Drizzt
Member
Gun bill should fail
Monday, April 17, 2006
Let's say you go on a two-week vacation and leave one of your family's two cars parked in your garage. Two days after your departure, someone breaks into the garage, steals the car and uses it to flee after robbing a gasoline station.
Imagine how fair and just it would seem if, two days after that, you were arrested on felony charges of being an accessory to the robbery because a new state law requires owners of stolen cars to report their thefts within three days or take responsibility for anything done with their car.
You didn't know the car was stolen? Well, the new law assumes you should have known. That it was stolen despite being locked in the garage merely indicates you did not store it safely enough. Next time, dig a pit in the backyard and bury it.
Sound preposterous? Substitute "firearm" for "car" and you have House Bill 5818, currently on the calendar in the legislature.
House Bill 5818 makes it a crime to fail to report the loss or theft of a firearm within 72 hours from the time when the owner knew "or should have known" that the weapon was stolen.
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Further, if police recover the firearm before it's reported missing, the bill takes that not merely as automatic evidence of a violation of the law, but also as proof of an illegal firearm transfer.
Obviously, the bill is not an attack on crime but on firearm ownership. Obviously, the intent is not to prevent the theft of firearms but to make owning one an intolerable burden.
Obviously, House Bill 5818 needs to be defeated.
http://www.rep-am.com/story.php?id=5635
Monday, April 17, 2006
Let's say you go on a two-week vacation and leave one of your family's two cars parked in your garage. Two days after your departure, someone breaks into the garage, steals the car and uses it to flee after robbing a gasoline station.
Imagine how fair and just it would seem if, two days after that, you were arrested on felony charges of being an accessory to the robbery because a new state law requires owners of stolen cars to report their thefts within three days or take responsibility for anything done with their car.
You didn't know the car was stolen? Well, the new law assumes you should have known. That it was stolen despite being locked in the garage merely indicates you did not store it safely enough. Next time, dig a pit in the backyard and bury it.
Sound preposterous? Substitute "firearm" for "car" and you have House Bill 5818, currently on the calendar in the legislature.
House Bill 5818 makes it a crime to fail to report the loss or theft of a firearm within 72 hours from the time when the owner knew "or should have known" that the weapon was stolen.
Your next car is just a click away! CTAutoX.com
Further, if police recover the firearm before it's reported missing, the bill takes that not merely as automatic evidence of a violation of the law, but also as proof of an illegal firearm transfer.
Obviously, the bill is not an attack on crime but on firearm ownership. Obviously, the intent is not to prevent the theft of firearms but to make owning one an intolerable burden.
Obviously, House Bill 5818 needs to be defeated.
http://www.rep-am.com/story.php?id=5635
