COMMON-SENSE STEPS TO TAKE
Only anti-gunners use this phrase: "If you don't support these restricitons, you have no common sense." ANY new gun restriction, however "noble" its supposed anti-crime or anti-accident "purpose" might be, is likely to have a MORE important effect on the safe, legal gun owner than on anyone else.
Because of this complex problem of "unintended" consequences, there is NO "common sense" restriction (all of it requires detailed scrutiny) , and people who use the "common sense" phrase are either insulting you, too stupid to grasp complex concepts--or too dishonest to admit what their agenda really is.
Eliminate the unregulated "secondary" market.
No more gun shows, no private sales at all, no more gifting, no more inheritence of guns--common sense, right?
Mandate that stolen guns be reported to the police
Jail time for you if a gun is stolen and you don't find out or don't report it for a while. Same thing if your mom has a gun stored in the basement, and one day some workmen help themselves to it--and she doesn't notice. Prosecuting the thieves--difficult; prosecuting Mom--easy! Common sense!
Makes it easier, if we decide that certain types of hanguns are illegal (after we "clarify" Heller with new "reasonable restrictions"), to remove them from your home, thereby protecting you. Common sense.
Mandate criminal background checks for gun-store employees.
Makes sure they take several months--or years--to complete (THIS won't be an instant check) and reject anyone who's ever been CHARGED with a misdemeanor. Common sense.
Reinstitute the national crime-gun tracing program the Bush administration shut down
So that we can sue gun stores out of existence (and gun manufacturer's, too, once we repeal that Legal Commerce Act). Common sense.
Make penalties for trafficking guns commensurate with, at least, those for trafficking drugs
So, if 5 grams of crack cocaine is 5 years, and a Sig 220 weighs 885 grams, then the penalty for accidentally filing incorrect paperwork (address street of buyer mispelled) on its sale should be 177 years. Common sense.
Remember that the people proposing and writing new gun restriction laws are not you and me--they will try to write them--and allow them to be interpreted--in the MOST restrictive way possible, not the least. Criminals will not be affected, and you and I will find it harder to locate a gun store, and easier to spend time in jail if we violate the thousands of regulations that seem better at snaring legal gun owners than at preventing "gun violence."
And that's because there are only two ways of preventing all "gun violence": eliminate gun-ownership (practically, if not legally), or reshape the human soul. Which one of these steps do you feel Mr. Kennedy supports, in all his common sense?
He's right about one thing: these restrictions will be a heck of a lot easier to pass if they can get rid of the NRA!