Gun license steps
As a gun owner I am as worried about my constitutional rights as the next, but I feel that over the years the NRA has done a great disservice to our nation by blocking reasonable efforts to curb gun violence. There are several ways to lessen gun violence.
We need to limit gun ownership to those who have taken a firearms safety course. This would not infringe upon someone’s right to own a gun. Not everyone should have that right — felons, those on the terrorist watch list, and those who are not mentally stable enough to safely possess lethal weapons should be denied that right.
We would not need to license individual weapons, but should license those who can legally own them. This license should be periodically renewed, like a driver’s license. To get a license one would need to take a weapons safety course and a background check at each renewal. This would eliminate the need to do a background check with each gun purchase — only those with a license could purchase weapons at gun stores or through private sales. The law should require that any time a weapon is not under the direct control of the owner it must be locked in a safe or with a trigger lock.
The weapons used in Newtown and Oregon were stolen from the legal owners. Requiring guns to be locked would also lessen the number of suicides by guns.
Stephen Blythe
Jonesboro
‘Tracking’ distraction
Who thought up this idea of “tracking” a person doing their job? If your insurance agent, the local attorney, or town manager, etc. were being so called “tracked” every day doing their job, it would not last long. There would be indignation from all fronts.
But now we are being told that this idea is “normal” with politics and that the governor needs to toughen his skin. I think that is about time that our politicians in Augusta realize that this is just one more sign of the times of unethical behavior in our political arena. I don’t care which party you belong to, this is an idea that needs to go away quickly so that our elected representatives can do what we are paying them for. Can you imagine being under the duress of this practice and trying to perform your everyday speaking functions?
It is another distraction from the political scene that prevents our government from functioning properly. My hat is off to you Gov. Paul LePage for bringing this to the attention of the people of your state.
If not for you, our state government may become dysfunctional such as we all endure from our federal government. I have previously thought that our state government has avoided this type of behavior, and was proud of that fact.
Jerry Wilson
Houlton
Time to come together
We have seen too many horrific acts of violence. The murder of innocent children and staff at Sandy Hook Elementary School must be the final outrage.
No more. We’ve had enough.
If ever there was a time for individuals, communities, states and the nation to come together around common goals it is now — goals of protecting and nurturing all young children, goals of prevention, goals of civil discourse. We all have a role to play.
Wringing our hands in despair will not do it.
We need to learn more about mental illness, domestic violence, drug abuse and the importance of reaching out to young families in trouble.
“Our town does not have a problem” is no excuse to not be involved. We cannot afford to sweep these issues under the rug. We need to talk about them openly and honestly and support healthy initiatives.
The Newtown shootings are incomprehensible. The brutal loss of a child’s best friends will be a huge mental and emotional burden for the surviving children and parents.
Fortunately, Newtown appears to be a close and supportive community. Recovery, I am sure, will not be left up to just parents, grandparents and teachers. It will be the community, as a whole, that will make it happen. It really does take a village to raise a child.
We’ve had enough. It is time to get involved. A good place to start is Maine Children’s Growth Council and Maine Children’s Alliance.
Gil Tenney
Castine
How is filming someone in a public even hampering government? Its a distraction because he lets himself be distracted.
How would you feel if I camped outside your door, and filmed you for all the time you spend away from your home? I think if you put yourself in Paul’s shoes, seriously, you might feel different about what you posted here.
Bad,so its a good thing the tracker is doing not of that. Good thing all he is filming is public events.
Many of us are tracked, monitored, and surveilled every day by the government and corporations.
I’m not an elected official and I assume you aren’t either (probably a good idea on both counts). LePage is and he’s sneaky, needs monitoring in public places.
You made me laugh!
If chenard is a public figure you would be within your rights. If chenard is not a public figure you would be arrested and charged with stalking. Every politician is aware that once they become an elected official their life is no longer private.
When Paul Richard LePage was running for office one of the things he promised was that his administration would be the most open and transparent in Maine’s history. Soon after he took office he attempted to exempt his working papers from the public. Is that an act of openness and transparency? No other Govenor had attempted to do that. He couldn’t get his own party to agree with him on that. Even with strong majorities in both the Maine Senate and House that attempt at secrecy failed. Now he is all worked up over someone taping him at public events, and then only after they secure permission from the event’s organizer. If it were Channel 2, 5 or 7 doing the taping rather then someone paid by the Maine Democratic Party make it any different? I haven’t heard Tea Party Paulie complain about the TV stations taping his remarks, in fact he spoke in Bangor recently and the NEWS ran his entire speech. Why didn’t he belly- ache about that? When you run for public office there are a few things you have to understand go along with the job and being taped is one of them. It is time for him to stop acting like a spoiled child and to start doing the job he was elected and paid to do.
