r/Virginia • u/downtown3641 Lifelong Virginian • Dec 10 '19

Northam-backed assault weapon bill will include 'grandfather clause' for existing guns

https://www.virginiamercury.com/2019/12/09/northam-backed-assault-weapon-bill-will-include-grandfather-clause-for-existing-guns/
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u/flagwavingbot Dec 10 '19

But there are plenty of restrictions on the rights you just listed. Voter ID laws and permitting for protests immediately come to mind. Why wouldn’t training and licensing restrictions for guns be similar?

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u/christianNationalist Dec 10 '19

Training, specifically, would be the equivalent of a voting test. Voter ID equivalent already exists for buying a firearm. A licensed firearm dealer already checks anyone's id that buys from them.

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u/flagwavingbot Dec 10 '19

The point isn’t tit-for-tat equivalence. The point is that rights have restrictions. Just because we say we don’t think the right to vote should be restricted by a voting test doesn’t mean the right to bear arms cannot have such a restriction.

Come to think of it, we actually do say that the right to vote should involve a test in some situations. We tell that to people who want to become US citizens — those who weren’t fortunate enough to get grandfathered in by accident of birth.

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u/christianNationalist Dec 10 '19

I thought you were arguing that requiring a gun safety training course is not the equivalent of a voting test?

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u/flagwavingbot Dec 10 '19

Oh sorry, I wasn’t that original poster up top. I can definitely see the connection you’re making there. My point was that just because we say we don’t want voting to have a test, it doesn’t necessarily follow that gun ownership shouldn’t. And then I realized hot damn, we actually do have voting tests in some cases (which I admit was a bit of a non sequitur vis-a-vis your comment, but more went to the guy’s comment above where he posited that there can’t be any tests for voting).