The last desperate appeal of a person left without an argument.
If those gun laws are so well defined there would be no debate at all; not here, not in the US government, not in the courts, nowhere.
The fact that people on this board get so emotional when those gun laws are debated speaks volumes to your own insecurity about those laws.
Now, insurance. As I've said upstream, I can see the flaws in implementing an insurance requirement, though I don't believe the lack of insurance companies being prepared to insure gun owners is the actual problem.
On that point, I would say that perhaps a different perspective on insurance would be appropriate. At the moment the US system seems to view the policy holder as being the sole recipient of cover; in other words, insurance policies are designed to protect the insured person, not the third party. The third party can, of course, sue the insured person if injury is caused and the insurance that person holds would then be used to settle a claim (though the reality is that the insurance may well fall well short of the actual claim or award).
This system does indeed appear to make it only applicable if the insured person has acted within the law; break the law and you're no longer covered.
This raises an interesting question regarding drink driving: if a driver gets a DUI does he/she then find it difficult to get motor insurance? I assume that they do, but if the insurance company isn't actually liable to pay out for any damage caused through the DUI then their actual risk doesn't appear to have increased. If the driver gets another DUI the insurance company still would have no liability because the driver has committed a criminal act.
This leaves the third party who may be injured by the actions of the drunk driver or the irresponsible gun owner without a pot to piss in.
The insurance really should be protecting third parties from the damage caused by irresponsible automobile use or irresponsible gun use.
The point that many have tried to make on this topic is that:
- Guns are dangerous if not handled with care and attention.
- People other than the gun owner can be injured because of this.
- Those injuries have a cost which at the moment society as a whole is picking up.
- The core reason for those costs is the ability of citizens to bear arms
- Therefore the cost of bearing arms should adequately reflect the cost of that right to society as a whole
Whether this cost is met by applying a requirement for insurance (and letting the market decide on just how much risk an individual gun owner poses) or a one off sales tax, it is iniquitous to imagine that weapons do not have costs associated with them over and above the cost of the physical weapon itself.