PICS and other laws governing firearms

[Howard Bullock]

reference: http://forum.pafoa.org/pennsylvania-...ml#post1308418


The PA constitution is clear that that the right to bear arms should not be questioned. PICS and all the other laws about prohibited persons should be abolished.

My thought process...

1. A "right" is just that and can not be removed from a person for superficial offenses. It can be forfeited by violating another's rights. However, in the case of firearms the law currently denies this right to someone that may have committed violation of some law that did not even affect another individual's rights. For example a young adult smokes some marijuana and gets caught. Or someone could violate some paper-based law that results in meeting the criteria of making a person fall into that prohibited persons definition.
2. Even after paying the penalty for the criminal behavior, the person is forever forbidden from owning a firearm for defense. This first is a continuing punishment beyond his sentence for the crime committed and charged. This ongoing penalty denies a person the right to bear arms in defense of himself and family. Not all people that fit the prohibited person definition are a threat to anyone. Therefore as our legal system has people are threaten with more jail time or denied the ability of an effective defensive tool.
3. Hardened violent criminals will get guns if they want them. The PICS system may deny a commercial sale to some really dumb felons but it does not deny a weapon to them which they can acquire elsewhere.
4. The commercial sale prohibition which limits the availability to guns to some criminals makes us, the law abiding citizen, victims of home invasion and burglary to acquire weapons that would be sold on the black market.
5. The act of acquiring a firearm is not the problem. It is the improper use of the firearm that at the heart of the issue.

Those that are involved with criminal use of a firearms need to be properly punished. The bad behavior is the issue and should be the focus of the legal action. All the laws that regulate the acquisition and ownership of firearm only add a burden to the law abiding citizen. This extra burden can create a criminal out of a good person that has never or would ever harm another.

In a time where our police are and courts are overworked and not able to direct the proper resource level to important tasks, the police and courts incur more case load when these truly poor laws ensnare otherwise good law abiding citizenry.

It is time that we focus our legislature on laws that truly need to be repealed. Many of the incidents that involve violent behavior have been addressed by laws since the state's inception. These laws are sufficient. What we need is to address those that violate those laws. Creating all these additional laws that focus on things instead of deeds are a waste of tax dollars and law enforcement resources.

Even previous criminals have a right to defend themselves and their families. If their actions involve current criminal activity then that activity should be judiciously addressed by law enforcement and the courts. Otherwise, they should be left alone. What is the benefit of prohibiting a career criminal in this manner? Actually there is no benefit as they are willing to violate many other laws or injure others. These laws only limit the people that are trying to abide by the laws.

Since we have the right to bears arms, we should not have to pay to exercise a right. Therefore, we should not have purchase a license or pay for PICS character search.

We don't have to report a stolen ipod or kitchen cutlery. We may elect to have a police report to collect on our insurance. But we should not be criminally punished because we were a victim.

I am concerned that even with people "fighting" for 2nd amendment rights, they are also getting lost in trying to tweak legislation in these areas instead of just working to prevent and abolish bad laws in general.

I'm sure there will be some flamers inbound. I hope at least we get some insightful debate.