I think Paul sometimes forgets he is not running Mardens anymore.
I bet the folks that work at Mardens haven’t. Can you imagine working for a guy like that?
The day LePage left Mardens was, for its employees, comparable to the day in Munchkinland when Dorothy’s house fell upon the Wicked Witch.
The problem is not that he think he is still running Mardens. The problem is that he thinks that the State of Maine or any government has the same goals and objectives as a second hand store and therefore his “skills” transfer from bullying at Mardens to governing a state.
There is a huge difference between mero818 and our governor. LePage ran for office. He made himself public by choice and being recorded is one of those things that happen to people who deliberately make themselves a public figure.
I would think you were nutty as a fruitcake. LOL So would your court appointed lawyer.
We have the right to film people in public so, yeah, I agree. He makes this a distraction and his cheerleaders are quick to forget his offensive and misogynistic remarks. If he weren’t always putting his foot in his mouth, this would be an absolute non-issue.
Governor LePage feels he governs best when he governs secretly behind closed doors. Think of him as mildew or mold that cannot survive in bright light and fresh air.
Mero818, have you ever heard of harassment? It’s against the law to harass private citizens only because it is annoying and, yes, distracting to anyone including politicians. Regrettable for political reasons some people refuse to draw a line of behavioral limitation when it comes to pubic servants. Their interests only lie in promoting their own agenda at all cost. What if society treated everyone with similar distaste and acrimony? No doubt, nothing would get done. And therein lies the reason for the ongoing tracking by the Democrat Party. That’s one of the main reason why I abandoned it. Not surprisingly it has been taken over by the far left wing that knows no bounds to decency.
And what sort of a haven have you found after leaving the Ds? The Rs? Good luck with that.
When were you a democrat. I cannot remember you ever posting anything even close to resembling a democratic talking point of belief
Mr Blythe You are correct that the NRA has done a disservice to both its members and the public, but not “by blocking reasonable efforts to curb gun violence”, but by allowing the demonization of an inanimate object and the limiting the US Constitution.
So I assume you think that anyone should be able to have a gun and any gun they want, automatics, semi-automatics, .50 cal machine guns, rpg. hmmm..about a cruise missle. After all my right to have have a gun shall not be infringed, isn’t that correct?
If they don’t threaten people or do anything illegal? OK by me.
But much of your premise is just plain foolish.
“your premise is just plain foolish”
Your premise that the NRA has allowed the demonization of guns and limiting of the Constitution is equally foolish. We have read the American Rifleman (the magazine of the NRA) for 52 years. In that time they have gone from an organization dedicated primarily to hunting and hunting rifles to an organization focused on the intense promotion of military weaponry and an insane belief that the Constitution cannot in any way limit the individual right to ownership of these weapons.
Explain how the infringement of the right to Keep and bear arms is allowed when the 2nd Amendment specifically states that the right can not be infringed?
If you want to create laws infringing on that right then the Constitution has to be amended to allow it. The premise is simple, do that and you can have your way. Don’t and you and the politicians and others that want to go the way of every totalitarian government that has ever existed are in violation of the Constitution.
Just be honest about your goals.
It is quite possible to make laws enumerating, extending, limiting, expanding or controlling a right with out infringing on the basic right. The right to free speech has been both expanded and limited in our lifetime. The same may be done with firearms without destroying your right to ownership and without becoming a totalitarian state.
Ye.Es as long as the rulling law does not say.s the RIGHT CAN NOT BE INFRINGED. Modify the Constitution or leave the fre.saking right alone.
Pay attention, fool
Supreme Court decision in District of Columbia vs Heller
(2) Like most rights, the Second Amendment right is not unlimited. It is not a right to keep and carry any weapon whatsoever in any manner whatsoever and for whatever purpose: For example, concealed weapons prohibitions have been upheld under the Amendment or state analogues. The Court’s opinion should not be taken to cast doubt on longstanding prohibitions on the possession of firearms by felons and the mentally ill, or laws forbidding the carrying of firearms in sensitive places such as schools and government buildings, or laws imposing conditions and qualifications on the commercial sale of arms. Miller’s holding that the sorts of weapons protected are those “in common use at the time” finds support in the historical tradition of prohibiting the carrying of dangerous and unusual weapons. Pp. 54–56.
