Wednesday, January 16, 2013

My Apologies

I'll try and update the blog later, but my day has been consumed with trying to figure out how to register my deadly and dangerous "assault weapon". That would be the Ruger 10/22 rifle I've had since I was a teenager. You know, the same plinking rifle millions of people have used to shoot tin cans since the mid 60s?

The poor state and local police departments have been inundated with calls from people in the same position as I am. Almost overnight semi-automatic rifles and shotguns in New York became potential "assault weapons". In my case I'm guilty of installing an after-market stock that...gasp...has a thumbhole.

I intentionally avoid politics here, but no matter what your feelings about gun control it's safe to say that making a bill public less than 24 hours before it's signed into law is a grotesque abuse of the legislative process. Particularly when the consequences for violating the law are so serious.

27 comments:

Laura said...

I'm sorry your local government doesn't know how to handle actual criminals, and instead prefers to turn normal law-abiding citizens into felons for arbitrary reasons.

Good luck. If you can, get the heck out of Dodge.

Topo Solitario said...

Lucky you! :D

In Spain the firearm control laws are far more restrictive... I'm a shooter since the time I was only 16yr old, and I've to pass a minimun score test to get my 2nd class license... that allows me to have 3 and only 3 weapons, (including .22 caliber handguns or rifles). And I've to pay for the license a lot of money each year and I'm forced to pay and shoot only in my regional federation installations... no matter what caliber I'm using, be it .22, 9mm or even breechloader historical guns...

And a couple of weeks ago a new regulation is forcing Airsoft players to register ther replicas just like if it was a real gun!! having to pay taxes and present documentation... even the replica should have unique numeration!

Crazy! :(

Propnomicon said...

@ Laura

Thank you for your sympathy.

Moving to a state with more respect for its citizens was one of the many topics of discussion at the homestead today.

Alex Kaeda said...

Let me be the first to invite you to the Great State of Oregon.

;)

S MacPherson said...

You know you have a year to register, right?

Laura said...

it's funny...i have three offline friends who live in the non-NYC parts of New York, and all of them want to move. one started the process last night with looking for job leads. if you can do it, do it. just don't come down to Maryland; the governor's trying to screw things up down here, too.

Anonymous said...

You're more than welcome to move here to Texas :)

Sam said...

I remember back when I was in college in NY and saw that Hilarry Clinton instigated a "violent toy buy back" much like the gun buy back programs, except in exchange for your awesome nerf guns and GI-Joes, you got either a football or a barbie. That always stuck with me how weird that was.

I have yet to hear what Minnesota is going to do, but I've got a Ruger mini-14 and a few WWII era firearms.

Anonymous said...

I think these guns laws are ridiculous. Funny how the media never talks about the violent crime in Chicago. "You know, the gun free city." When the NRA suggested armed guards in the schools, Obama scoffed. But the school his daughters go to have armed guards. And they were put there by the rich parents of the students, not the government.
I guess security is for the rich.

Anonymous said...

I feel so sorry for you New York folks, I hope some court somewhere will save you from this obviously Unconstitutional law.

P.s. You're welcome here in West Virginia.

I'll even let try out my AK.

MorganGray said...

A good friend of mine has a repro of a 1700s model officer's fusil which, by the strict definition of the clinton gun ban qualifies as an assault rifle.
It is a military style long-arm, which has a pistol grip (the stock has the pistol shaped wrist as opposed to the straight military stock) a bayonet lug and a flash hider (the little brass cup around the frizzen and priming pan).
The genius of vaguely written laws. And it is only going to get worse.

Thorrsman said...

Colorado has a bad/good situation, what with that shooting last summer and the State government all democrat controled. On the other hand, with is still "the West" and we don't take kindly to the sort of politician who supports this type of foolishness. I think Gov. Hick and the rest of the Democrats know better than to push out here.

At elast, I HOPE they know better.

CoastConFan said...

