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The Gun Debate, Continued
Townhall.com ^ | December 8, 2015 | Debra J. Saunders

Posted on 12/08/2015 10:29:50 AM PST by Kaslin

There is something I forgot to mention in my Sunday column about California's gun laws and their failure to stop the San Bernardino terrorist attack last week: I supported California's 1989 assault weapon ban. The bill passed after a vicious elementary schoolyard shooting in Stockton left five children dead. The shooter had an AK-47. Sacramento passed an assault weapon ban that I believed would save lives because it would limit the speed with which a deranged thug could kill.

Fact is, I knew next to nothing about guns. I wrongly equated semi-automatic weapons with automatic weapons. I wrongly thought the guns banned in the 1989 law were faster than other semi-automatic long guns. I felt virtuous because at least I was supporting something.

In 1994, Washington adopted a national assault weapon ban. As the law was about to sunset in 2004, a Department of Justice evaluation determined that if the ban were renewed, then its effects on gun violence would be "small at best and perhaps too small for reliable measurement." That's in part because the banned firearms were used in about 2 percent of crimes before the law was enacted, according to most studies.

In his Sunday night speech on the San Bernardino attack, President Barack Obama told America that to fight terrorism, Washington has to make it "harder for people to buy powerful assault weapons like the ones that were used in San Bernardino." Methinks he wants some partisan cage-rattling to distract from the frightening prospect of terror in the homeland.On Saturday, a New York Times front-page editorial opined likewise. The editorial noted that European bans have not stopped terrorist attacks, "but at least those countries are trying."

That's the spirit of the assault weapon ban community; it is a good thing to enact laws that don't work, because it shows you really care. Pat yourself on the back quickly because you've just chased other Americans -- people who fear that this is an early step in a march against their Second Amendment rights -- to their local gun dealer to buy what they think you want to ban.

For the record, I don't think it's a good thing if more people own guns. Irresponsible owners leave loaded weapons where children can find them. Also, more than 20,000 Americans kill themselves with guns annually.

But this is important: There has been "a remarkable decrease in violent crime and gun crime in the U.S. since the early 1990s, even though the number of firearms has increased by about 10 million every year," Center for Research in Crime and Justice Director James Jacobs told Time magazine. "There's no simple correspondence between the number of firearms in private hands and the amount of gun crime, and I often find it somewhat strange that there seems to be a perception that things are worse than ever when, in reality, things are really better than they've been for decades."

So what's my plan? A few readers have asked me. To start, I don't believe in enacting laws that do not work. I know what did work -- the heroic San Bernardino Police Department. Officers arrived at the scene in four minutes. A surveillance team found the terrorists' rented van; the shootout that followed very likely prevented another deadly attack. The officers' training saved lives. The key is to know your enemy. The enemy is Islamic extremism, not American gun owners.


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Culture/Society; Editorial
KEYWORDS: 2ndamendment; banglist
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To: Kaslin

I’m a little confused. The article says that the number of guns in America has increased by about 10 million per year, every year, since 1990. That would mean 250 million new guns since 1990. Does that mean that prior to 1990, there were only 50 million guns in America, or that there’s a whole lot more than 300 million today?


21 posted on 12/08/2015 11:40:12 AM PST by Sicon ("All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others." - G. Orwell)
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To: Kaslin
Yes, I have. Is the irresponsibility having guns, or not teaching the kids to leave them alone?

Toddlers as victims of self-inflicted wounds often raise questions with me. Although I understand the superpowers of the errant two-year old, I have few arms which would be readily lifted (when loaded) or operated by one so young.

I agree, that despite the incredible climbing abilities of the little nippers, the attempt should be made to place a loaded weapon out of their reach. Like anything else, once they have it, they will mess with it until they get it to work.

For that environment, I would recommend a pistol with a magazine safety. You can leave one up the pipe, pull the mag, and it can't be fired. Put the mag at a separate high location where an adult can readily reach it, insert it, and you are ready to go if you need it, but it would be darned hard for the kid to get it operable.

Anyone with toddlers should put noisy stuff on the way to things they don't want touched, both as a distraction and as an alarm that someone is messing where they shouldn't be.

22 posted on 12/08/2015 11:40:38 AM PST by Smokin' Joe (How often God must weep at humans' folly. Stand fast. God knows what He is doing.)
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To: piytar

Thanks for the video link. That is a great video. Too bad we cant feed it to the sats and override the evening news to educate the masses. I’m pretty sure CBS won’t be playing it real soon.

