Why We'll Never Have Real Gun Control

Legal Affairs Magazine ^ | Jan 2003 Issue | James J Jacobs

[HumanaeVitae]

The writer of this article comes from a center-left perspective (by his recommendations of one-gun-a-month laws and ballistic fingerprinting), but the statistics in the first part of the article are telling. Gun control doesn't work (as a proud gun owner and supporter of Vermont-style concealed carry, I concur). I think the left is starting to understand this, a little (Legal Affairs is a publication affiliated with Yale Law School). But we'll see...

[HumanaeVitae]

PING

[Mo1]

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[Destructor]

"Guns play a large role in homicides, but they also play a large role in American life more generally. There are 250 million firearms in private hands in the United States, and the arsenal is growing by about 4.5 million new firearms each year."

That's right. Those who would take away the 2nd Amendment Right to Keep and Bear Arms would do well to remember that fact!

[Republican_Strategist]

All gun laws are unconstitutional and should be abolished.

[Vic3O3]

ping

[Blood of Tyrants]

Center-left? Much further left, IMO. Consider the following:

...American social landscape--with its vast income inequalities, legacy of racial oppression, and enduring frontier mentality—responsible for the conditions in which violence thrives...

Bullsh*t! A vast majority of murders are committed over DRUGS and have absolutely NOTHING to do with income, race (except that blacks tend to commit the most murders, especially against other blacks), or a "frontier mentality" (in Detroit and East L.A.?)

[Gunslingr3]

That's right. Those who would take away the 2nd Amendment Right to Keep and Bear Arms would do well to remember that fact!

If they come to take your firearm, will you shoot them in the face, or hand it over and hope a lawyer can get it back for you?

[Blood of Tyrants]

What's the purpose of requiring non-FFLs to put their customers through a background check at a gun show, but nowhere else?

To destroy gun shows. The bill not only requres PRIVATE CITIZENS to obtain a background check on potential buyers in a PRIVATE TRANSACTION, but attempts to force a 3 day waiting period to purchase ANY gun.

[Blood of Tyrants]

And yet more ant-gun drivel.

The foremost goal of gun licensing is prevention—keeping guns out of the wrong hands —rather than punishment.

Again, BULLSH*T! The foremost goal of gun licensing is universal REGISTRATION so they know exactly where the guns are when the decide to round them up.

[Destructor]

When they come for mine "they" will find that I am not at home. They will also find every light in the house on. I will be long-gone having left before hand to join the resistance.

[Libertarianize the GOP]

bang_list without the asterisk will not add the thread to the *bang_list. Somebody tried to sign up as bang_list and messed up the system.
http://www.freerepublic.com/perl/bump-list

[absalom01]

What is the problem for which gun control is the solution?

There's the issue, all wrapped up neat and tidy right at the beginning.

Most sincere people who would tend to support gun control do so out of a belief that the risk, and prevelence, of violent crime would decrease. This has been dispositively shown not to be the case.

Most folks who support gun rights do so out of a fundamental belief that private ownership of arms is a fundamental human right. They'll stoop to utilitarian arguments if needed to convince the fence-sitters, but would sooner jump off a bridge than surrender their arms, or ask their neighbors to surrender theirs.

In the first case, you meet a luke-warm and emotional desire to 'do good' in the abstract. In the second, you meet reason and logic, but also an adamantine and personal determination to maintain one's personal safety, rights and freedom.

THAT's why the issue is so important and so divisive.

[Gunslingr3]

When they come for mine "they" will find that I am not at home. They will also find every light in the house on. I will be long-gone having left before hand to join the resistance.

Right now cops are gathering the 'evidence' of tips that came in during the sniper case hysteria and using that to make visits to law abiding citizens and see if they have 'illegal weapons'. If you lived there, what would you do? Already have headed for the hills to join the resistance? Is it out there waiting for you? How would you react to that knock on the door?

[rdb3]

...or a "frontier mentality" (in Detroit and East L.A.?)

I don't know about Motown or East L.A. East Cleveland might qualify, though. ;-)

Birth of Tha SYNDICATE, the philosophical heir to William Lloyd Garrison.
101 things that the Mozilla browser can do that Internet Explorer cannot.

[Waco]

Medical mistakes kill 90,000+ a year? Trival. No prob. We're not worried about numbers like that. Send us $ $ $ $, that's what we care about.

[HumanaeVitae]

Actually, I typed it in as "*bang list", without the underline _ in the middle...the system translated it to bang_list...thx for the fyi, make note for future.

[GovernmentShrinker]

There are no interest groups that oppose tough treatment for gun offenders.

BS. Obviously there are very strong interest groups opposing tough treatment, as evidenced by the revolving door prisons where violent offenders are routinely sent for brief, taxpayer-funded weight-training and networking sojourns.

[chaosagent]

"Ballistics fingerprinting—requiring manufacturers to test-fire new guns and supply the government with samples of the bullets and shell casings—is worth trying because the implementation and enforcement costs are low."

This is just wrong. An article I read recently here on FP said that just in California, based on 1 years gun sales, it would take 1 ballistics scanner nine years working 24 hours a day 7 days a week to process that ones years sales. And the machines cost $600,000 each. This doesn't include several hundred thousand a year for operator salaries.

Then multiply this by nine if you want to keep up. And then probably multiply it by a 100 if you want to make any headway on the millions of guns already in the hands of owners.

Then multiply this by 50 for all the other states.

Oh, yeah. This won't cost much.

[Frohickey]

If they come to take your firearm, will you shoot them in the face, or hand it over and hope a lawyer can get it back for you?

What firearms? I lost all of them in a freak storm when I was fishing in the lake. Or was that the ocean? ;)