Military Style Weapons

While we state here that under the proposed terms of Treating Guns Like Cars “no one will be coming to take your guns away,” that only applies to duly registered guns owned by licensed and registered owners. We’ve made it clear that such guns and their owners should not be considered a threat to society, and that those who refuse to register their guns could be considered a potential danger because they’d have no reason to avoid registration otherwise.

Military-grade weapons, however, present a set of problems all their own.

No one wants a thirteen-year-old running around with an AR-15 any more than you’d want a thirteen-year-old driving an eighteen-wheel truck on the freeway. Nor anyone else who isn’t trained and licensed to drive such a truck.

That being said, it’s still the case that “no one will be coming to take your guns away,” even if your guns are military-grade, so long as you do the same as other gun owners, that is, register them as your property and register yourself as their owner.

Registration, however, should be as different for such weapons as a truck-driver’s license Is from an ordinary operator’s license. Specialized training and testing is not such a big hurdle, and let’s be honest, it’s worth the extra effort, isn’t it?

Also, the vision conjured up by claims that “the government will come and take away your guns” is one of police going door to door searching citizen’s homes. But really, there’s no way police departments could expend the time and manpower it would take to do such a thing.

They would simply rely on the owners and staff of gun shops and shooting ranges to ask to see the gun licenses of people they do business with. No more odious or difficult than when you rent a car and they want to see your driver’s license.

It can even be made as simple as registering right there at the counter. No doubt there would be a cost involved, but when is there not? And the gun shops and shooting ranges should be happy to go along with such a situation because they’d be entitled to retain a portion of the fee for their services.

So there’s no reason for owners of military style rifles to be any more concerned about their rights than anyone else. If gun shop owners refuse to sell you an AR-15 until you show your specialized permit, understand that they are just looking out for you, for your safety and that of your family. Same is true of the law enforcement agencies who run the training schools and issue the permits; they are looking out for your safety. You should thank them for doing so.

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