8This is a step in the right direction, but more needs to be done! I hopefully murder will be outlawed by our stalwart lawmakers along with mugging, gangs, and those damned dangerous popsicle sticks! How many people are stabbed by popsicle sticks that are in the hands of children. They are free to buy popsicles anytime and that must stop. Inanimate objects are the problem, not human behavior. (Sarcasm over)

(Back to reality) There are two possibilities for dissenters: vote incumbents out of office or vote with your feet and move. It’s funny that this “law” was not a votable referendum made possible by (gasp) democratic action (you the voter), but one imposed by influencing powers outside of the voter’s state. How ironic and Orwellian that the group that is overturning direct democracy is called by that name. Mind you I am not a blind adherent of the opposition either, just a long-time reader of history and in possession of a functioning brain. Had there been a state-wide referendum that allowed voters to directly decide, it might be different. I’m sure glad that banning “assault rifles” had made California and Mexico crime-free and beautiful places to live. Sorry, I slipped back into sarcasm again, maybe we can ban sarcasm too (darn I did it again).

Chris Pittman said...

I hear class action lawsuits are already being filed in New York. I feel your pain but might suggest holding off on registering. It is my sincere belief that the new law is unconstitutional and that it will be struck down, it also seems self-contradictory and full of loopholes. But if it remains on the books, I fear confiscation is the next thing in the works.

Aken said...

This just highlights why I don't live in NY anymore. I grew up there, I moved away for work, I had the opportunity a little over a year ago to return to where most of my friends and family still are.

Guess what? The reason I didn't go back is because both NYC and NYS governments are completely out of control. Full stop.

How out of control do I think NY is? My frame of reference is California and now Illinois. I'm not some far right republican or ultra libertarian. I just think I should be free to determine how much soda I drink or whether my kids can play kick ball at camp.

Anonymous said...

Something I rarely say to a "Yankee" (laugh) - y'all need to move down here to Georgia.

Hell, in Kennesaw, Ga., it's technically illegal NOT to own a firearm.

Schlitzie said...

Wow...If guns kill people,then pencils misspell words,cars make people drive drunk,and forks make people fat...As someone else stated,move to Oregon! hehe

Anonymous said...

It is a terrible side effect of the polarization this issue has generated. The legislature cannot pass even the most basic weapon control laws without having to ramrod them through as fast as possible. They have to go through as fast as possible or well funded campaigns roll into town to stop anything and everything.
So crazy provisions get left these laws, and that feeds support for total law bans.
Its enough to make you fail you sanity check.

Anonymous said...

You do have a year to register. And no one is going to throw you in jail for small things like this, they have much more pressing things to deal with. So I think most of the people here are over-acting. I know it's a pain to register, but I think it's worth it. I shoot guns myself (mostly hand guns), but I am not against outlawing assault rifles, extended mags, etc. because NO ONE needs these things. I would be more concerned with the way Republicans have deregulated Wall Street or infringed on our liberties via the Patriot Act.

Unknown said...

i'm sorry but the ruger 10/22 is NOT an assault weapon, I would classify it as a hunting rifle unlike the mini-14, ak-47, ar-15, or m-16.
the 10/22 is a great small game hunting rifle.
New York is stupid, and I would advice getting out it starts looking like "1984 big brother"

Bob said...

Funny how the media never talks about the violent crime in Chicago.

Try watching/reading something other than Rupert Murdoch owned tripe, it's been mentioned repeatedly. As has the violence in Detroit which is just as bad.

As a gun owner, I fail to see how registering a firearm is a big deal and the increased background checks and magazine limits are common sense measures that should have been implented back when the Brady Bill was first written.

However, the rhetoric from the anti-gun-control crowd is getting increasingly silly.

Your pea shooter is not going to save you if the unthinkable happens and the US government becomes a tyranny akin to Zimbabwe. They have robots that roam the sky that kill with impunity and depleted uranium bombs that will not only destroy any evidence of your existence but give people nearby cancer, your legally acquired pea-shooter is not much of a defense against that :)

The Last Northumbrian said...

