It's really hard to compare something so very fictional to real life, but we do require guns to be registered, and their users licensed. Only specific countries are allowed to have nuclear weapons... I mean, 1/2 the X-Men are probably more dangerous than a nuclear bomb.

That said, weapons can be separated from the person that fires them... mutants can't, so it's a really tough issue. I'd imagine in real life there'd be some sort of mandatory power dampeners, unless, say Storm worked for the CIA or something.

With the original Civil War series from Marvel, I thought about pro- or anti-registration.

Of course we all love liberty, but, like Shax has pointed out, some of these mutants would literally been walking WMD's.

How exactly to do something, I'm not sure, but, to not somehow have some sort of monitoring or mentoring or something for these people, would not be correct for all the rest of the world's citizens.

At the very least, the government would have a specific organization to track the mutants and have force ready if need be.

I think that's a bit of a strawman, though. The point is not that they can do harm but rather that some of them are almost inevitably going to cause harm on a large scale simply by nature of their powers and the extent of control they require. Most of these mutants wouldn't have a Charles Xavier teaching them how to control their powers and to view them as an awesome responsibility. Some will simply fry a city block as an instinctive reflex whenever they are having a bad day, regardless of good intentions.

I agree registration is not a desirable option (thus the point of starting the debate) but neither is just waiting for something to happen...again and again.

I would say yes, I would be for it, just for the simple "the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few or the one". But that's the logical approach to it. Not sure without it being a reality how emotion might trump my logic. Especially if I knew someone personally that was a mutant. Even more one of my children.

A more humane alternative, if the technology existed would be the "dampers" that were used in Genosia in the 90's X-Men cartoon (I don't know if it happened in the comics) minus the internment camp part of it. Perhaps something one could volunteer to do.

The approach to it, much like how badly this country seems to approach things like racism and sexism, can be far more productive to a solution, then the actual solution itself. It's why we seem to be at a stalemate, in this country, as a whole, because the approach doesn't seem to be working, and no side wants to change that. So we'll be stuck in this mire of ineptitude. Or at least in the appearance of our country on the world scene.

Yes.


For a human being to become a murderer, as per your example, a number of atypical circumstances and decisions must occur leading up to that event. I'm not talking about someone like Havoc who can shoot energy out of his hands if he chooses to; I'm talking about beings who, by default, cannot control their destructive energies. No one is born a mass murderer who must learn self control or else hundreds die. The same inevitably cannot be said for certain mutant powers, which are destructive and difficult or impossible to innately control, regardless of the being's intent and disposition. Or look at the example of a toddler. A human toddler experiences tremendous moments of rage in which they are incapable of reason, but they are also incapable of causing destruction. Now give that toddler the powers of Professor X...or Jean Gray...or Magneto.

Human murderers are severely atypical, and it takes a complex series of circumstances and decisions to get them to that point. Some mutants are born with the innate ability to destroy by default, and some are not born equipped with the ability to control those powers.

I agree with shaxper's point, and why I would feel in support of a registration policy. Granted this is fiction, but the reality of a human capable of destruction on a level no one person is possible of to this point, deserves consideration both as a person and as a potential for destruction. That being whether they choose to be malevolent or not. Hopefully if this happened there would be a balance that could be reached to where it would encourage voluntary registration, for those that do not have an intent for destruction or are aware that there power is beyond their scope to contain. If they are treated humanly, then it becomes a real show for the concern of them and might help both sides become comfortable with each's others concern for the world as a whole.

It's why I don't think blatant strict gun control is beneficial in the long run. Should any citizen be able to at least own a 9mm handgun or bolt action rifle? Sure. (Though not veer too far off topic, but I'd like mandatory training on safety and usage, just like a car to get a licence for it.) But does the average citizen need a full automatic machine gun that can spit out 100 bullets per second (that just a fictional figure)? No not in my eyes, because that's much more killing power than any one person needs. It's bad enough the history of man has brought these kinds of weapons into existence period.

Yes, I can generally see your point. Problem is, in the MU, you can have the mutant gene and not have had your powers manifest yet, so I DO think it would be important to track those individuals out of concern for the potential destructiveness their powers could end up having (and, in the MU, super destructive powers occur far more regularly than mass murderers). Even in the case of someone like Bobby Drake, his initial relatively benign powers gradually evolved into something potentially a lot more destructive (though probably still not warranting detainment of any kind).