When Fudds Conspire To Attack Gun Rights
BY Herschel Smith
8 years, 11 months ago
Two accomplished and popular leaders of sportsmen have stepped up to support extension of background checks to all gun sales in Maine. Bucky Owen and Bill Vail, former Commissioners of the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, will lead a group of sportsmen who support the initiative.
At a Tuesday morning press conference, representatives of the group, Maine Moms Demand Action, stood in front of boxes filled with petitions bearing the signatures of 85,436 citizens from all 503 Maine cities and towns, an impressive effort. One third of the signatures came from Maine’s Second Congressional District.
Jackie Sartoris, a MMDA volunteer, reported their polling found that 80 percent of Maine voters support the initiative. At the press conference, Bucky Owen noted that he’s been a lifelong hunter, angler, and gun owner. “We have a proud heritage of responsible gun ownership,” said Owen, a resident of Orono. “I believe strongly in the Second Amendment,” he said, “and in keeping guns out of the hands of the wrong people. This initiative includes safeguards for us and will not lead to gun registration,” he concluded.
The Act to Require Criminal Background Checks for Gun Sales requires background checks for all gun sales, with some notable exceptions. For those of us who are sportsmen, the most important exceptions are these. No background checks are required “while hunting or trapping if such activity is legal in all places where the transferee possesses the firearm and the transferee holds any license or permit required for such activity.”
This is important to me, because I loaned a firearm to two hunters in November, including the Portland Press Herald’s outdoor writer Deirdre Fleming, who were deer hunting for the first time. It would have been ridiculous to have to go through a background check in those circumstances. There is another exception for shooting ranges.
Probably the most important exception for sportsmen and gun owners is the one that exempts us from the background check if we are selling a gun to a family member defined as a husband, wife, domestic partner, parent by blood, parent by adoption, child by blood, child by adoption, sibling by blood, sibling by adoption, grandparent, grandchild, niece, nephew, aunt, uncle, first cousin, father-in-law, mother-in-law, son-in-law, daughter-in-law, brother-in-law, sister-in-law, stepfather, stepmother, stepson, stepdaughter, stepbrother, stepsister, half brother, half sister, or intimate partner.” A pretty comprehensive list!
I see. So you can sell a gun to the local whore if you’ve been to bed with her, but you cannot sell a gun to that neighbor or church member whom you’ve known for thirty or forty years, who helped bury your parents, who came to all of your children’s activities, who helped you with your duties around the home, reciprocating the love you showed them? You know, that neighbor or church member who is so trusted that he has keys to your home and visits and watches out for it while you’re away? Yes, that’s right. That one.
You can color me unimpressed, you two old collectivist Fudds. I don’t care where you worked, I don’t care if you’ve hunted all of your life, and I don’t care what you think you can make the polls prove in Maine. And as for that matter, you cannot honestly assert that universal background checks won’t lead to a gun registry. You know you can’t, and you know that the temptation of totalitarians is always to accumulate more power and control. So that makes you a liar.
On January 21, 2016 at 7:46 am, FiftycalTX said:
Well, if you want “reasonable” gun control, you have to know who owns what. Otherwise, I could slip you one of my “unregistered” gunz. And of course, an AUDIT would have to be performed to match what you have “registered” to what is on hand. Since I own xx amount of gunz, I couldn’t carry them down to the cop shop. So I would have to ALLOW the cops into my home to SEARCH my gunz. And home, since, you know, I could stash some unregistered gunz in the wall or something. Oh, and since we are talking $100K a year cops, someone would have to PAY for this privilege of being audited and searched without warrant. So how much would that LICENSE cost? $5 a gun? Maybe to start. $500 a gun per year? Why yes, those good nanny state cops deserve a cost of living wage. So does that sound like a REASONABLE gun law?
On January 21, 2016 at 9:38 am, Fred said:
My father was from Maine. I can attest that just about everyone up in them hills are First Cousins. (smile)
A casual check of the antis involved will reveal a nasty pile of viperous flatlanders no doubt.
On January 21, 2016 at 2:25 pm, Pat Hines said:
I can’t speak for those from Maine, but as far as I’m concerned, if you’re not born and raised in South Carolina, North Carolina, or Georgia; you’re not a South Carolinians and have no business whatsoever attempting to tell us what we should or should not want.
As I’ve stated to the Gun Confiscation Lobby, “there is no debate on guns”.
On January 24, 2016 at 7:42 pm, Ned Weatherby said:
I am so sick of the qualifying statements like: “I am a gun owner, and have hunted most of my life, and believe in responsible gun ownership, but…” There’s always that “but” bullshit that nullifies everything these fudds and anti-rights idiots say, especially since they use the foregoing to somehow legitimize their statements supporting attempts to quash rights.
That’s a pretty big butt.
On January 25, 2016 at 11:16 pm, Horatio Bunce said:
Being a Mainer I can tell you that this crap doesn’t fly . It is always out of state money and people pushing thier agenda and the people of the state don’t stand for it .
It truly is fun and funny to go to the state house when they have hearings on a proposed gun laws and the pro gun people fill the room,the hall, the rotunda, and are lined up outside . Meanwhile , the small gaggle of 5 to 10 anti gun spout their nonsense .
BTW, my whole family has bought and sold guns as needed , privately , since my grandfather came back from WW2 . And not one of those guns ever committed a crime. Nor the people that bought them . We plan on continuing the tradition of free men ,regardless if somehow this became law .
On January 28, 2016 at 4:57 pm, Frank Clarke said:
Well, I can sell a gun to my buddy Ted because, you know, Bob and Ted and Ralph and I have been a menage-a-quatre for years now ;-) That makes us ‘intimate partners’, no?
As a matter of fact, we sell and trade guns among ourselves all the time because — according to that law — it’s perfectly legal! ;-) ;-) ;-)
On February 24, 2016 at 6:45 pm, Alex Giger said:
Dear Readers,
There are numerous problems with this upcoming Universal Background Check
(UBC) Referendum. Below is a partial list of the consequences of this gun
control proposal.
1. The fact is that this would take away freedoms, and impose time and money
costs, on Mainers who have traditionally exercised their private sale and
transfer freedoms responsibly.
2. The fact is that this referendum goes way beyond gun SALES, and also
controls all but a few narrowly defined gun TRANSFERS. For example, loaning a
gun for a couple of weeks to the trusted victim of domestic abuse for personal
protection would require a trip to a gun dealer to process the “transfer” – both coming
AND going.
3. The fact is that police and prosecutors are already overburdened, and
creating a whole new class of “victim-less crime” UBC “criminals” has no realistic chance of being fairly and uniformly enforced or prosecuted. Please see Portland Press Herald Letter
to the Editor dated 02/11/16.
4. The fact is that young people aged 18-20 would have a de-facto handgun
ban imposed on them by this referendum; without any debate, due process, or
discussion. Please see SUN JOURNAL Letter to the Editor dated 02/04/16.
5. The fact is that former NYC Mayor Bloomberg is behind this referendum. He
paid for the signature gathering, getting it on the ballot, and he will pay the
millions to promote it via ads, direct mail, TV commercials, etc. He has made a
mockery of the citizen’s initiative process in Maine.
There are many other problems with the referendum, but I will leave the
reader to ponder these five (5) concern areas on the journey to really, really
understanding what this gun control referendum is about.
Regards,
Alex Giger
Naples, ME