Head in the vault?

I realize I’m far better informed on the state of gun laws than the average gun owner but it appears this guy has had his head locked in the bank vault for the last couple of years:

“Ownership should be earned. It’s a privilege,” said Dickson, vice president and branch manager at Stamford First Bank. “Anybody can easily buy an automatic assault weapon. There should be required training and extensive background checks before people are allowed to own a gun.”

The specific enumerated right to keep and bear arms is a privilege? How could any gun owner of not heard of the Heller decision? Anybody can easily buy an automatic assault weapon? That’s not been true since 1934 and since 1986 it has become significantly more difficult.

Someone needs to find the keys to safe deposit box where Dickson keeps his brain.

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8 thoughts on “Head in the vault?

  1. Maybe he vacations in Mexico a lot?
    Maybe he’s a hard-core libertarian, and wants the drug gangs to implement the training and background checks? You just ASSUME he is calling for government-mandates.

  2. http://www.thedailystamford.com/neighbors/gun-owner-calls-himes-tighten-laws

    The above article was posted after an apparent interview with Neil Dickson. I do not live in Connecticut, but what I write you about is not about what state I live in. Neil gave a small interview where he posed the topic of gun control. Of particular note is the statement where you said:

    “Ownership should be earned. It’s a privilege,” said Dickson, vice president and branch manager at Stamford First Bank. “Anybody can easily buy an automatic assault weapon. There should be required training and extensive background checks before people are allowed to own a gun.”

    You paint your office in a very ignorant light with your statements and I’d like to give you an opportunity to take a look at what you wrote.

    Ownership of guns, both handguns and long guns, such as rifles and shotguns, is an enumerated right as protected by the Constitution of the United States. The Second Amendment says “A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the People to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.” The Supreme Court held in Heller vs DC that the Second Amendment indeed protected this right to individuals.

    Gun ownership is NOT a privilege, it is a right. It is a good idea that people get training, but in no way should it be required, however that’s a fight for another time.

    Your statement that we should require background checks is very interesting itself as background checks already are required by federal law, policed by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives. What more do you want? The federal government is doing a background check. Do you want every person in the country to submit their fingerprints? Do you want every person in the country to undergo a mental health competency exam? The implications of a requirement like this

    Lastly, your statement that “Anybody can easily buy an automatic assault weapon” is horribly inaccurate. Automatic assault weapons are banned post 1986. You CANNOT buy one that was made after that year. You can only buy the ones BEFORE that year if you can afford them (thousands and thousands of dollars) and if you pay the government a $200 tax.

    Mr Dickson and Mr. Palermo, I am a gun owner. I am a former US Marine. I encourage ALL Americans to own guns, provided they are law abiding and not proven to be mentally deficient. We law abiding gun owners follow all of our laws. If someone wishes to murder another, do you honestly believe that they will obey the laws when it comes to obtaining their chosen implement for killing? The tighter restrictions that are consistently placed on gun owners only affect those that wish to only protect ourselves. Those that do not follow the laws will forever be unaffected.

    If you disagree with my sentiments, please send me a message back stating why you think I’m wrong. You’re doing yourself and your own bank a HUGE disservice by being remaining ignorant on the laws which you berate. If you disagree that the current laws are too lax, then I encourage you to work with your lawmakers to amend them, but by your statements it is very obvious that you simply know nothing of those laws. Ignorance is only a fault if you let it be. By definition it means only that you do not know the information itself. If you refuse to read into the information, only then does ignorance turn into a fault, and a very terrible one.

    [Tango] Sr.
    Utah
    Fmr. Cpl, USMC
    Husband and Father
    III

    and him. I particularly likes how he contradicts himself in his closing statement and his signature line:

    Mr. [Tango]:
    As a licensed gun owner in Connecticut, I appreciate your feelings on this matter.
    Please understand that this is my personal position and not necessarily that of Stamford First Bank.
    Thank you for your service to our country!

    Neil Dickson
    VP/Branch Manager
    Stamford First Bank

    and me:

    Mr. Dickson, the issue is that you’re presenting items that simply are not true. You claim that you can walk in and easily buy an automatic assault rifle. That is not true and is incredibly illegal for all parties involved. It cannot be done legally unless you have VERY deep pockets since the only legal ones are increidbly expensive. I am all for legislation that will prevent firearms from getting into the hands of restricted persons, but when you pass of incorrect information as fact, it’s misleading to the uninformed public.

    It’s also a fallacy that gun ownership is a privilege, but apparently that’s just a semantics issue in your eyes. To put it into perspective, what would you say if you were told that ‘saying whatever you want is a privilege, it is not a right’?

    This isn’t a double standard, sir. Either we support all rights in the Constitution, or we support none. Without all, we will have none of them.

    Again, my issue isn’t with your viewpoint, but with the fact that your presenting this information as fact and it’s incorrect. Since you do this while your elected representative is visiting your company, it is presented as the viewpoint of the entire bank.

  3. Depositers should RUN, not walk, to that bank and pull their funds out now and find a bank or credit union where stupidity and ignorance (or else utter dishonesty) is NOT the managerial theme.

  4. Its not that he’s had his head in a vault. This is the result of the intentional falsehoods that VPC/Brady trade in as we’ve discussed.

  5. Define “easy”.

    I am friends with two guys that don’t find buying machineguns difficult at all; they’re bloody rich. Buying an MG is definitely a problem that can be solved by throwing money at it.

    ’86 didn’t make it more difficult as much as make MG’s unaffordable (the goal no doubt).

  6. To me “easy” would include pickup and/or delivery within a day or two of nearly any MG model currently in production.

    Waiting weeks or months for paperwork to be completed and approved is not “easy”.

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