Rob,
"bitch-slap"?
I understand the value of standardization. No problem, Rob. What I was trying to express (with some difficulty!!) was that MY goal would be to have the federal government forcing the states to let people carry open or concealed without any registration (of people OR firearms). That would satisfy my sense of the Second Amendment completely.
Never work! Yeah, I know. Pipe dreams.
So then I go to the "take what you can get" mode and end up roughly where your last statement recommends.
What I think is correct or "Right" is so far from what we have any chance of getting it kind of puts me in a quandry.
So, perhaps the best approach is as you advocate,
IF (capitalized & emboldened) we follow up that success with more demands and salami slice our way toward the true sense of the Second Amendment.
I'm not fighting you on this. I realize we must start somewhere. I just don't want a national CCW to end up being a federal registration of all citizens (national ID card) and/or a registration of firearms (any firearms of any type, anywhere).
And I'm not real comfortable with CHL "registration" - even though I am so registered! So I've "compromised" too. And it is a constant source of a bit of shame. However, I "took what I could get" to reduce the danger of spending years in the barbed-wire hotel!
Because of fear (so that makes me a coward in some peoples opinion) and to lessen the legal dangers to my family.
Compromise is ugly - but sometimes you gotta play the hand you're dealt. Let's see, Rob, who says it's better to go to jail/prison and not support your family than to compromise.
If we must improve our position incrementally, I may be able to support SOME of those efforts.
[This message has been edited by Dennis (edited July 01, 1999).]