Constitutional Law

Obama's proposal to ban gun stores within 5 miles of a school

Reader Henry Bowman had a comment blocked by the spam filter, and merits a separate post. He writes:

"Barack Obama supported a proposal to ban gun stores within 5 miles of a school or park, which would eliminate almost every gun store in America." is more than just a little exaggeration.

You think so? Let's go to the website of somebody who has done the homework you should have done.

Check out the map there, and the other maps linked on that page. Every one of those dots is merely 1,000 feet in radius -- the size of the current "school zone" for the federal law.

Now imagine that each dot is 26 times bigger! Where do the gun stores fit, Steve?

I once lived in a small Massachusetts town that was shocked to discover that a "clothing store" that applied for a business permit turned out to be an "adult" store. State law didn't allow them to ban that type of business in town outright, but they could "zone it." So they quickly drafted an ordinance saying that no adult store could locate anywhere in town that was "within 1,000 feet of a school, day care center, playground, park and recreation facility, or residential area." Gee, miracle of miracles -- there were only two lots in town that fit this criteria: the existing store and the lot next to it. So they added an amendment saying no store could be within 1,000 feet of another such store. Mission accomplished. Hey, it's not a ban, it's just zoning.

Ah, then they slated a kiddie park to be built within 1,000 feet of the existing store. It didn't work, only because the state court told them the existing store was grandfathered and to stop screwing around.

The "zoning" approach is a common ploy of politicians who know that their constituency is too innumerate to realize how much land area their little trick denies to the object of their hatred.

So sorry, Steve, but "here's your sign."

Full post as published by Of Arms and the Law on June 09, 2008 (boomark / email).