What stops the criminals from obtaining guns today and committing their
robberies, rapes, and murders?  More laws?  More restrictions on the good
people - the ones who respect and follow the laws?

So are you worried about the "bad guy" who hides a gun, and that somehow
putting a mandatory training requirement is going to prevent him from
"packing heat", or are you worried about the "good guy" who might
accidentally shoot his prick off while bending down to tie his shoes?

So what current "problem" would mandatory firearm training "solve"?  Or
would it simply be one more "condition" placed on a right that was intended
to "never be infringed"?

I hear you on the common sense issue, Larry...  but I've also come to
realize that you can't give these anti-gun, anti-freedom zealots ONE single
inch.  The problem with the "common sense" approach is that you assume the
other side is just as reasonable.  They aren't.  Remember the words of Sen.
Fienstein?  "If I could have gotten 51 votes in the Senate of the US for an
outright ban, picking up every one of them [guns], Mr. and Mrs. America turn
them all in, I would have done it".  Think you can work out some "common
sense" gun laws with someone like that?

Yup, the world seems to be upside down of late. Pretty soon Sharpton Jackson
and they're ilk will be running the country by intimedation.

Roy

I think that would be a good idea.  The fee is not huge but big enough to
prevent people form collecting huge numbers of guns that tend to get lost
and become "illegal guns".  It forces people to take responsibility for the
weapons that they aquire.

You might want to make it a point NOT to admit to possible crimes in a
public forum.  Something tells me that if they pass this, the next one will
be severe punnishments for those that do not follow the rules.

here ya go Tom.

http://www.tysknews.com/Depts/2nd_Amend/crime_rate_plummets.htm

<from website>
Gun Ownership Mandatory In Kennesaw, Georgia Crime Rate Plummets

The city's population grew from around 5,000 in 1980 to 13,000 by 1996
(latest available estimate). Yet there have been only three murders: two
with knives (1984 and 1987) and one with a firearm (1997). After the law
went into effect in 1982, crime against persons plummeted 74 percent
compared to 1981, and fell another 45 percent in 1983 compared to 1982.

And it has stayed impressively low. In addition to nearly non-existent
homicide (murders have averaged a mere 0.19 per year), the annual number
of armed robberies, residential burglaries, commercial burglaries, and
rapes have averaged, respectively, 1.69, 31.63, 19.75, and 2.00 through
1998.

With all the attention that has been heaped upon the lawful possession of
firearms lately, you would think that a city that requires gun ownership
would be the center of a media feeding frenzy. It isn't. The fact is I
can't remember a major media outlet even mentioning Kennesaw. Can you?

The reason is obvious. Kennesaw proves that the presence of firearms
actually improves safety and security. This is not the message that the
media want us to hear. They want us to believe that guns are evil and are
the cause of violence.

The facts tell a different story. What is even more interesting about
Kennesaw is that the city's crime rate decreased with the simple knowledge
that the entire community was armed. The bad guys didn't force the
residents to prove it. Just knowing that residents were armed prompted
them to move on to easier targets. Most criminals don't have a death wish.
</website>

Now surely if what you say is true and that gun ownership increases the
danger and level of violence in the event of a crime, then surely the most
dangerous place in the WORLD would be Kennesaw GA.

here ya go again.

In March 1982, responding to the passage of a handgun ban in Morton Grove,
Illinois, and the fawning media coverage that accompanied it, the city
council of Kennesaw, Georgia, decided to make a statement of its own. With
exceptions duly made for convicted felons, the disabled, and those with
religious objections, the council passed (unanimously) an ordinance
requiring each head of household to own and maintain a gun.

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1282/is_n15_v46/ai_15729634

Twelve years after it began, Kennesaw's experiment in crime control does
not present itself as an easy way to arrest the killing in America's
streets. It does, however, suggest where the problem doesn't lie. As Mayor
Stephenson told a national gun rally in Kennesaw a few years back, "We're
the town that proves more guns doesn't have to mean more crime."

the above is quoted out of a web page...now its more like 15 years.

http://www.cityrating.com/citycrime.asp?city=Kennesaw&state=GA

the above website lists both the national crime rates along with those of
Kennesaw's...

Looks to me that gun ownership detours crime in Kennesaw why wouldn't it
some where else????

Just proves I was lucky. Others confronted in that crime
spree were shot without provocation.  I suppose it depended
on how high they were at the time.

I now live in a heavily wooded rural setting perceived to be
"safe".  My "friends" are always close and the dogs alert.
I have developed considerable self defense skills with
firearms as part of my job since my last encounter at home.
At my age, I have less to lose then some young thug and will
quite willing take as many of them as possible with me if
confronted in my home.  All they have to do is leave me
alone and no harm done to anyone.  I don't dwell on the
problem, but  I remain aware of my surroundings and refuse
to be a willing victim.  I think I have that right.

Lugnut

Name any regulation for any crime of any kind that has 100% success?
Does that mean we should just make everything legal because no
regulation stops anything 100%?

Hmm...thats the solution!!  Make everything legal then there will be no
crime at all!

The problem is with the process.  This guy was involved in all sorts of
bizarre and illegal activities, and yet was "unflagged."  Do they have to
wait until they kill someone to flag them?  Apparently so.

Steve