The video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pELwCqz2JfE


23 posted on 12/08/2015 11:44:42 AM PST by No You Cant
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To: Smokin' Joe
Toddlers as victims of self-inflicted wounds often raise questions with me. Although I understand the superpowers of the errant two-year old, I have few arms which would be readily lifted (when loaded) or operated by one so young.

Always wondered about those myself.

I don't know many toddlers that could either pull a double-action trigger or cock the hammer on a revolver or pistol to get it to single-action. Aside from strength, their hands just aren't big enough. Or rack the slide on a semi-auto.

Either these guns were left unattended in the most ready condition possible, which would be extremely negligent, or something else was going on.

24 posted on 12/08/2015 11:58:43 AM PST by Trailerpark Badass (There should be a whole lot more going on than throwing bleach, said one woman.)
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To: Sicon

Does that mean that prior to 1990, there were only 50 million guns in America, or that there’s a whole lot more than 300 million today?


No, purchases of firearms barely keep up with the losses from canoe accidents; these accidents and resulting losses of firearms are reported continuously on FR.


25 posted on 12/08/2015 12:13:07 PM PST by Mack the knife
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To: Trailerpark Badass
Either these guns were left unattended in the most ready condition possible, which would be extremely negligent, or something else was going on.

Yep.

26 posted on 12/08/2015 12:16:26 PM PST by Smokin' Joe (How often God must weep at humans' folly. Stand fast. God knows what He is doing.)
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To: kozanne

Now THAT is a very, very troubling story. I met and spoke with Jim Comey a few times when he was the DAG and consider him an honest and upstanding man. His failure to look at, or speak to, Lynch speaks volumes and he was obviously extremely uncomfortable at having an Obama acolyte and back bencher monitoring and revising his comments.


27 posted on 12/08/2015 12:20:56 PM PST by ManHunter (You can run, but you'll only die tired... Army snipers: Reach out and touch someone)
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To: Kaslin

Interesting point there. Not sure how one would preemptively identify “irresponsible gun owners”.

Children who are brought up around and taught to respect weapons, taught proper gun safety and educated in the use of firearms are MUCH less likely to pick up and “play” with weapons than children who are not.

Some time ago, I read about a study done in Virginia in which inert (non-firing) guns were left in classrooms; closed-circuit cameras monitored childrens’ reactions to the guns. What the study found was that children who had been taught gun safety and proper handling left the room and reported the presence of the gun in the classroom, whereas children who had not immediately picked them up and started playing with them, including aiming them at their classmates and “shooting them”.


28 posted on 12/08/2015 12:34:18 PM PST by ManHunter (You can run, but you'll only die tired... Army snipers: Reach out and touch someone)
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To: Dead Corpse
Victim Disarmament laws/zones don’t work. Repeal them all and give us our FULL RKBA back.

Yes. ALL of it.

Repeal the National Firearms Act. All of it.

Repeal the Gun Control Act. All of it.

Repeal the Hughes Amendment.

A well regulate militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.

29 posted on 12/08/2015 12:37:27 PM PST by NorthMountain ("The time has come", the Walrus said, "to talk of many things")
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To: Kaslin

Likewise, there are “stories” of children who have been taught to use guns properly, knew where they were and used them in the defense of themselves and their siblings.


30 posted on 12/08/2015 12:37:28 PM PST by ManHunter (You can run, but you'll only die tired... Army snipers: Reach out and touch someone)
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To: Trailerpark Badass

yeah, kinda like that at my house, too....when I was a lad.

my dad was LEO, and would come home from work every day, and lay his old blued 4” smith in the holster on the buffet in the living room.

we knew not to play with it.....of course, all of us kids had our initial firearms training under his tutelage, starting at the age of seven.


31 posted on 12/08/2015 12:39:52 PM PST by QualityMan (I will not comply.)
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To: NorthMountain

*ding ding*

Give that FReeper a Kewpie Doll.


32 posted on 12/08/2015 12:53:09 PM PST by Dead Corpse (A Psalm in napalm...)
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To: Kaslin

You cannot childproof a gun. My Dad had trigger locks. I learned to pick them. What kept me from doing naughty things with them? I was taught to respect them as dangerous tools.

You cannot childproof the world, but you CAN world-proof your children.

Start teaching responsible gun handling in Grade school. Right along with knives and fire.


33 posted on 12/08/2015 12:55:21 PM PST by Dead Corpse (A Psalm in napalm...)
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