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Politics : Stockman Scott's Political Debate Porch -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: sylvester80 who wrote (76998)	3/10/2008 2:30:51 PM
From: longnshort	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 89467

McCain reaches across the aisle. Obama is a hard gore socialists. They don't reach across the aisle.

To: sylvester80 who wrote (76998)	3/10/2008 2:32:56 PM
From: longnshort	Respond to of 89467

[David Kopel, February 23, 2008 at 1:19am] Trackbacks Geographical Gun Control Research Project: David Bernstein recently noted Illinois State Senator Barack Obama's 1999 proposal for a federal law against licensed firearms dealers operating within five miles of a school or park. Every town I've ever visisted which has more than a few dozen inhabitants has either a school or a park. Hypothesizing that the ban would apply to city parks (e.g., Central Park in New York City) but not to National Parks, pick a geographical region, and describe where a licensed firearms dealer could operate. Or pick a geographic point (e.g, Houston)and identify how far a peson would have to drive in order to get to the closest point where a gun store could legally be located. Extra credit for illustrative maps. volokh.com Thoughtful (mail): What is the rationale for "5 miles" from school or park, anyway? I'm not familiar with any guns that can shoot a bullet 5 miles. Drawing circles with 5 mile radii from each and every school or park shows quickly that it becomes essentially impossible for a gun dealer to comply with the law. Is this a flaw in the law, legislators not taking the time to consider the consequences of choosing "5 miles" or is this considered the beauty of the plan, that no one objects to a 5 mile radius but would object to an outright ban, despite the fact they amount to the same thing in practice. volokh.com Jim at FSU (mail): Well, simply take the gun free school zones act (struck down as unconstitutional and then passed a second time, go congress) and look at how its 1000 foot limit put entire cities off limits to firearm possession. Now expand that from 1/5th a mile to 5 miles and you can easily see gun stores banned from entire states. All a county has to do is create a few strategically located parks or schools and suddenly there is a federally enforced ban on gun stores. If counties are small enough, you could probably ban gun stores in neighboring counties or states as well. Looking at google earth, it looks like most of the northeast would be off limits to gun stores under such a rule. And a good portion of the sparsely populated west is filled with federal and state park land. Gun stores would become supremely rare under such a rule. volokh.com Jim at FSU (mail): Wow, looks like Florida is off limits as well except maybe a few postage stamp sized areas in rural central Florida. The problem is that it isn't a matter of driving 5 miles to find a gun store, it's a matter of driving 5 miles and not finding another town with another school. And most of the time, when you finally do reach the edge of civilization, you find a federal or state park. The only place to put a gun store would be next to large industrial or agricultural plot and pray that no one in the county govt tries to drive you out by opening a school or park 4 miles away. And the sick thing is that the local government can easily do this through eminent domain and there is no way to stop it. volokh.com Lysenko (mail): Lafayette, Louisville, Longmont, Boulder, and Fort Collins (all CO) would all force their gun stores out of city limits entirely. Working my way through the Denver Metropolitan area now, but so far it looks like a 5 mile radius provides enough overlap to cover just about everywhere. Alan Gunn (mail): There are good reasons for opposing lots of gun-control measures on the merits. Another good reason is the recurring sneakiness and dishonesty of some gun-control advocates. For instance, there's the DC law defining "machine gun" so broadly as to include lever-action rifles, or the proposed federal legislation outlawing "armor-piercing" bullets, which were then defined as all centerfire cartridges. The "assault weapons" ban, targeting guns on the basis of cosmetic features and on their manufacturers' past political positions (AR-15 bad, Ruger mini-14 good) also comes to mind. Even if I were neutral on the merits, I think I'd oppose measures like these simply because of the dishonesty they reflect. volokh.com 33yearprof: Minneapolis has a 1000 foot ordinance. There is no location, not one, in the city where a legitimate gun store can be located. The last one was "zoned-out" last year. The same is true in St. Paul. This has, of course, no effect on the bad guys who buy their guns (all hours of the day or night, with bullets, if desired) from their drug sources. The illegal markets for drugs and guns are completely integrated. volokh.com wuzzagrunt (mail): Maybe gun shop proprietors could be permitted to set up shop on all the off shore oil rigs that have been (and will be) shut down. volokh.com Follow the main link for other good comments volokh.com