find people who are irresponsible gun owners.
Lastly, I’ll repeat myself again by saying that people, including you in my opinion, are thinking about gun control emotionally, not logically. Life is all about risks, and you are wasting resources by ignoring activities or events that take more lives than a few whack jobs.
I guess one last topic for which I will repeat yet again. I’m not a conservative, a concept you fail to get over since you keep relating me with either a republican or a conservative. Expand your mind.
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Would you like to respond? Login or create a new account. You'll need to verify your account before you can respond.You have as many - if not more
Excuses as anyone I ever pulled over for a traffic violation.
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Would you like to respond? Login or create a new account. You'll need to verify your account before you can respond.An excuse can only stem from
An excuse can only stem from an explanation of a cause/effect relationship, such as why were you exceeding the speed limit.
What I made were statements of fact as I see them. That said, instead of painting with your broad nonsensical brush; why not state what you don’t agree with.
1. Can you or can you not legislate responsibility?
2. Do a majority of gun owners act responsibly or do they not?
3. I’m a registered libertarian. Is a libertarian a conservative or a republican – yes/no.
Let’s deal with the facts grandpa.
America's Mr. Right (meaning correct, not political right).
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Would you like to respond? Login or create a new account. You'll need to verify your account before you can respond.Well...
"How do you force people to register what authorities cannot and do not currently track?"
They do. Dealers, if I have read right, are required to keep track of purchases in their "bound book".
Just make all dealers turn them over to ATF.
And the way to get gun owners to register their guns? If you register your weapons and report their theft promptly to the police, you are indemnified if they are used in the commission of a crime. If you do not, you are an accessory.
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Would you like to respond? Login or create a new account. You'll need to verify your account before you can respond.Dealers in my state are only
Dealers in my state are only required to keep records for three months after purchase. Records being the form a potential purchaser fills out to execute a background check.
Moreover, private sales are not tracked whatsoever.
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Would you like to respond? Login or create a new account. You'll need to verify your account before you can respond.Just looked it up
I just looked it up.
It's form 4473, and by law, dealers are required to keep it for 20 years, and surrender it to the ATF if they surrender or lose their license.
Your right on private sales, but they should be, and that's why you implement the indemnification plan.
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Would you like to respond? Login or create a new account. You'll need to verify your account before you can respond.Woops
Meant to post a link for a description of 4473:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Form_4473
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Would you like to respond? Login or create a new account. You'll need to verify your account before you can respond.Link for the actual Form 4473
Firearms Transaction Record Part I - Over the Counter
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