Comments on: Massachusetts gun control law strikes again

By: VICB3

VICB3 — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 16:55:06 +0000

People resent being turned into criminals.

By: David Wisniewski

David Wisniewski — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 14:46:32 +0000

Of course, none of these gun control laws apply to the politicians, their friends, the police, or celebrities. I wish one day they would have to play by the same rules us little people do.

By: Bumper

Bumper — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 08:31:24 +0000

Deoxy you should appreciate James Taranto’s Best of the Web Today at the WSJ online. He literally ranted about the misuse of the word literal. Of course he also got pretty wound up about monkey fishing too.

By: Deoxy

Deoxy — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 18:16:14 +0000

If the firearms card says it does not have an expiration date you have to take it at face value when it was issued. Grandfathering a requirement and then using it for a criminal prosecution post hoc will be found unconstitutional.

pet peeve:

that’s a backwards usage of the term “grandfathering” – a proper use would be to “grandfather” those with previous licenses, meaning that their licenses would NOT expire, just as the cards say, but no one can get such cards anymore.

To go back and alter the agreement is, essentially, the opposite of “grandfathering”.

Sorry, I’ve just seen a few of that usage recently, and it bugs me for the same reason that using “literally” to mean “emphatically, not literally” does (in that there is no good replacement term for the term being ruined by the ignorant).

By: Isabel1130

Isabel1130 — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 17:59:28 +0000

“It may be found unconstitutional, eventually, after you are bankrupted defending yourself.

The process is the punishment.”

I would definitely be calling the NRA if I was in this guy’s shoes.

By: SkipF

SkipF — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 15:29:12 +0000

It may be found unconstitutional, eventually, after you are bankrupted defending yourself.

The process is the punishment.

By: Isabel1130

Isabel1130 — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 13:42:24 +0000

If the firearms card says it does not have an expiration date you have to take it at face value when it was issued. Grandfathering a requirement and then using it for a criminal prosecution post hoc will be found unconstitutional.

By: Deoxy

Deoxy — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 13:22:47 +0000

One would almost think this was a feature, not a bug, to the people who wrote the legislation… nah, surely not.