Larry Cox, in his Aug. 19 commentary about limits on firearms, shows a very odd notion of “punishment.”
A punishment is something that works a hardship. It's not punishment to limit the number of cats you can own, or the number of broken cars in your driveway. Nobody is punished by a limit on the number of chickens you can raise in town, or on the height of a fence you can build, or on the types of vegetation you can plant in your yard, or on the time in the morning before you can run your chainsaw.
A limit is not a punishment; it's just a limit, a regulation. And limits — regulations — are necessary to a civil society. Most limits are limits to a recognized right. You have a right to own cats, but not a hundred of them. You have a right to build a fence, but not one 30 feet high. Every right has its limits, and necessarily so.
The right to keep and bear arms is no different, regardless of what the NRA says. A limit to the exercise of a right is not an infringement of that right. And the right to keep and bear arms is not infringed or denied by regulating its exercise.
Freedom of religion is not infringed by prohibiting the slaughter of sacrificial goats in the backyard. Freedom of association isn't infringed by prohibiting a convicted felon from hanging out with other convicted felons. Every right, every freedom, has its limits in a civilized society. And no right outweighs all others.
A reasonable limit on the kinds of firearms a civilian may own would not be a punishment on those who like to own assault weapons. It would not work a hardship on them (although they would not like it), any more than rescuing 98 of the old woman's cats would work a hardship on her. She wouldn't like it; but you can't always have your way. There are limits.
Bangs L. Tapscott, Millcreek