As far as a federal license, you're not paying for a right, you are paying for a license that allows you to get reciprocity on a federal level. You can own your gun (fee free) in your house for all I care, so long as you don't leave your private property with it.
Once you cross onto public property, or someone else' land though, you need to prove you can be trusted.
Whether you like it or not, people who own firearms need to be trained. We no longer (by and large) hunt for our food. We no longer regularly see guns in our homes. People are not intimately familiar with firearms as they were in the "days of yore".
I am far more scared of an untrained owner than any criminal. All my LTC course did was prove that there are many idiots that needed it. Additionally I am thankful the instructor made everyone live fire (which is not required). Many picked up their firearm and immediately put a finger on the trigger. Others couldn't correctly grip it. One person clearly was never going to touch one again after the live fire exercise.
You have instances of morons with guns all over. Think of the woman live firing in the Home Depot parking lot, or the man who wanted a whole in the wall for his satellite line (yup, shot his wife).
We are no longer in a type of world that allows guns to go to people without training, and that is for the best. Too many people (criminals and law abiding citizens alike) grow up without them and mistake them as glorified toys when they get them.
Otherwise you can own your gun. But no, you can't bring it out in public and parade around state to state without showing you have some sort of proficiency with them, and that you aren't a criminal.
Now with all that being said, if you are too cheap to kick $100 to the gov for a license, how are you affording a firearm and ammo? As a matter of fact, if you can't swing $100 for a license, I don't trust you to be capable of responsibility at all. Certainly not the responsibility that comes with handling a firearm.
All those things aside though.... who do you propose pays for the licensing? The background checks? The course instruction? Do you want the government to pay for it with your taxes? Cause then you are still paying for it. Except in that instance, you are asking for those who don't use one to pay for your use too. Well in my book, that's not right. A responsible owner should have no qualms paying for what they themselves use.
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