to shoot or not to shoot...
I'm not sure how it is in parts of the U.K., however, for the US it's a hodgepodge. There are federal regulations, state regulations, counties within in the state regulations, city regulations/ordinances, etc..
You don't have to register a gun to own it legally in the US, assuming you purchased it second-hand, or before those laws took effect. However, automatic weapons are have to be registered to be legal in several states, and in most others are outright illegal. Concealed weapons permits are given out like candy in a few states, and in others you need to be giving the governor reach-arounds for several years to get one, and that still doesn't cover transporting over state lines. And I always love the "feel good" laws they pass on guns and magazines, restricting the amount of ammo they can hold, or the weapon itself. They tend not to mention the fact that none of those are retro-active, so you can pick up those "banned" items at gun shows dirt cheap normally. For anything else you could consider being used as a weapon there are laws of similar natures times a hundred.
I would love to see that amendment simply amended/repealed all together, wouldn't break my heart in the slightest. I can't see how it would really effect much since it's already outright trounced anyway in my view. "The right to bear arms", does that not mean carrying a firearm is a right, or did someone flip two pages at once on me? The only reason it hasn't happened (other than politicians making money off the lobbyists as usual) is the Southern states will start a civil war part 2 before they ever allow that right on paper to go away, in fact, just about any state with a significant rural section of it's populace.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