You know what they say about assume…
Yes that is correct.
Mr.Blythe horrible idea ,Gun ownership is a right not a privileged.None of your suggestions would have stopped the massacre in Newtown all they would do is give more power to the fed over your rights.
If assault weapons and high capacity magazines like the Nancy Lanza’s Bushmaster were outlawed she would not have had them in the house and they would not have been available to her son.
It is the height of stupidity to believe that nothing can be done to control weapons. Of course it can be done. It is worse than stupid to claim that because nothing will stop killings we should not make laws that would inconvenience gun owners.
Every other industrialized country has gun laws that control who can own guns and what kinds of guns they can own and they have cut down the number of murders and rampage killers using guns.
You have rights only as long as you behave responsibility and respect the rights of the public.
Thank you for your reply but it has absolutely nothing to do with my response to Mr.Blythes letter to the Editor , neither his letter or my comment mentioned high capacity magazines or so called assault rifles.
Before you start throwing the stupidity comments around maybe next time you should at least read the jist of the comments and letters being written.
I don’t really care what other countries do I do care what our country does.
You are absolutely right an Individuals rights should be contingent on responsible behavior and the respect of society.In no way shape or form did I imply otherwise thanks again for your comment and have a splendid day.
Oh and by the way I never have owned a weapon but I will be purchasing one now while I still can .
Well then , you will be doing exactly what the NRA wants you to do, buy guns and support their major backers the gun makers.
There was a time that the NRA was a responsible organization. That was when they represented their members. Those days are long gone, now they are only a mouthpiece for gun manufacturers.
It’s funny how two intelligent and thoughtful people can look at the facts and come to two completely different opinions, well I guess that is what keeps things interesting.Good day and a hearty merry Christmas to you and yours.
And to you too.
Timothy McVeigh used diesel fuel and fertilizer to kill people in Oklahoma City. There were people who called for the immediate ban on the sale of fertilizer after the bombing. There are already over 300 million guns in the hands of private citizens here in America msallyjones. It is probably a little too late for gun control at this point. We would have a much better shot at convincing mothers like Nancy Lanza to NOT INTRODUCE THEIR DERANGED KIDS TO FIREARMS! If she had not been his first victim, she would be under arrest. BTW, I do not currently own a gun and really have no skin in the game called gun control.
I was addressing only the idea that it was impossible to have laws that controlled gun ownership. Of course we need parents and others to understand mental illness and the appropriate ways to seek help and deal with those with mental problems.
Agreed. Sloppy parenting is the smoking gun in the case of Newtown. No pun intended.
While I am appalled that the parent in this case used such bad judgment I am also aware that I probably have more knowledge about mental illness than this parent. Most of the American public, because we have cut funding for education about mental illness, really has very limited understanding, probably doesn’t know how to handle and has no resources to turn to when dealing with mental illness. I would hesitate to call this a case of sloppy parenting until I knew more about the family.
S. Blythe, G. Tenny: good letters.
J. Wilson: these are elected officials. Trackers probably not the greatest idea but apparently officials like LePage needs it. He’s the one preventing proper functioning of government.
If Lepage needs it, then every single elected official needs it as well. You’re right though, trackers are “not the greatest idea”. As is, our system of government in Maine is as open to the public as it has ever been under any prior administration. The constant presence of trackers can only cause our elected officials to become more defensive and less forthcoming. Furthermore it is an invitation of retaliation by members of the opposing party. Is this new trend really what you want for now and the future?
About tracking, Mr. Wilson:
Since almost all major political figures are being tracked these days LePage could have just accepted it a a fact of political life and gone about the business of governing. Instead of keeping cool our dearly beloved governor is wasting time thrashing around, complaining about his right to privacy (in speaking publicly ?????) the evilness of those paying the tracker (presumably only a Democrat is evil enough to do tracking) and the unfairness of it all. What Mr. Kiss My Butt doesn’t realize is that nobody up here would have thought about tracking if he had been reasonably honest, hadn’t reneged on his word too many times to count, hadn’t claimed he didn’t say what he had said, hadn’t issued hateful bullying pronouncements, hadn’t lied over and over and had treated the people he is supposed to be leading with a modicum of respect.
