All bleeding heart liberals can go eat cake.
Posted on 01/13/2008 8:13:54 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
Is America, land of shooting massacres in schools and public places, slowly falling out of love with guns?
The answer is yes, and it runs counter to popular perceptions of the United States as a country where most citizens are armed to the teeth and believe it is every American's inalienable right to buy an AK 47-style assault rifle with the minimum of bureaucratic paperwork.
But in fact, gun ownership in the United States has been declining steadily over more than three decades, relegating gun owners to minority status.
At the same time, support for stricter gun controls has been growing steadily and those in favour make up a majority.
This is a little-reported phenomenon but the trend is shown clearly by statistics compiled by the University of Chicago's National Opinion Research Center (NORC), which has been tracking gun ownership and attitudes on firearms since 1972, the longest-running survey on the subject in the United States.
The number of households with guns dropped from a high of 54 percent in 1977 to 34.5 percent in 2006, according to NORC, and the percentage of Americans who reported personally owning a gun has shrunk to just under 22 percent.
So, by the rules of democratic play, one might assume that the majority would have major influence on legislation. But that's not how it works, thanks to the enormous influence of the gun lobby.
The long-term decline monitored by the Chicago survey has buoyed proponents of tighter gun controls. "America's gun culture is fading," says Josh Sugarmann, who heads the Washington-based Violence Policy Center.
According to Sugarmann, those keeping the culture alive and those most vocal in resisting tighter regulations are white, middle-aged men whose enthusiasm for firearms, hunting and shooting is not shared by younger Americans.
Yet, at the moment it's difficult to imagine the U.S. without its gun culture.
But then, who could have imagined France with a ban on smoking in public places, Germany with speed limits on almost half its autobahns, or a black man as a serious contender in this year's presidential elections in the United States?
To what extent gun ownership will continue to shrink depends, at least in part, on a decision by the U.S. Supreme court expected this summer. The court will rule on one of the most acrimonious disputes in the United States: do Americans have the constitutional right to own and bear arms?
GUN RAMPAGES PART OF LIFE
At the heart of the long-running debate, argued with more passion than almost any other, is the meaning of the U.S. constitution's second amendment.
Written 219 years ago, it says: "A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed."
A string of lower court rulings over several decades held that the amendment meant to guarantee the collective right of state militias, not individual citizens. Such rulings have had limited impact: gun regulations vary from state to state and in most, weapons are easy to buy and legal to keep.
There are a few exceptions: handguns are illegal in Chicago and in Washington, where a court ruled in December that its total ban violated the constitution. That is the case the Supreme Court will take up this year.
No matter how it rules, the court's decision is unlikely to make much immediate difference to the mass shootings by unhinged citizens that have become part of American life.
Gun rampages happen with such numbing regularity -- on average one every three weeks in 2007 -- that they barely make news unless the death toll climbs into double digits, as happened at the Virginia Tech university. There, a student with mental problems killed 32 of his peers and himself.
President George W. Bush this week signed into law a bill meant to prevent people with a record of mental disease from buying weapons.
Virginia Tech was the worst school shooting in U.S. history and rekindled the debate over the easy availability of guns in America. There are more private firearms in the United States than anywhere else in the world -- at least 200 million.
While that arsenal has been growing every year, the proportion of U.S. households where guns are held has been shrinking. In other words: Fewer people have more guns.
One estimate, by the National Police Foundation, says that 10 percent of the country's adults own roughly three quarters of all firearms.
PREVENTION, NOT CURE
That is the hard core, which counts on the gun lobby, chief of all the National Rifle Association (NRA), to throttle attempts to impose restrictions on the sale of firearms.
The NRA, a group that claims some 3 million members, calls itself "America's foremost defender of Second Amendment rights" and backs candidates for political office on their stand on one issue -- gun ownership -- regardless of party affiliation.
Politicians tend to pander to the NRA, some more shamelessly than others. One of the Republican candidates for the 2008 presidential race, Mitt Romney, went so far as to falsely claim that he was a lifelong hunter and had received an official NRA endorsement in 2002.
Small wonder, then, that the debates following every shooting massacre tend to focus not on the easy availability of guns but on preventive security measures.