Here in the UK, all guns have to be registered with a legitimate reason for holding it (like hunting, pest control, sporting reasons), and there's no handguns at all. Period. And the benefits do show- eventually. Handguns were only outlawed in 1992, and there have been four handgun shootings in Britain since- one done by the police. The laws never eradicate shootings, but they do minimise them.
Don't get me wrong, I fully sympathize and think that the US has gotten overzealous with passing laws in a knee-jerk reaction style, and causing a lot of bother for every law-abiding gun holder. But no one can deny that gun laws across the pond need serious debate.

Anhurset said...

Well I have a lot I'd like to say, however, I don't believe this is the place for it. One thing I will say though is that it's nice to see that the British are consistent, it's been nearly 240 years and they still want to disarm us.

xZx said...

Four simple words that seem to be forgotten by our current administration:

SHALL NO BE INFRINGED

Funny our President JUST yesterday swore to uphold and defend the Constitution against all enemies foreign and domestic... did he not mean Himself??

Raven said...

Setting aside for a moment the politics of firearms and the possible serious decisions ahead about moving....

What seems ironic and almost amusing is that they require you to register a 22-caliber "plinking rifle" -- yet have made no such regulatory attempt over your Tillinghast Field Generator, your displacement portals, any of your chrononautical equipment, your n>5 dimensional manipulators, or your... things... in jars.

Of course, this is because there exist no departments properly authorized to regulate such matters.

In turn, this is because no legislators understand such matters well enough to write laws establishing such departments. What would they care to know of n>5 dimensional manipulation? How many could if they tried? ("Define 'Hilbert space' in one sentence, Senator.")

As a result, cosmic-scale issues that really should turn their hair white overnight go blithely ignored in favor of "plinking rifles" -- which at least are within their comprehension.

Something-in-a-jar that periodically *blinks* at them might be a suitable gift.

"...[I]f it is true, as Napoleon wrote to Carnot, 'The art of government is not to let men grow stale,' then it is an art of unbalancing. The crucial difference between a totalitarian regime and a free social order is, perhaps, in the methods of unbalancing by which their people are kept active and striving." -- Bruce Lee.

Colm O'L said...

To be fair about it Anhurset, it's not a "Brits are coming for our guns" thing so much as a massive cultural difference between the US and Europe on the matter.

The vast majority of Europeans find the US attitude to guns a little lax and scary (to the extent that it's come up in conversations in my circle of friends here* as a reason they'd prefer a different country to emigrate to than the US should push come to shove).

Here, you can basically only get a firearm certificate (you need a separate cert for each firearm you own) if you're a target shooter or have a need to hunt as part of your profession. In addition, you have to provide your medical records to the Police, two character references, prove your professional need/membership of a target shooting club (one approved by the Police) and own secure storage for the firearm (which has to be inspected and signed off on by the police). On top of this, automatic weapons, military style weapons (including semi-auto weapons) and any weapon holding more than a defined limit of ammo (3 shells for shotguns, 10 for a rifle IIRC) or exceeding defined calibres are illegal.


*mostly Irish professionals like Doctors or Engineers should it matter.

Raven said...

Colm: One of the scary things about it -- to me as a lifelong US citizen -- is that, on the one hand our gun advocates look at places like Timbuktu taken over by terrorists, and tsk, and say that would never happen if people had weapons to defend themselves from outside invaders... but the "well-regulated" US active military, and reserves, and National Guard, are heavily enough armed to prevent such invasion.

On the other hand, the more extreme rhetoric from the "militias" and other right-wing organizations, circulating amongst themselves, summons the image of armed rebellion against our own govvernment, violent overthrow, Civil War II in service of neo-Confederacy... the realism of which concept may be measured by looking at their weapons types (semi- and perhaps automatic rifles, supplemented by home-made explosives, basically what Afghan tribesmen have) versus what the US government has (and has used in Iran and Afghanistan, including satellites, drones with missiles, fighter jets and copters, tanks) -- what are the odds?

There really is some severe disconnection from reality going on here, and moderates are caught in the middle.