Weston, CT is going for a massive gun registration regime which would do nothing to stop the next mass killer, but would make law-abiding gun owners less safe from irresponsible journalists and whatever you’d call the creeps that work at Gawker.
An ordinance before the Weston Board of Selectmen seeks to ban any assault or automatic weapon, as well as high-capacity magazines, and would also require that any firearm be kept in a locked box. Weston residents also will have to register any firearm with the police chief, including rifles, shotguns, pistols and revolvers.
“This is not an effort to cause concern for lawful gun owners,” Selectman Dennis Tracey told FoxNews.com. “There’s been significant support for our efforts to re-look at our ordinance, which is over 20 years old and provides insufficient safety measures for our community.”
Under the proposal presented last week, the town would have regulated not just firearms, but other weapons including “long bows, cross bows, slingshots, or other implements that impel with force a projectile if [sic] any kind.”
Presumably including your bare arm, because you can throw stuff, and those Nerf toys that can shoot foam darts. They do make one that could be considered an assault toy. It’s fully automatic too.
They eventually realized that they would have to register an awful lot of things that are not guns, and some things like airsoft guns that are guns but can’t really hurt anyone, and revised the statute. But what’s still on the table is ludicrous. It learns nothing from the antics of the so-called journalists who have turned registration and FOIA against law-abiding citizens, and does not take the natural right to use force in defense of yourself and your family and property into account.
It’s fine to take a look at ideas that might legitimately help stop mass killers, but we’re well into full blown panic, “red scare” mode now. Many responsible gun owners already do keep their hand guns in a safe, but how would police enforce a law requiring it? Would enforcing that law really be a wise use of stretched and finite law enforcement resources? Could you enforce it without creating a police state?
Weston’s selectmen who support this ordinance say they want their law to become the model for the nation. Sane people should hope it fails and goes away quickly. If passed it will only breed distrust of government and, if pushed too far, the word Charles Krauthammer used recently — insurrection.
Oh, Connecticut won’t rebel. They’re good little subjects.
Anonymous.
I wouldn’t be so sure. As the British discovered to their sorrow, even compliant subjects eventually realize when enough is enough.
I doubt the Weston CT police would be thrilled about passage of this idiotic ordinance: they know that their fellow citizens know who they are, what they do, and where they live. Get my drift?
First mouse: “Hey, I’ve got a great idea. Let’s put a bell on the cat so we’ll know when he’s around!”
Second mouse: “Yeah, that’s a great idea!”
Third mouse: “Hey Einstein, one little problem. WHO is going to put the bell on the cat?”
If passed it will only breed distrust of government
You mean distrust of the government.
I fear we’ve reached the point of lunacy on this gun control situation.
Using both hands seems to be control enough for most people.
I hope it passes. I hope these people have to live with the result. I cannot wait to hear of the police abuses. I cannot wait to hear of someone dying, because he could not reach his gun in time, because it was locked away. I cannot wait to see the crime stats go up, there. I think the local news for that town should be monitored carefully and broadcast widely. Make an example of them. They want to be a model of gun control? I hope they get their wish!
Just one word—-Chicago!
Didn’t Heller deal with the lock box requirement? A firearm locked up is not available for self defense. Or was it just because DC didn’t allow a person to remove the weapon from the lock box?
I’m afraid the only model this town will become is a model of lunacy and oppression.
When seconds count, a gun in a lock box is only minutes away. So are the police. It seems that they are going for the British model of complete reliance on the police. Not only doesn’t that work, but it is settled law in this country that the police have no duty to protect.