Metal detectors at the entrances of shopping malls, for example. Or bullet-proof backpacks. They were developed in the wake of the 1999 shooting at Columbine High School, where two teenagers killed 12 students and teachers and then themselves.
The Columbine-inspired backpacks went on sale in August and have sold briskly. "Sales picked up considerably in the Christmas period," said Mike Pelonzi, one of the two men -- both fathers -- who designed and market them. "Our market is expanding."
The author of this article would be disappointed in me: I just ordered an Ed Brown 1911.
I’ll bump.
From NORC press release: “The telephone survey of 1,200 U.S. adults”
This guy is a German. What would he know about the Second Amendment and the U.S. Constitution? This is bovine scatology. Reuters should be ashamed of itself for posting this garbage.
Because the coward chose to attack a gunfree/freefire zone. I wonder what would happen if he tried at a gunshow.
A big surprise form someone named “Berndt”.
Here is one of his other articles:
“The $3,850 per second war and its victims:Bernd Debusmann”
Liberals are never so concerned with the cost of any tax expenditure except when it involves the military.
Our group runs about 30-50 concealed carry students through a month (not to count our NRA courses). Most all our students are under 35. We just finished a class of 22 yesterday, 4 were women.
All bleeding heart liberals can go eat cake.
...those keeping the culture alive and those most vocal in resisting tighter regulations are white, middle-aged men ...
Those of us familiar with the left these past 3-4 decades know that this is a revealing statement in the article. The “gun culture” is a euphemism for white males, the cultural enemy of the left. It is a stereotype of the left that makes guns an especially important target of the left. To ban guns from private citizens is a symbolic defeat of the white male culture and the old America.
The article is full of lies, but that is what ownership of the press is about in the 21st century. He who owns the press spreads the lies. Gun ownership is up and recent information is consistent in evidencing favorable attitudes toward the individual right to self defense. The number of guns has increased, not decreased, and guns in the hands of citizens continue to protect the lives of individuals.
But then, the natural right to self defense isn’t open to public opinion. Either the right is unhindered or it is infringed and all infringements, as reminded us in our Constitution, are “shall nots” no matter who, when or where is the guilty offender. He who infringes this right violates a human right just as surely as does a slave owner or a murderer.
He works for Reuters.
In Germany, all the guns were taken away by fascists. They all want the same for us.
This clown should also go learn why Switzerland remained free during the war from these same fascists.
This weekend I took my 11 year old nephew out to the range. He shot three rounds from the H&K USP but emptied a whole clip from the PS90. When he finished with the P90 he had an ear to ear grin!!! He said “I have to have one of these!!!”
Reuters has repeatedly been accused of showing an anti-Israel and anti-American bias.
It was founded by the German Paul Julius Reuter. Reuter was born Israel Beer Josaphat; his father was a rabbi. He converted to Christianity and changed his name).
He fled Germany after the failed Revolution of 1848. Among the demands of the demonstrators was arming of the people. Turned his back on both his heritage as a Jew and the people with whom he protested. Nice guy. 160 years later the organization remains unchanged.
So, how do you like it? I’ve always been jealous of the Stargate SG-1 team because their P90’s look so cool... Maybe in 2008 I’ll get one...
In fact the gun grappers will say the following: if you want to own a gun you are mentally unstable. And by law mentally unstable people cannot own a gun.
Bernd Debusmann must have had his semi-annual wet dream and decided to write his take of it.
I’m fixing to buy an AR clone and am conflicted as to Mfg. and caliber. I’ve about made up my mind on Rock River Arms as the MFG. Every time I think about a .223 a little voice in the back of my head says “nah man, 308” See what I mean.
Nice! I just went to a gun show in Fort Lauderdale, FL Saturday. The place was packed! I found my new S&W 340SS which I had been looking for. I can’t wait to pick it up next Saturday at the Miami gun show. Gun shows are fun! Where else can I find buffalo beef jerky and slim jims?
I love it. It one of those guns I really don’t have any use for other than just going punching holes in paper targets. But its fun! I just wish I could afford the Class 3 tax stamp to get a full auto version. That would be a hoot!
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