Mandatory Firearms Possession, Got to love Maine!!

[robMaine]

So saw this in a local paper today. Started as tongue in cheek, because every resident already owns guns, but looks like it has an actual chance of passing!

http://www.sunjournal.com/news/river-valley/2013/03/08/byron-aims-mandatory-gun-possession/1330923

BYRON — Town officials say they believe residents will pass a mandatory firearms possession article at the annual town meeting Monday night.

Head Selectman Anne Simmons-Edmunds said Thursday that all three selectmen favor it and expect residents to approve it.

The article asks, "Shall the town of Byron vote to require all households to have firearms and ammunitions to protect the citizens?"

 

[Tinpig]

...require all households to have firearms and ammunitions...

Impractical, "feel-good" legislation; just as silly and intrusive as forbidding households from having firearms and ammunition.

Tinpig

 

[LiveLife]

Georgia is considering mandatory gun ownership for their second town - http://www.cnn.com/2013/03/07/us/georgia-gun-requirement/index.html

City council members in Nelson, a town of 1,300 people north of Atlanta, unanimously approved the proposal at a meeting this week. Citizens now have a chance to review the proposal before the council takes it up again in April.

The law would give every family the right to protect themselves and their property "without worrying about prosecution for protecting themselves," Cronic told the meeting. He said the proposal was modeled on a similar law in nearby Kennesaw, Georgia, that has been on the books since 1982.

As more and more people realize the limitations to police response during tightening budget times, more needs to be done to protect the homeowners - http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=707031

 

[ApacheCoTodd]

While I appreciate the "spirit" of the intentions, this is one which I can no more get behind than I can legislation restricting ownership.

Really? Someone's gonna tell me I have to own a firearm outside of a scenario where there is say, an organized self armed militia or community mandated defense organization?

Nah. I'm not buying it as anything more than a political thumbing of the nose. It certainly doesn't protect anyone from "... someone from coming into our town and trying to restrict our rights,..." without specifying type of firearm let alone model, caliber etc...

As far as - "Simmons-Edmunds said. "It's time to tell the government, 'Enough's enough. Quit micromanaging us.'" - Geeze, talk about micro-managing!

So what happens if someone stands in their front yard with a sign saying that they neither have one nor do they intend to get one.

I think without the hard work of specific and defensible legislation which might really stand up to State or Federal challenges - this borders on "own worst enemy" to me.

All it takes is a Whinestein to say something like... "We're not saying you can't have a gun, we're just saying you can't have that/these/those guns."

 

[InkEd]

In this country, I don't think it is right to require people to own a firearm if they choose otherwise.

However, it is part of the national defense plan in other countries. (Those countries also have mandatory military service too.) Switzerland comes to mind as an example.

IMHO the federal government should really just screw around a bit less on most things rather than getting even more involved with things.

 

[LiveLife]

When California passed "one handgun per month" limit law, I told my wife, "Honey, we HAVE to meet the quota of one gun per month. We are way behind in our gun purchases!"

It made all of us laugh at the LGS/ranges/matches when we realized we didn't buy 12 pistols on an annual basis!

 

[ApacheCoTodd]

When California passed "one handgun per month" limit law, I told my wife, "Honey, we HAVE to meet the quota of one gun per month. We are way behind in our gun purchases!"

It made all of us laugh at the LGS/ranges/matches when we realized we didn't buy 12 pistols on an annual basis!

That's funny - could easily be reinterpreted as a firearms oriented stimulus plan.

 

[Furncliff]

The law in Kennesaw has no teeth. Residents who are too poor to own a firearm or who wish not to one have not be prosecuted. Even so some accounts of the 26 year old law credit it for the lower than average crime rate in Kennesaw.

 

[blarby]

Really? Someone's gonna tell me I have to own a firearm outside of a scenario where there is say, an organized self armed militia or community mandated defense organization?

Well, there is this............


10 USC 311

(a) The militia of the United States consists of all able-bodied males at least 17 years of age and, except as provided in section 313 of title 32, under 45 years of age who are, or who have made a declaration of intention to become, citizens of the United States and of female citizens of the United States who are members of the National Guard.
(b) The classes of the militia are—
(1) the organized militia, which consists of the National Guard and the Naval Militia; and
(2) the unorganized militia, which consists of the members of the militia who are not members of the National Guard or the Naval Militia


So, ya I guess they could be technically forcing you observe your constitutional right....but as a duty....if you were in the correct age bracket.


Outside of that..... why not.

We get forced to do all sorts of irrational things by our .gov we don't want to do...at least this makes some actual sense.

Yup. We get told to do things all the time. Its a sad fact, gubment intrudes on our lives. This is not the perfect republic. We have to deal with what we have.

 

[essayons21]

Look up the (second) Militia Act of 1792.

That every citizen, so enrolled and notified, shall, within six months thereafter, provide himself with a good musket or firelock, a sufficient bayonet and belt, two spare flints, and a knapsack, a pouch, with a box therein, to contain not less than twenty four cartridges, suited to the bore of his musket or firelock, each cartridge to contain a proper quantity of powder and ball; or with a good rifle, knapsack, shot-pouch, and powder-horn, twenty balls suited to the bore of his rifle, and a quarter of a pound of powder

There is clear precedent for this sort of thing.

