There are nutjobs in power here in VA that say that guns should be allowed in bars, schools, churches, etc., etc., and if they're forbidden that somehow means that FEMA Camps are just around the corner.

It's stupid.

People don't think and act rationally when they're drunk or under stress.

Open Pointing would not make anyone safer. Open Carry is a shibboleth that was recognized as ridiculous and dangerous in Dodge City in the 1870s. It's even more stupid and dangerous now.

Part of my adolescence was spent in a home with a guy who had a pistol. It didn't make me, or my mother, feel safer.

As you know, Kennesaw, GA passed a law in the early 1980s that required every household to own a gun. It hasn't eliminated crime there (the crime rate is lower in Fairfax City which has no such rule).

More guns aren't the answer, and the Constitution doesn't say that every 'fraidy cat idiot and bully within the US has the right to brandish guns whenever and where-ever they feel like it.

(sigh)

DC v Heller was wrong in many respects, but there are sensible portions to it:

The Supreme Court stated, however, that the Second Amendment should not be understood as conferring a “right to keep and carry any weapon whatsoever in any manner whatsoever and for whatever purpose.” The Court provided examples of laws it considered “presumptively lawful,” including those which:

* Prohibit firearm possession by felons and the mentally ill;
* Forbid firearm possession in sensitive places such as schools and government buildings; and
* Impose conditions on the commercial sale of firearms.

The Court noted that this list is not exhaustive, and concluded that the Second Amendment is also consistent with laws banning “dangerous and unusual weapons” not in common use at the time, such as M-16 rifles and other firearms that are most useful in military service. In addition, the Court declared that its analysis should not be read to suggest “the invalidity of laws regulating the storage of firearms to prevent accidents.”

The way out of this, it seems to me, is to require a "tax stamp" for every firearm that isn't a muzzle-loader - the same type of regulations required for Tommy Guns and the like. You want an AR-15? Fine. Pay the $200 tax, get on the ATF list, have all the checks, accept the regulations on transfer, and so forth. A $20/bullet tax would be nice, too, and would obviously be Constitutional...

Cheers,
Scott.
(Who wonders if the Supreme Court may actually draw back from the brink based on the refusal to take the case yesterday.)