While I am not a rabid gun control advocate, I do have my reservations about the ease of firearm attainment in this country. Perhaps that is why my jaw hit the floor when I read this story on CNN: Baby 'Bubba' gets a gun permit. Let me sum this up for you: While Illinois does require residents to obtain a firearm owner's identification card (FOID), it does not have age restrictions on who can apply for a FOID. So, um, they granted a FOID to a 10 month old baby.
For a state that is trying to control gun ownership, that seems like a BIT of an oversight to me. Granted, most legislation aimed at gun control is trying to prevent criminals from obtaining guns. However, I have several issues with that logic. First, gun control laws do not really keep guns out of the hands of real criminals. Second, while the Constitution can be interpretted as giving every citizen the 'right to bear arms', children are not yet RESPONSIBLE citizens. We do not let children to a great deal of things that we let adults do because we do not feel they possess the judgement to do those things responsibly.
Finally (this has little to do with this particular story, but it's been bugging me), gun control laws do not keep guns out of the hands of emotionally disturbed people, even if their mental condition is documented. Privacy advocates could rightly argue that a person's mental condition should not be stored in a database somewhere. However, when a person has been ordered by a court to seek counseling or in-patient treatment because they have been deemed a danger to themselves or others, I really do think that society should be able to prevent such a person from purchasing a firearm for at least a few years after such a judgement is made. (Then again, up until recently Virginia was uncomfortable with the amount of gun control it already had on the books. Maybe they will be more open minded now?)
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment