Madcap_Magician
Member
This is one of those issues that always gets me riled up, because I think people on gun boards don't take a very holistic view of the situation. The system is not ideal, but the situation the system addresses defies one-size-fits-all solutions. I think there is a large stream of gun people who think it would be better if convicted felons were either fully restored to civil society on release or kept locked away indefinitely until they 'can be trusted.'
I think that's unabashed idiocy for the following reasons:
1. Indefinite imprisonment is a much grosser violation of constitutional rights than denial of 2A rights. Sometimes I think that gun people forget that there are nine other amendments in the Bill of Rights, and that the second is not the only one that is important.
2. None of the people promoting this viewpoint have yet brought forth a compelling system by which we can determine how and when convicts are 'trustworthy' enough for release.
3. We already have overcrowded jails in which people who probably should be in jail don't make it there, so extending all sentences for felons to 'indefinite' is not only unlawful and immoral but also impractical.
I do think that restriction of 2A rights should not be an automatic occurrence based on a felony conviction, because I think that punishments should be related to the crime. White-collar offenders, nonviolent drug offenders, etc. perhaps should not be automatically denied their right to own guns for the remainder of their lives.
I think that's unabashed idiocy for the following reasons:
1. Indefinite imprisonment is a much grosser violation of constitutional rights than denial of 2A rights. Sometimes I think that gun people forget that there are nine other amendments in the Bill of Rights, and that the second is not the only one that is important.
2. None of the people promoting this viewpoint have yet brought forth a compelling system by which we can determine how and when convicts are 'trustworthy' enough for release.
3. We already have overcrowded jails in which people who probably should be in jail don't make it there, so extending all sentences for felons to 'indefinite' is not only unlawful and immoral but also impractical.
I do think that restriction of 2A rights should not be an automatic occurrence based on a felony conviction, because I think that punishments should be related to the crime. White-collar offenders, nonviolent drug offenders, etc. perhaps should not be automatically denied their right to own guns for the remainder of their lives.