re: #452 Spar Kling

So, if you were in charge, would you favor taking away the freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, possession of firearms from kooks?

-sk

This is Giuliani’s position; that you have to prove your competence to a state authority before you can possess a firearm. Needless to say I do not respect Giuliani as a political thinker. He is in any case a prosecutor by trade, not a judicial scholar; he can follow orders, but I don’t want him near any place where he can interpret the law.

My position is that of the First Amendment; that the state has to prove your INcompetence (e.g. “kook”) before it can restrict your rights. In that respect I am fine with gun stores running background checks, to make sure there isn’t an outstanding warrant or else a court having declared you insane.

This is a legitimate question, and I wouldn’t have downdinged you, except for that you implicitly misrepresented tfk’s comment.