Miami1839, to bad that pesty old Constitution gets in the way
You may be surprised, but your 'solution' is not that off the wall. There are more than a few people who think as you do. Fortunately we have the writings of the founding fathers, as Billy Optimist was so kind to point out, that would prevent what you propose. Does it not bother you that only the police and military would have guns? What you propose is what is found in a 'police state', a facist form of government, or a dictatorship. I do not understand being guilty of a felony for simply owning something yet not misusing it. It would be like proposing that we cut out our tongues to prevent us from yelling 'Fire.' in a theater or arrest someone for driving a car because they might commit a hit and run. That theory could be used in many instances to prevent crime, but I don't happen to agree with it.
For some reason my signature line is not showing and I feel it especially important here:
"Moderation in temper is always a virtue; but moderation in principle is always a vice." Thomas Paine
"Those who would sacrifice essential liberties for a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." Benjamin Franklin
"If ye love wealth better than liberty...May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen." Samuel Adams
"Arms in the hands of citizens [may] be used at individual discretion...in private self-defense..." John Adams, A Defense of the Constitutions of the Government of the USA, 471 (1788)
"On every question of construction (of the constitution) let us carry ourselves back to the time when the Constitution was adopted, recollect the spirit manifested in the debates, and instead of trying what meaning may be squeezed out of the text, or invented against it, conform to the probable one in which it was passed." Thomas Jefferson, letter to William Johnson, June 12, 1823,
[This message has been edited by Jeff OTMG (edited April 05, 2001).]