Gnomon,I do not believe that you will find one guy here on either side of this issue who wants felons to be able to own firearms. Please read Canvasback's excellent posts about what the anti's have accomplished in Canada. If you take the time to learn about the goals and agenda of the anti-gun organizations and operatives in the United States, you can see that their vision is to take us down the same path as Canada, Great Britain, Australia, etc. In truth, their vision goes further to a place where whole classes of firearms are immediately banned from use, possession and manufacture. We are not just talking about Black guns here. Jonathan Browning easily converted a Model 1894 Winchester lever gun to fire full auto at a cyclic rate of over 450 rounds per minute before the turn of the last century. So even that venerable deer rifle would be banned. The Double Gun you aspire to someday own would not be far behind. Barack Obama has supported legislation to ban the manufacture and posession of handguns and his voting record is 100% anti-gun, and that is meant to affect you and me, not just convicted felons. To suggest this is just a simple little conflict between opposing forces that just cancels out over time is very simplistic and naive. If all gun owners took that attitude, the pendulum would quickly swing in a direction that none of us would like.
Canvasback, thank you very much for taking the time to show those who have their heads in the sand how it is in Canada and the threats we face here if we are not vigilant. I know how hard you and many other Canadians are working to reverse the tide. I wish some folks here would take the time to learn that the two cases of law abiding gun owners getting hammered by the system you wrote about are just a small fraction of the abuses. We have similar cases here where anti-gun county prosecutors go after citizens who use a gun to defend themselves and their families. They are usually acquitted, but the huge legal costs are borne by the innocent gun owner.
What I will never understand is how any self respecting gun owner who claims to support the Second Amendment could read what you posted and think this is a subject that should always be placed on the back page. Clearly, there are many here who need to be reminded occasionally about the real threats we face. This is not the stuff of conspiracy theorists or folks who see black helicopters coming after them. These are easily verifiable facts that can be read in the Congressional Record and a thousand other credible sources.
I wouldn't want the subject of gun rights to dominate or take over the Firearms Forum any more than anyone else. My main reason for coming here is my interest in Double Guns. But we never got close to that scenario before there even was a Misfires section. Dave Weber asked for our opinion about this. It is no longer about whether or not Jim (Italiansxs) intended to stick his thumb in Dave's eye, or disregarded the rules in any more egregious manner than all of the others who have made off-topic posts and threads. Dave, I hope you'll agree. Those who disagree, I hope you'll go back and carefully re-read what Canvasback wrote. Although his hands are full trying to reverse the situation in Canada, he's taken the time to encourage all here to never allow that to happen to us.
