Posted on 02/02/2012 5:56:56 PM PST by FreedomPoster
The ostensible purpose of gun control legislation is to reduce firearm deaths and injuries. The restriction of access to firearms will make criminals unable to use guns to shoot people. Gun control laws will also reduce the number of accidental shootings. Those are the desired effects, at least in theory. It is important, however, for conscientious policymakers to consider not only the stated goals of gun control regulations, but the actual results that they produce.
What would be the effect of depriving ordinary, law-abiding citizens from keeping arms for self-defense? One result seems certain: the law-abiding would be at a distinct disadvantage should criminals acquire guns from underground markets. After all, it is simply not possible for police officers to get to every scene where they are urgently needed.
Outside of criminology circles, relatively few people can reasonably estimate how often people use guns to fend off criminal attacks. If policymakers are truly interested in harm reduction, they should pause to consider how many crimes — murders, rapes, assaults, robberies — are thwarted each year by ordinary persons with guns. The estimates of defensive gun use range between the tens of thousands to as high as two million each year.
This paper uses a collection of news reports of self-defense with guns over an eight-year period to survey the circumstances and outcomes of defensive gun uses in America.
Federal and state lawmakers often oppose repealing or amending laws governing the ownership or carrying of guns. That opposition is typically based on assumptions that the average citizen is incapable of successfully employing a gun in self-defense or that possession of a gun in public will tempt people to violence in "road rage" or other contentious situations. Those assumptions are false. The vast majority of gun owners are ethical and competent. That means tens of thousands of crimes are prevented each year by ordinary citizens with guns.
Nice to see you. Please keep in touch, and thanks for the ping.
How is the recoil on that Tokarev? My wife does not like .45 due to the recoil and when she shoots .38 Special out of her .357 snub, well that is about as much as she can handle.
But that is the problem -- liberals/Progscum never state the real purpose of an overarching concept like gun control. Gun control ensures that they will be able to put boot on the throats of their adversaries. There is no other end in view.
Congratulations on getting the paper published!
Many thanks for the ping :)
It is amazing what absurd logic the left will use to force their insanity upon us. If a law forbidding gun ownership would stop people from shooting people it would be pointless and unnecessary for that very reason, anyone with the capability of adding two and two should be able to realize this.
Rock on Dave. Good job switching gears and adapting; seeing the writing on the wall about pursuing a law career. Thanks for the update and for all your prior pings.
I wonder how hard it would be to design a 12 gauge shotgun pistol. Something like an oversize derringer.
Of course you’d have to develop special loads as well because a regular 12 gauge shell would probably take the shooters arm off a the shoulder, but could you imagine the look in a mugger’s face when he faced a bore that size?
And heck, with one of those, you’d only need one shot anywhere.
Messy cleanup, though.
What you're looking for is the LeMat Pistol, designed in the mid 19thC. Very popular cavalry weapon during the Civil War. It was a big-bore six-shooter with a 16-gauge barrel underneath, looking something like the idea of the 40MM tube under an M16.
The LeMat is currently being manufactured in Italy and the US by a couple of those companies that work the Cowboy Shooters and collectors markets. Apparently works great!
www.civilwar.si.edu/weapons_lemat.html
Should be enough to cause immediate and severe local sanitation problems amongst your neighborhood perps.
IMNSVHO, not a good candidate for IWB concealed carry, unless you weigh about 375 and wear muumuu's under a parka.
Way cool!!!
Some brainy gunsmith needs to take that design and upgrade it with modern materials, methods and such. Get the weight down, etc.
Can you imagine what a load of buckshot would do to a perp at close range? Hell, with that, it’s practically impossible to miss.
Illegal as hell, apparently. He still had a lot of customers, and he wasn't cheap...first class hand cannons, look just like the grandpappy of all derringers.
That’s what I’m talking about!
Probably break your wrist to fire the thing, but hey, plaster casts are cheaper than coffins.
Get on the blower to Mamma Italia with your credit card in hand. Been done by Pietta and Uberti gunworks. 9 (!) rounds 44, plus 20 Ga barrel. Blackpowder muzzle loader, but then (as with a lot of these modern reproductions) there's a "conversion" cylinder to use cartridges. Scary! Yours for a low, low EU975. The weight, you say? Somewhere in the "2k" range, that's about 4.5 - 5 lbs. Too heavy? Not for a real man. Get a Titanium LadySmith .38.
www.pietta.us/products/Muzzleloadinguns/LeMat/index.html
http://www.squidoo.com/lematrevolver
Are you going to hijack this thread into one of those, "My gun is better than your gun" threads?
The simple fact is the 2nd Amendment says "The right to keep and bear arms shall not be abridged". The 10th Amendment says, "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people."
The 2nd Amendment is unambiguous. A citizen may own and bear/wear a gun. The 10th Amendment also prevents the usurpation of the 2nd Amendment by the states or the people because the 2nd Amendment does give the government the right to Prohibit the abridgment of the right to keep and bear arms. Clear as mud? So, all local and state laws restricting the owning and bearing of arms are unconstitutional. Why are they rarely challenged?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.