Except that the pro-tax people will claim that the FairTax's method of refunding (actually it's done in advance - so it's a "prefund") taxes on necessities (to eliminate any tax burden on the poor) and not ramping up the percentage to ass-rape the successful are "punishing the poor". Yea, I know, the people who are truly poor will pay no taxes and used items (again, bought by the poor) aren't taxes, but somehow this is punishing them.

We've heard these bogus "It will only affect the super rich (who are evil and deserve to be punished)" lies almost every time new taxes are created, then once they're on the books, they're expanded to cover everyone else. Income tax in the US is a fantastic example of this - it was sold to the people as only affecting the top earners in the US and that it would only be a tax of around 3% of their income. I think it's safe to say we all know how that turned out.

As for why you only pay taxes on the gains? Because you already paid tax on the income used to buy the investment and you only actually gain anything when you sell it. If you want to make borrowing against stock without selling said stock illegal, go for it - but don't alter the system to screw over everyone who owns investments (which includes most pensions and private retirement funds).

http://www.gunreports.com/news/news/US-named-most-heavily-armed-country_3666-1.html?ET=gunreports:e1156:193407a:&st=email

There's a link to download a PDF from the researchers. The big takeaway is "U.S. citizens own 270 million of the world’s 875 million known firearms, according to the Small Arms Survey 2007 by the Geneva-based Graduate Institute of International Studies. About 4.5 million of the 8 million new guns manufactured worldwide each year are purchased in the United States, it said."

Why would I want it fixed? Because it's the government screwing with the market to try to prevent people from obtaining something that is 100% legal to own, with the primary purpose of trying to ensure that the military has superior firepower in case of civil war - which is pretty immoral to intentionally be planning on how best to murder your citizens. Why are you afraid of machine guns? They're essentially never used in crimes (you'd have to search a long time to find the last recorded use of one in a crime in the US) and as I said before, they're highly impractical. A semi-automatic weapon would be much more useful for killing large groups of people because you can still fire quite rapidly and you would kill more people with the same number of bullets (with full auto multiple bullets would hit each person, causing you to have to reload quite quickly - a 30 round magazine on full auto will last about 4 seconds). You want to use fear as a reason to ban them, yet it's a very small minority of people who use guns in crimes and it's often the SAME PEOPLE due to our catch-and-release justice system that returns dangerous people to society while trying to disarm innocent law abiding citizens.

People have the right to a full auto weapon because no one gets to define what another person "needs". Just like you have the right to buy a full size SUV, which I find wasteful and foolish. It's not about need, it's about want. You don't NEED an iPhone. You don't need a laptop. You want them because you enjoy them. I know people who own Uzi's (real, full auto ones) and they own them because they're FUN to go out and shoot a bunch of shit on the range / in the backyard (assuming a rural area), but they rarely shoot them because of the cost of ammo. A gun does not magically kill people - and you're being utterly intellectually dishonest by claiming that law abiding citizens having more guns would magically turn them into killers. Your argument is based on nothing but irrational fear, likely due to not having much experience around guns.

Yes, I know suppressor is the official term, but most people would say "huh?". And yes, $300 is normal for a .22, but for a real gun like a .30-06, they're more like $800. :-) I'm mostly kidding about the real gun thing - I'll get a .22 someday to save on ammo, but I prefer guns that can be used in combat if necessary - hence most of my guns being military surplus. Besides being illegal, the Hughes Amendment was put in place purely to distort the legal actions of citizens by artificially increasing prices to absurd levels, which is highly corrupt, if not illegal in itself.

In most places in America, yes, you can. In wannabe dictatorships like New Jersey, no, but the majority of the states allow it. Hell, half a dozen states don't even require you to have a permit to carry a concealed gun. Also, an increasing number of states are passing laws / having state supreme courts rule that local governments (county, city, township, etc) cannot pass guns laws more restrictive than the state gun laws. Very few states ban NFA items and those that do usually only ban one or two particular types of NFA items (such as explosive devices). Oh, and if you think a handgun is expensive, then you need to go back to school so that you'll have the necessary skills to get a below-average paying job and be able to afford a handgun.

They've been doing it because it's unconstitutional to have a standing army in a time of peace without explicit congressional approval - this way they can always claim to be in a state of war and keep a standing army to use as a threat against citizens trying to change things.

You have far, far more faith in them than I do. There are too many instances of US soldiers gladly going along with orders that were both illegal and immoral. The problem is that the majority of them view the government as being omniscient and infallible, which is why anytime people criticize the unjust actions of soldiers they are proclaimed as "unamerican" for daring to question the government. I know many people, both friends and family, in the military or law enforcement and I wouldn't doubt for a second that if a civil war broke out that they'd blindly kill whoever they were told to without question.

There was a report done recently by some university research group (if you care I could do some searching and track down the source) and it said that out of the roughly 825 million known guns in existence on the planet, over 1/3 of them are in the hands of private non-military / law enforcement citizens in the US.

You forget that the Iraqi's are massively outnumbered - in a US civil war, it would be the military who's outnumbered...not to mention that plenty of citizens in the US spend a LOT of time practicing and are very good shots.