Posted on 10/18/2012 2:49:12 PM PDT by marktwain
Yesterday, we briefly touched on the fact that in addition to reaffirming his wish to ban so-called "assault weapons," President Obama blames the out of control violence in Chicago on "cheap handguns." From Tuesday night's presidential debate (transcript by ABC News):
Because frankly, in my home town of Chicago, there’s an awful lot of violence and they’re not using AK-47s. They’re using cheap hand guns.
Granted, Obama was short on detail about what he proposes to do about the scourge of "cheap handgun" violence, but if his solution to "assault weapon violence" (which even he admits comprises a vanishingly small percentage of the violence) is an outright ban of "assault weapons," it becomes easy to imagine that he would favor a similar "solution" for "cheap handgun violence."
This approach, of course, would be far from new. Some of the very first "gun control" laws in the U.S. sought to disarm the poor in the Reconstruction Era South, as an ostensibly "race neutral" effort to disarm Blacks. Tennessee's "Army Navy law," of 1879:
Among these laws, the forerunners of so-called "Saturday Night Special" legislation, was Tennessee's "Army and Navy" law (1879), which prohibited the sale of any "belt or pocket pistols, or revolvers, or any other kind of pistols, except army or navy pistol" models, among the most expensive, and largest, handguns of the day. (Such as the Colt Model 1960 Army, Model 1851 Navy, and Model 1861 Navy percussion cap revolvers, or Model 1873 Single-Action Army revolver.) The law thus prohibited small two-shot derringers and low-caliber rimfire revolvers, the handguns that most Blacks could afford.
(Excerpt) Read more at examiner.com ...
So it would be “illegaler” to steal a cheap gun vs. a Glock or Sig or S&W?
Actually, since stolen guns are free (sort of) how does one figure out which are cheap and which are not?
"No self-respecting gangbanger would be caught dead with a "cheap handgun." These are people who think nothing of plunking down $500-plus for the latest pair of Air Jordans. Do you think they're going to skimp on firepower? The brothas and sistas of the hood are strapped with some serious, expensive heat, like Rugers, Glocks, and Berettas. In some cases their handguns are blinged out with gold or silver plating, mother of pearl grips, and precious gems.
"Every black person in the nation knows that gangbangers largely stopped carrying "cheap handguns" way back in the 1970s. Even my 76-year-old mother knows, saying: "What's he talking about?" when I played the quote back for her on video."
Read more:
http://www.americanthinker.com/2012/10/debate_shows_obamas_an_african_stuck_in_the_70s.html
I thought the President’s remark was quite apropos, and quite a concession since so many of his supporters like to claim there is a massive amount of “assault weapon” violence.
As O rightly said, there is hardly any such violence. The semi-random street “gun violence” in Chicago, and elsewhere, that we usually mean when we use the term, is almost all committed using cheap handguns.
That is a fact, and I’m unclear why we’re supposed to resent O accurately using a fact for once.
I’m sure there are some statistics out there about guns confiscated for crimes. If you have a link to actual data, I’d be happy to be proved wrong.
Sorry but that is BS. I have seen gangbangers girlfriends eyeing guns in the store for straw purchase attempts many times.....always a hi-point. But most thugs will get their guns by stealing them.....that means anything they can get their hands on.
Sorry but that is BS. I have seen gangbangers girlfriends eyeing guns in the store for straw purchase attempts many times.....always a hi-point. But most thugs will get their guns by stealing them.....that means anything they can get their hands on.
There are some studies. The easiest is the FBI statistics on homicides, which show that handguns are the most common guns used for homicides (about 50%) , with shotguns a poor second (about 3 %) and rifles of all kinds a distant third (about 2%).
Semi-automatic rifles of military appearance are used in one percent or less of homicides.
Sheesh. Taurus is my baseline.
My comment was on cheap as opposed to expensive handguns being used.
BTW, how does 50% + 3% + 2% add up to 100%? Is there some third category of firearm of which I’m not aware?
I bought a 2-shot Derringer a couple of years ago, and it was NOT “cheap”.
handguns bought legally at gun stores are not cheap.
The N*town Saturday Night Special
The 50%, 3% and 2% are percentages of all murders. Guns make up about 2/3 or all murders, but there is a catchall of unknown guns that makes of about 13% of the total.
I suspect a fair number are homemade, and there is no category for that. They would likely be in the “unknown” 13%.
Here is an analysis of a variety of guns taken from criminals at one police department:
http://www.buckeyefirearms.org/node/8579
Very interesting!
<25% of the guns were “cheap handguns.”
But 2/3 of them were less than fully functional!
Mix in the probable less than full functionality of the criminal shooter, and they’re not nearly as dangerous to an armed and alert opponent as we tend to think they are.
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