If you're in the mood for metaphor, the ATF is merely the boot, politicians who direct them the foot. Those who vote for gun control are the leg, the beating heart, the brain of the infringement engine.
If you pay a man to rob me, are you still a civilian?
If you pay a man to kidnap me, are you still a civilian?
If you pay a man to kill me, are you still a civilian?
If you look at a list of the circumstances in which you already pay to have me robbed, kidnapped, or killed, and you think to yourself "That list just isn't long enough." and so you agitate to double it in length, make it less clear, and enforcement more aggressive, are you still a civilian?
Your 'clear statement' assumes that there's no such thing as violence-by-proxy, or that those who engage in violence-by-proxy are not morally culpable for having done so.
If you're in the mood for metaphor, the ATF is merely the boot, politicians who direct them the foot. Those who vote for gun control are the leg, the beating heart, the brain of the infringement engine.
Here’s a very clear statement. If you begin murdering civilians, you’re my enemy.
Here's a series of very clear questions:
Your 'clear statement' assumes that there's no such thing as violence-by-proxy, or that those who engage in violence-by-proxy are not morally culpable for having done so.
As I’ve stated before, the people who would send others to do violence should be found, tried, and made into birds.