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1997-06-30 - Re: NRA and National Online Records Check bullshit

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From: Paul Bradley <paul@fatmans.demon.co.uk>
To: Alan <alano@teleport.com>
Message Hash: bae8570b774859c9d06553d7536e7c030df2d6900497889328c28579eaa62dab
Message ID: <Pine.LNX.3.91.970628212839.98A-100000@fatmans.demon.co.uk>
Reply To: <Pine.GSO.3.96.970627131625.22839D-100000@linda.teleport.com>
UTC Datetime: 1997-06-30 16:18:28 UTC
Raw Date: Tue, 1 Jul 1997 00:18:28 +0800

Raw message

From: Paul Bradley <paul@fatmans.demon.co.uk>
Date: Tue, 1 Jul 1997 00:18:28 +0800
To: Alan <alano@teleport.com>
Subject: Re: NRA and National Online Records Check bullshit
In-Reply-To: <Pine.GSO.3.96.970627131625.22839D-100000@linda.teleport.com>
Message-ID: <Pine.LNX.3.91.970628212839.98A-100000@fatmans.demon.co.uk>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain




> > If someone commits a crime,
> > lock him or her up or shoot them, or whatever. But once the penalty is
> > over, all normal rights return. The right to vote, the right to free
> > speech, the right to own weapons, etc.

Depends on your perspective. I can see a valid case for a penalty for say 
armed robbery that entails a lifetime, or 5/10/X year ban on ownership 
of guns. Other violent armed crime like this could also incur such a 
penalty as part of the sentence and I would consider this reasonable, 
however, banning ownership of guns for any felony is definitely not at 
all reasonable.

> > (Somehow most people think it's OK that convicted felons lose their rights
> > to vote and to have guns. (Once they're released, of course.) Do they think
> > convicted felons no longer have religious freedom? Can no longer write as
> > they wish? Jeesh.)

Speech cannot harm someone, if someone has commited a violent crime and 
are likely to do so again, banning ownership of firearms sounds 
reasonable to me, of course this is not going to be an effective ban, but 
that is beside the point.

> I find it interesting that they find the right to vote as dangerous as the
> right to own a gun.  

Indeed, I can see no justification whatsoever for banning participation 
in the democratic process as an ongoing penalty for commision of crime 
after the main sentence is completed.

        Datacomms Technologies data security
       Paul Bradley, Paul@fatmans.demon.co.uk
  Paul@crypto.uk.eu.org, Paul@cryptography.uk.eu.org    
       Http://www.cryptography.home.ml.org/
      Email for PGP public key, ID: FC76DA85
     "Don`t forget to mount a scratch monkey"

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