Debate on concealed weapons revealing

Rocky Mountain News ^ | 23 Mar 02 | Mike Littwin

[stands2reason]

Making a statement, or freedom?

When in doubt, it's always best to err on the side of freedom.

[BulletBrasDotNet]

Now he tries his hand at politics.

He should shut his mouth, and try his hand where it gives him the most pleasure.

[monkeyshine]

And there's also, say, the well-armed citizenry of Afghanistan.

Yeah... who successfully turned back the Soviet Army.

[JackFromTexas]

The truth is, the argument is less about guns and about violence and about self-protection than it is about philosophy. The political divide is fairly obvious.

In a democracy, the People hold power, including the ultimate power of Arms. In a Totalitarian state, the People do not hold power, especially the ultimate power of Arms.

"It is not about Guns, it's about Controll"

[Djarum]

bttt

[gatex]

"But," she said, "it's a statement."

So is "Arbeit Macht Frei" on the concentration camp gate.

[MileHi]

Thanks for posting these articles. What a twit the author is. The problems with his screed are too numerous to rebut.

[Atlas Sneezed]

First of all, it's only about 150 (not 600+) in 1997 for gun accidents. Murder and suicide make up the bulk of child firearm deaths, and can't be stopped by gun laws (and mostly affect older kids, not the sympathetic moppets.)

And when you control for race, you find that whites have less than 2/3rds of under-15 firearms fatalities.

But if you really want the truth about "the children" in most communities, look at 1997 white gun deaths for 10 and under: 33 accidents, 96 homicides, and 3 suicides.

33 white kids of 5th grade or younger die in gun accidents per year. That's all. Increase it to 54 to include all races.

It drops down to 14 white kids and 32 all races in 1999. (whites dropped from 33 to 14, while non-whites dropped from 21 to 18 - it looks like white families are being much more responsible about gun storage, but we need to do some focused outreach. Further research should be conducted to see if these are anomolous data points.)

Source: CDC. http://webapp.cdc.gov/sasweb/ncipc/leadcaus.html

[lelio]

Because a little boy from Arvada, 3 years old, is in the hospital in critical condition with a gunshot wound to the head after handling a gun.
He starts out talking about concealed carry and then switches over to a story where a kid grabs a gun in the home. Words do not suffice.

[jackliberty]

The critically injured 3 year old from Arvada is a tragedy. The 2 Carpenter children murdered in California by a pitchfork wielding maniac is a state mandated tragedy since only the state's safe storage law prevented an older sister from getting to her father's gun.

Just to deal with a couple of this Clymer's lies.

It won't make the streets any safer, either

I'm sure most Freepers are familiar with the Lott Study. There would be 1410 fewer murders, 4200 fewer rapes, 60,400 fewer aggravated assaults if all states had "shall issue" laws similar to Florida's. Sounds like safer streets to me.

according to a report cited by the American Medical Association, in the first 12 states to adopt safe-storage laws the rate (of gun-related accidents) fell by 41 percent.

Again, the Lott Study. "Safe Storage" laws in (the first) 15 states will lead to a 9% increase in rapes, 11% increase in robberies, 6% increase in burglaries and 168 more murders.

Using this Clymer's 41% figure above will save 82 children under 15 (if gun related accidents and accidental gun deaths keep the same ratio.) So "safe storage" should only cost 86 additional lives.

[Travis McGee]

bttt

[spunkets]

"The truth is, the argument is less about guns and about violence and about self-protection than it is about philosophy. The political divide is fairly obvious. It's the cultural divide that is even deeper. Your take on the Second Amendment -- by the way, check your history; even the founders couldn't agree on what the founders meant -- will tell you everything. "

First the founders did agree on the right ot keep and bear arms. Philosophy and political divide yes. The liberals want control off every aspect of life, whether it's personal, market, or other public activity. They are extremely bothered by the fact that folks resist their attempts to control them and force the acceptance of their conclutions as fact. So bothered, that they resort to lies, deceitful propaganda and pure emotional appeal to get their way. The people they appeal to are the ones that pay no attention to this stuff normally. They only pay attention, because the liberals eventually scare them into believing the BS. Liberal vision is everyone elses nightmare.