... namely, that the ability of the federal government to draft people into an army or create a standing army couldn't defeat armed people defending their own territory (though people have argued that the war started being lost when it left the borders of the defined "confederate" states, morale issues perhaps), was false.
Maybe that's why people are so up in arms, literally, here. Still, the evolution of firepower a state militia could attempt to capture from the federal government for rebellion even against actual tyranny, and the evolution of the federal response capacity (if someone actually took a base with significant enough weapons, it would just be aerially bombed IMHO), makes the idea of armed citizens being an effective deterrent for government action even more obviously ridiculous.
So we're left with the slightly more logical to defense argument, that "gun culture" produces people who are already somewhat trained should we need a true draft again or to defend against a land invasion. Sadly, it also produces people who literally videotape themselves drunkenly shooting a firearm who probably can still buy them, and 19 year olds who shoot up schools.
And for that, I think a "gun and ammo license" on a will-issue basis if they are legally allowed to purchase, waiting periods that involve a training class for the original license and a waiting period for gun purchases made by people who don't already have a CHL or a paper shield, for private party transfers to be documented and guns/funds held in escrow by local FFLs for a small fee during the waiting period if one is required, giving free checks for people purchasing because they have a paper shield, banning all modifications that increase a legal gun's factory capacity to fire more bullets without reloading or fire them faster than with factory-supplied magazines, buy-backs for extended capacity magazines but not for mods, limiting long gun magazine capacity to five, and automatic forfeiture of licence and all firearms if one transports a modded firearm except when moving to another residence -- in other words, if a cop sees it outside of a home search, you're FUBARed....
Is perfectly Constitutional. And we really need to look toward serialization of ammunition. Combining that with tracking ammunition purchases will allow straw purchasers to be discovered, and while many WWI weapons are still in firing condition, shooting ammo from that time risks blowing up your gun. Ammunition stockpiles will degrade faster than weapons do.
= new reply since forum marked as read