Some how this Tea Party governor believes it is perfectly OK for him to lie repeatedly to the public but the public has no right to call him on his lies. Apparently, Mainers are supposed to listen, nod, agree and march quietly over LePages cultural cliff. What has never occurred to this governor is that the public is not stupid and will eventually put a tracker on you when they finally get fed up with your lying.
He gets very frustrated when some things are out of his control.
I have very little sympathy for his frustration over the tracker. He has complete control over what he choses to say to the public. Nobody is making him lie or say rude and hurtful things. Nobody puts trackers on people that are gracious, pleasant and truthful.
I can understand why the great Paul R. LePage would not want a tracker. When you are a dim witted man who is doing the bidding of a couple of trust fund baby billionaires, in a state full of poor people, a candid camera would not be your friend. Very awkward indeed.
Stephen Blythe
Everything anyone needs to know about gun safety can be taught in less than an hour. Actually 15 minutes will do it. Anything beyond that is nothing more than familiarizing someone with the specifics of a particular weapon or practicing in using it.
Licensing gun owners gives the government a list of gun owners so it knows just where to go when gun licensing becomes gun confiscation. And should i mention that the license fees will be used to limit who will be able to own a gun. Sounds a lot like the equivalent of a pole tax applied to the second amendment.
And the idea that it must be renewed. What happens to people when the government decides to raise the price of a license. Under your proposal if someone didn’t renew their license they would also have to get rid of all their guns or they would be a criminal.
In the same way your requirement that all guns be locked in a safe or have trigger locks discriminates against the poor and makes home defense next to impossible.
“Wait a minute Mr druggie home invader while I open my gun safe and get this trigger lock off my gun.”
History shows that government having records of gun owners is a very bad idea.
What history? Examples?
I fully agree with this.
the gov’t has a list of car owners and dog owners and ATV owners and married couples and … all have to pay license fees. Fees go up just like the price of gas and groceries.
And because we register our possessions and children with the government, the government is part owner of this property.
Mr. Blythe, the Constitution and Bill of Rights is in place to restrict government, not the people. What if these killers cut the locks with bolt cutters? All these laws accomplish is burdening law abiding citizens. Your proposed laws, like every other gun law, would not have stopped these guys.
Ho Ho Ho Roger.</A.
Stephen Blythe- Timothy McVeigh used fertilizer and diesel fuel to kill in Oklahoma City. There was an assault weapons ban in effect at the time. Please do not aim your jerking knee in my direction. With over 300 million guns already in the hands of private citizens in America, it is a little late for gun control to be effective. All it does is give people like you a warm fuzzy to go with your hot cocoa in the morning. It will not prevent a single death if someone has decided to kill. Not one. BTW, I do not currently own a firearm.
So, have you been getting “warm fuzzys” out of all of this?
Doesn’t anyone see the irony in all the cries for more legislation to control gun violence? It’s almost like: “This law didn’t work, let’s try this one.” It makes no sense to keep writing more and more laws and not enforcing the ones already in place. The only people affected by more legislation are the people who will abide by them because they are honest, law abiding citizens. Enforce the existing laws and stop the lenient sentences for those who deserve more punishment for what they did. A line from an old Cheech and Chong album comes to mind, “Bailiff, whack his pee-pee!”
Anyone can buy any gun at a gun show or from a private person with absolutely NO background checks. Guess you are okay with that.
Jerry Wilson, there are lots of jobs that are tracked. Truck drivers, airline pilots, police officers, etc. etc. Their job performance is under constant scrutiny by their employers, state and federal regulators. Quite a few are required to do random drug tests and have psychological/criminal background checks. CDL holders are held to a higher standard when it comes to OUI tests. They have to keep a log of their time.
Author Carl Hiaasen offered to pay for drugs tests for all Florida legislators when they demanded that welfare recipients take them. They not so respectfully declined. I think we should drug test public officials, because they sure seem like they are smoking some pretty strong stuff at times.
While we continue dancing around the pro/anti gun flagpole, nothing is being done to help those with severe mental illness.
Nothing warms my heart like being lectured about my gun rights by a federal government that runs guns to Mexican cartels and jihadists.
Your lack of empathy about what took place last week in Connecticut is nothing short of astounding because clearly it’s all about you and your gun rights.