Some US communities seek to make gun ownership mandatory

[Charles Kozierok]

This link is to Fox News, but I found the same thing also on Huffington Post, so it's "fair and balanced"

A town of 140 people in western Maine is considering an ordinance making gun ownership mandatory, the latest of a handful of communities nationwide to pass or consider such a rule even though the measures are widely considered unenforceable.

All three members of the Board of Selectmen in Byron favor it, and Head Selectman Anne Simmons-Edmunds said she expects residents to approve it at Monday's town meeting, a New England institution where townspeople vote up or down on municipal proposals.

"We're hoping that the town will get on board with us but will accept whatever the town wants," Simmons-Edmunds said Friday.

Communities from Idaho to Georgia have been inspired to "require" or recommend their residents arm themselves ever since a gunman killed 26 youngsters and educators Dec. 14 in a school in Newtown, Conn., and raised fears among gun owners about an impending restriction on Second Amendment rights.

I think the idea of trying to coerce or force people to own guns who wouldn't have wanted to own them for their own reasons is at least as unsupportable from a legal or rational standpoint as banning guns, and a lot more dangerous.

I realize these may just be gestures of some sort, but frankly, I don't think they really help the cause of gun ownership rights at all.

 

[cwjerome]

Terrible idea. Owning a firearm is a right, not a legal obligation. Backfire.

 

[Hayabusa Rider]

This link is to Fox News, but I found the same thing also on Huffington Post, so it's "fair and balanced"



I think the idea of trying to coerce or force people to own guns who wouldn't have wanted to own them for their own reasons is at least as unsupportable from a legal or rational standpoint as banning guns, and a lot more dangerous.

I realize these may just be gestures of some sort, but frankly, I don't think they really help the cause of gun ownership rights at all.

Don't force them to have guns. Instead tax them for not having one. That's been ruled legal in principle. OK, that's snarky, but true. Nevertheless I don't like forcing people to have or to have not.

 

[Dr. Zaus]

We can pass a law that requires that anyone not owning a gun pay a fee/tax and then make guns freely available.

Hayabusa Rider got to it first! Dang, I wanted "silly responses for $100"

Seriously, though:

This is not the same case; but if the federal government decided that we all needed a gun to improve the public welfare, they could do this.

 

[randomrogue]

Stupid people are stupid. I don't think there's anything we're required to have other than a $12 ID card. Is there anything that homeowners are required to have? Insurance maybe? Guns though? That's idiotic.

 

[EagleKeeper]

This is blowback to the anti-gun movement being pushed on people by unwell meaning governments/organizations.