yes, "felony conviction" - so as I said, the crime has to occur FIRST.
fine - you have to be 21 - plenty of 21 year old gang members. and the gang may be criminal enterprise, but how are you going to apply "association" (absent a conviction for something) as an exclusion for a constitutional right? you can't, how do I know who is a member?
you are right, many urban police forces don't work well. and in those situations I agree with you, the choice between an ineffective police force, and broad gun carrying is an easy one - I'll take the gun. But it doesn't always have to be that way, Rudy didn't reduce murders in NYC from 2200+ to 700, by arming 5 million people.
That's right. Since when is prior restraint valid, or conviction w/o trial? Since when has reducing the entire population down to the lowest common denominator a good thing?"and the gang may be criminal enterprise"
May be? They are criminal enterprises! There's none that aren't.
" how do I know who is a member? "
It's never been all that difficult for me to tell.
"you are right, many urban police forces don't work well. and in those situations I agree with you, the choice between an ineffective police force, and broad gun carrying is an easy one - I'll take the gun."
It has nothing to do with ineffective police at all. It has to do with Freedom and a person's right to defend themselves. No one is justified in taking that right away, regardless. Criminals don't hit when they note police are around, or when it look dangerous for them. they hit when one least expects it, as a sneak attack, or after they size up an easy mark.
"Rudy didn't reduce murders in NYC from 2200+ to 700, by arming 5 million people."
He didn't reduce it by taking the guns away and leaving folks defenseless either. In fact he increased the number of those folks that got hit, because they were defenseless. Remember Bernard Goetz. How many times was he beaten, and had his gear stolen, or destroyed before he decided to mount the "illegal" self defense? He shot the perps, because they were going to stick him with a screwdriver. The bliss ninnies in NY got on him hard for that, because he was "violent". So, they held a candle light vigil party for the poor victim perps.
Also, the crime reduction resulted from the institution of aggressive police action, which replaced the former laxity. Again, disarming the citizens did nothing, except ot leave them vulnerable.