First, let me say that I live about 7 miles from where the church shooting occurred yesterday; I'm not trying to make light of the situation, and I pray for all those involved, including the suspect.
The point of this thread is to address the various gun registration laws that are in effect, and those that are being considered. According to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the suspect in this case was in violation of Illinois state law by not possessing a Firearms Owner ID (FOID) (http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/ne...EB1CA304D8EA6198625757400146485?OpenDocument).
A recent piece of legislation was a topic of discussion on this board, regarding a proposed law to register all guns (also introduced in Illinois).
If anything, this is further evidence that such laws do not work. Requiring a FOID did not stop this individual from acquiring weapons. Yet, I foresee that within a week, we'll have new introductions at both state and federal levels for stricter gun registration.
How do we get this concept across? Making the ownership of a gun harder is not fixing the problem; we have to re-focus on the repercussions of using a gun.
But let us not forget that our society is following the "spanking is bad" principle; we have an aversion to punishing someone for their crime.
What do y'all think?
The point of this thread is to address the various gun registration laws that are in effect, and those that are being considered. According to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the suspect in this case was in violation of Illinois state law by not possessing a Firearms Owner ID (FOID) (http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/ne...EB1CA304D8EA6198625757400146485?OpenDocument).
A recent piece of legislation was a topic of discussion on this board, regarding a proposed law to register all guns (also introduced in Illinois).
If anything, this is further evidence that such laws do not work. Requiring a FOID did not stop this individual from acquiring weapons. Yet, I foresee that within a week, we'll have new introductions at both state and federal levels for stricter gun registration.
How do we get this concept across? Making the ownership of a gun harder is not fixing the problem; we have to re-focus on the repercussions of using a gun.
But let us not forget that our society is following the "spanking is bad" principle; we have an aversion to punishing someone for their crime.
What do y'all think?