Steven, where to start? Let me take your points one by one...
<Explain to me why violent crime of all types has gone DOWN in the states that have relaxed the concealed carry rules.<
This is a favorite statement from gun nuts. The facts are that violent crime is down in virtually all areas. In fact, the largest drop in violent crime, gun deaths, murders, etc., over the past five years has been in NYC(see most recent FBI criminal statistics). Yet, NYC has the most stringent gun control laws of any city in U.S. Crime is down, is has nothing to do with concealed weapons. In NYC there is an automatic 1 year prison sentence for anyone with an unlicensed, concealed weapon. Yet, murder is down from 2,200 in 1992 to 600 in 1998. Why? More effective police work, tougher sentencing laws and a general aging of the population.
<If those kids had a reason to suspect that a teacher or janitor was carrying they might have reconsidered. <
Hello??? They killed themselves!!! They obviously weren't terribly worried about dying...
<There is no doubt that domestic altercations sometimes end in a shooting because a gun is handy. Would getting your head bashed by a baseball bat or your intestines sliced by a butcher knife be any less fatal? <
Another favorite gun nut canard. I hate to keep introducing facts, but, people all over the world have domestic disputes, disputes on the street, etc. Yet, in country's that don't have widespread gun ownership there are very few murders at all. For example, in the U.K, with a population of 60 million, there are less than 100 murders of any sort each year. In Japan, with a population of 140 million there are less than 50. Both countries have almost total bans on gun ownership. Both countries have lots of kitchen knives, clubs, etc. Yet, somehow they have a handful of violent deaths and the U.S. has over 30,000 gun deaths a year with a population of less than 300 million. Care to explain that?
<As to automatic weapons they are already illegal but that doesn't stop gangs from using them. This is just not true. The only laws in place have to do with a restricted number of weapons and are skirted by the manufacturers and importers who make silly modifications so that the guns are classified as "semi-automatic", these are readily reversed. As you surely know, you can go to virtually any gun show in this country and see an unbelievable number of automatic weapons or "semi-automatic" weapons for sale. They are hardly illegal. BTW, where do you think that gangs get them? They buy them from intermediaries who have purchased them legally.
<While we are at it lets ban propane tanks and steel pipe as someone like those kids in
Colorado may use them to make bombs. Of course we will have to ban fertilizer and diesel fuel too so another McVeigh doesn't blow something up.<
This is a really pathetic argument, but, one that gun nuts love to use. How many times have we heard that cars kill people, fertilizer kills people, kitchen knives kill people???? The difference is that none of those things are designed to kill anything. The fact that they can be used that way isn't a very good argument for not trying to get rid of things are designed to only kill people.
Finally, your statements about people protecting themselves, etc., is exactly what I am talking about. Guns are about a feeling of power, that's why people own them. It's people who are insecure and feel powerless who are attacted to guns because it assuages those feelings. It doesn't have anything to do with protecting oneself. The facts remain the same. You have 10x the chance of being killed by someone you know than you do in a random act of criminal violence. |