 

[Ryanxia]

I'd rather it go this way than the other extreme. Good for them.

 

[RustHunter87]

I'm pretty sure all the year round residents of Byron already own a gun or two so it kinda makes sense, its a great little "town".

 

[Downeast]

Who would have thought that people with hyphenated names would be so pro-gun?

"Head Selectman Anne Simmons-Edmunds said Thursday that all three selectmen favor it and expect residents to approve it.
The article asks, "Shall the town of Byron vote to require all households to have firearms and ammunitions to protect the citizens?"
"We're fed up," said Simmons-Edmunds, also a Dixfield police officer. "Unlike Sabattus, we're going to pass it."
Simmons-Edmunds said Byron selectmen — she, Patrick Knapp-Veilleux and David Noyes — approved placing the article on the town meeting warrant long before Sabattus resident David Marsters proposed the ordinance in that town. Selectmen there, however, sided with the police chief and on Tuesday, declined to put it before the people.
"

 

[GCMkc]

"We're trying to prevent someone from coming into our town and trying to restrict our rights," Simmons-Edmunds said. "It's time to tell the government, 'Enough's enough. Quit micromanaging us.'"

Aren't they restricting your right NOT to own a gun? These bills are silly. I'm super PRO-2A but I don't think you should be forced to own a gun.

 

[robMaine]

I understand the not wanting people to be forced to own guns. But I think the spirit of this, is that everyone in the town already owns a gun... just kind of a message to large government.

 

[Trent]

Heck of an interesting way to run any felons or prohibited persons out of town.

"You have to own a gun to live here."

"But I can't own a gun."

"Then you can't live here."

Yeah, somehow even I don't agree with this. I have a coworker who is a felon, prohibited person, stole his mom's checkbook when he was 18 and wrote some bad checks. Got run through by the State's Attorney for Forgery, even though his mother didn't want him to. Been almost 20 years and he's never committed another crime.

He may be a felon, but he has the right to live (and work) wherever he damn well chooses.

 

[SwampWolf]

In terms of "loving" Maine for its pro-gun stance (at least in this instance), I'm curious as to what the NRA rating is for Maine's two U.S. Senators and its Governor. Anybody know?

 

[12many]

I am tired of the goverment continually pressing and passing laws to tell people what they can and can not due. As a society we need a few law sure, but just seems like no limit to the stupid proposals on every topic and trying to control sooo many aspects of life and adding new taxes or forms to be filled out. I think I am going to stop reading the news and using the Internet.

 

[bill3424]

Wow, gotta love them. I'm a bit perplexed at this whole government telling me what to do or own tho.

 

[TRX]

Presumably, some of the money involuntarily extracted from them as taxation goes to law enforcement. If they're going to be charged with taking care of their own security, they deserve to have that part of their taxes refunded to them.

What's next? Are they going to be expected to fill in their own potholes or take their shift at the sewage treatment plant?

 

[RPRNY]

My sister lives in Maine and they own firearms but are really pissed off about these initiatives. Quite rightly their view is that such an ordinance is just as unconstitutional as one which would forbid firearms ownership. I must say while amusing, such ordinances would seem to do more harm than good.

Sent from my Kindle Fire using Tapatalk 2

 

[SwampWolf]

He may be a felon, but he has the right to live (and work) wherever he damn well chooses.

I know of more than a few paroled felons who have committed heinous atrocities against their fellow citizens who, though they may have "paid their debts to society" (whatever that means), even you might object to their having the "right" to live next door to your family with children or in your workplace. Though the ones I'm thinking about are guilty of doing a little more than ripping their mothers off of a few checks when they were teenagers, they, of course, have the same right you speak of; to live and work "wherever they damn well choose".
Given the high rate of recidivism incurred by most probationers and parolees, for your sake and for your family's continued well-being, I sincerely hope that the offenders I have in mind don't choose your neighborhood to live and work in.

 

[cfullgraf]

The law in Kennesaw has no teeth. Residents who are too poor to own a firearm or who wish not to one have not be prosecuted. Even so some accounts of the 26 year old law credit it for the lower than average crime rate in Kennesaw.

The City Council that enacted the Kennesaw mandatory gun law in 1982 never expected everyone in town to follow it and never expected to enforce it. The law was a reaction to a law passed in Morton Grove, IL, that outlawed guns.

Sorry to drift off topic.

 

[Deus Machina]

I'm for it as a statement.

Write in a provision for prohibited persons, decline to include any actual punishment, and don't enforce it.

Better than the way some places enforce some laws, like completely ignoring 'unlawful concealed carry' that would keep strongarm robbers off the streets longer, but throwing otherwise law-abiding citizens under the bus for having their gun cases unlocked on the way to the range, or something.

 

[Tinpig]

OK, so compulsory background checks, gun registration, and gun insurance are un-American, but we'd be fine with government-mandated gun-ownership which could only be verified by inspecting our firearms and recording their particulars.

Or else the whole thing is just an unenforceable but really cool gesture, because we like it when our government representatives spend their time enacting mandatory unenforceable laws.