Battlecheese

Steady on. Let's try to keep it to R vs D please.

Given there was no evidence that Afghanistan was involved, and the government of that country offered to extradite ObL to the US...

Maybe. The difficulty of course is motive. They have none, and the UK government has plenty.

It didn't look inept to me. I think it's just how they do things at home.

Where is what the case? people not being accountable for their own weapons? Anywhere they can just sell a gun to a random with no obligation to even identify the person, let alone verify they are permitted to own one.

One of the problems with representative democracies and republics is that the entire system tends to select weak people. People without the strength of character to be peaceful. Mouthy blowhards like Trump are an extreme example, but it is a pervasive problem.

Of course it is stupid. But when making people accountable for the guns they own is a non-starter, what other options do they have?

You wrote it. I just pointed out what you said.

Obviously there needs to be a licensing and competency system. Like your car.

Well, you're on the hook while it's your gun. If you want to go lending it to people you better be pretty sure they won't do something silly with it.

It doesn't keep them off balance. It props them up. Stabilises them. When people feel at risk of invasion they support all sorts of silly leadership.

This "pressure" is keeping the freaks in charge, fool.

Without wanting to go too grammar-nazi, the active portion of your sentence was "intention to comply". The implication that people suggesting such programs were "betters" in any situation was generally acknowledged in your statement.

Chain of custody. You don't have a serial number on your gun: hard time. You don't inform the feds when you sell a gun and identify the receiver: hard time. You have more than 2 guns "lost" or "stolen": lose your license forever. Edit: A gun of yours shows up at a crime scene: better hope you'd reported when you sold it.

This is an important philosophical point actually. People who lie don't just lie about particular things. They lie about everything. Even worse, they do it to themselves.