whodevil> got into a debate with my grandpa last night, he thinks assault rifles should be out lawed

WormRunner> outlaw people instead.  that would solve all the problems

swoolley> whodevil: why ban assault rifles?  I think anything used by the army should be made legal, to defend ourselves against a standing army

whodevil> swoolley: that was my point too

WormRunner> yeah.  how can I defend my stash without assault rifles

swoolley> no, my argument is I'm fine banning them, I just don't want our army to have them either

WormRunner> hmm

swoolley> the point of the second amendment was to prevent an arms imbalance between the standing army and the people. that was a good amendment to ensure there was no arms imbalance. but it can use a slight update to be more specific to its original purpose

whodevil> totally

swoolley> also, it didn't apply to warships and such, large armaments.
 "bear arms", they were thinking common weapons used by the average person.
 so the question I think is more relevant is should we allow tanks.
 should we allow a standing army to have tanks since the people will likely not have them.
 the problem is foreign countries may have tanks and if you don't have tanks you'll get clobbered.
 there's a solution to all these problems.
 allow anybody to own anything, but the requirements for a soldier to be certified for a tank should be identical to a civilian to be able to operate and own one.
 they aren't outlawed, but they are permitted for any militia member to be able to use so long as they qualify at the same level as a standing army soldier.
 that allows the people to build up their own army as needed -- and Oregon could build up its own self-defense army with only a slight need for a federal army.
 as far as I'm aware, the federal government was mainly to be used to coordinate the various state armies and militias.

whodevil> swoolley, I'm on board with that idea. I feel like gun regulation is fine: background checks, maybe mandatory gun safety classes/

swoolley> whodevil: I've passed all those already to be a hunter

whodevil> it seems to me that gun violence is statistically low compared to gun ownership

swoolley> seems like that system worked well for something that wasn't specifically corrupted by second amendment misinterpretation, and canada has similar systems