Stop playing silly buggers
We're better at it than you are.
The latest “Gotcha” by alleged thinking adults is to demand that Republicans should have to abide by the strictures of the SAVE Act to purchase guns.
Sigh. Tell me that you’ve never bought a gun, but don’t say the words, “I’ve never really bought one of those icky guns.”
First off, the documentation required by the SAVE Act to register to vote is already the minimum level of documentation to purchase a firearm from a dealer. Multiple States already require an extra, dedicated level of ID1 to buy a firearm; and several more don’t require an extra, dedicated level of ID just to buy a gun, but getting an extra, dedicated ID makes the process a whole lot easier.
To cut to the chase: Anyone who has purchased a firearm in the decade — hell, since 1968 — already has the ID that would be required by the SAVE Act.
On top of which, lawful gun owners undergo a further level of scrutiny in buying in firearm that the SAVE Act will not require for voting — hello, National “Instant” Background Check.
I put “Instant” in scare quotes, because until I purchased a Texas License To Carry — see “extra, dedicated ID” above — the “Instant” Background Check prevented me from actually buying a firearm for three to five days.
It tends to be somewhat frustrating to be standing at the gun counter in your Sheriff’s Office uniform, with a gun on your hip, being told by the owner that the NICS issued a Delay2 response, and could you come back in five days?
Fortunately, Texas is one of the States where — if you pay extra money, and jump through extra hoops — they’ll issue you a License To Carry card, which can be presented in lieu of a NICS check.3
So, yeah. Thinking that the SAVE Act requirements for ID to register to vote would cause some sort of unreasonable burden in the exercise of our Second Amendment rights — you’re cute, you sodding numpties. Now go sit at the kiddie table with your rusks and dino-nuggies — the adults are talking.
I understand that folks have issues with the SAVE Act — something about infringing on one of your Constitutional rights, or somesuch — so I propose a compromise:
We do away with the SAVE Act, in return, the requirement to register to vote is exactly the requirement to purchase a firearm from a dealer in your State.
They’re both Constitutional rights, correct? The right to keep and bear arms, and the right to vote? That which is not restrictive nor unreasonable for one right shouldn’t be restrictive or unreasonable for the other right.
If your State requires a permit to exercise your Constitutional right to keep and bear arms, then the exact same permit should be required to exercise your Constitutional right to vote. After all they’re both rights guaranteed by the Constitution.
Background check at point of purchase? Background check at voting booth.
REAL ID required to purchase? REAL ID required to vote.
Extra steps, extra money, extra hurdles to clear to exercise your right to keep and bear arms? Same extra steps, extra money, extra hurdles to exercise your right to vote.
No right should be superior — or inferior — to any other right. That which does not infringe on the exercise of one right, shouldn’t infringe on the exercise of another right.
Sauce for the goose being sauce for the gander, and all that.
Ian
See: Illinois, Firearm Owner ID Card. See: Massachusetts, Firearm Identification Card. See: New Jersey, Firearms Purchaser Identification Card. See: Maryland, Handgun Qualification License. Ad infinitum.
I was issued a TS/SCI clearance by the Department of Defense. Since the FBI does those, there’s an FBI number attached — said FBI number also being attached to every felon. Plus, I was born in Malta.
A little fact which drives the gun-grabbers into an apoplectic, spittle-flecked rage something fierce.
"We do away with the SAVE Act, in return, the requirement to register to vote is exactly the requirement to purchase a firearm from a dealer in your State."
For extra spittle, make it the level of ID required for ANY government assistance.
Alternatively, if the Left wants to keep the vetting for voting to a very low, unobtrusive level so that people can exercise that right with the fewest impediments then I want the same for buying a gun. I remember a time when we could buy firearms through a mail order catalog and have the postal service deliver them to our house. Were we a safer, saner society back then? Yes.