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Strict, and I mean STRICT, limits - not some magazine size BS - on the possession of firearms would save hundreds of lives a year, including those lost in Tucson last week.
Sorry but you're wrong on this.We have both a restriction on Mag capacity( 10 rounds ) and some of the strictest gun laws in the country and guess what? Almost everyday there's another shooting,robbery or home invasion with a gun here. These are not responsible gun owners who are going out and killing people and do you really think by making the laws stricter it will keep them out of the wrong hands? The Columbine shooting took place while the Auto Weapons Ban was in effect.Drugs are totally illegal but you can still get them very easily.
Take a good look at IL. where you cannot CCW there and look at how well that's working out.The gang bangers know you're not carrying and crime is off the wall there. NJ too, very restrictive state and there's no way I'd want to be there without carrying especially in Camden,one of the most dangerous cities in the country.So there's plenty of proof that strict gun laws don't work.
Quote:
Despite its small population of just 70,0000 inhabitants, Camden (NJ) has been in the top 10 of America's most dangerous cities for more than half a century with just some rare gaps. In fact crime rate in Camden rarely subsided too much since the time the city picked up its infamous criminal background reputation in 1949. That was the year when an unemployed Howard Unruh murdered 13 people in 12 minutes, having thus set the sad record of killing as many people in as little time - more than one per minute! - and becoming the first known single-episode mass murderer in the USA's modern history.
Crime in Camden, America's Most Dangerous City (http://ezinearticles.com/?Crime-in-Camden,-Americas-Most-Dangerous-City&id=2001242 - broken link)
I’ve been involved in this gun debate for about 40 – 45 years now. The first 25 years or so I was a gun control advocate. The last 20 years or so my thoughts have evolved. I remember well the assassinations of John Kennedy, Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King. When Reagan and James Brady were shot I was all for the Brady handgun ban. When Clinton passed the assault weapons ban I supported it. I thought that fewer guns meant less crime. Boy did I need an eye opening.
A good friend of mine asked me why I supported the assault weapons ban and I said that no one needed an assault weapon. Even though I had been a lifelong gun owner and hunter, I had bought into the liberal mantra, and they very convincingly had coined the term “assault” weapon. My friend asked me the difference between an assault weapon and any other gun and I couldn’t answer him. So I began to do my research on the law. It realized that a gun is a gun is a gun. The only difference between and assault weapon and my deer rifle is the look. After reading the law I also realized that if I placed a pistol grip on my little .22 rifle, it was all of a sudden banned. If I placed a custom stock on my shotgun it too could very well be banned. I couldn’t purchase a high capacity magazine but could own as many regular magazines and I wished. These restrictions just didn’t make sense to me.
Then I really started to do my research. Here are some facts. After a mass murder in 1996 England strengthened its already very tight gun laws and banned handguns outright in 1997. Between 1999 and 2000 the handgun crime rate reached its highest level – up 37 percent. An international crime victims survey conducted by Lieden University in Holland found that England and Wales were ranked second overall, behind Australia, in violent crime among industrialized nations and were among the highest in the world. After Australia, England and Wales, Holland was at 25 percent, Sweden at 25 percent, Canada and 24 percent and the United States at 21 percent victimization rate. England and Wales also led in auto thefts; the US is not even in the top 10.
Australia banned private ownership of most guns in 1996. Since then homicide are up 3.2 percent. Assaults are up 8.6 percent. Robberies are up 45 percent and homicides with the use of a gun specifically are up an amazing 300 percent.
The areas in the US with the most restrictive gun laws are also among the most violent. Washington DC, Chicago, New York City and the state of California have some of the most restrictive gun laws and are the areas with some of the highest violent crime rates in the nation. Even though gun ownership in the US has soared in the past 15 years or so, the violent crime rate and steadily decreased nationwide, after increasing every year from 1960 to the mid 1990’s.
While I used to believe that fewer guns meant less crime, statistics have certainly proved me wrong. Our constitution allows for the private ownership of guns for law-abiding citizens. At the same time, it is against the law for a criminal to own, to possess, to purchase, or even attempt to purchase a firearm. Let’s enforce these laws and punish the criminal rather than restrict the rights of law-abiding citizens.
I’ve been involved in this gun debate for about 40 – 45 years now. The first 25 years or so I was a gun control advocate. The last 20 years or so my thoughts have evolved. I remember well the assassinations of John Kennedy, Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King. When Reagan and James Brady were shot I was all for the Brady handgun ban. When Clinton passed the assault weapons ban I supported it. I thought that fewer guns meant less crime. Boy did I need an eye opening.
A good friend of mine asked me why I supported the assault weapons ban and I said that no one needed an assault weapon. Even though I had been a lifelong gun owner and hunter, I had bought into the liberal mantra, and they very convincingly had coined the term “assault” weapon. My friend asked me the difference between an assault weapon and any other gun and I couldn’t answer him. So I began to do my research on the law. It realized that a gun is a gun is a gun. The only difference between and assault weapon and my deer rifle is the look. After reading the law I also realized that if I placed a pistol grip on my little .22 rifle, it was all of a sudden banned. If I placed a custom stock on my shotgun it too could very well be banned. I couldn’t purchase a high capacity magazine but could own as many regular magazines and I wished. These restrictions just didn’t make sense to me.
Then I really started to do my research. Here are some facts. After a mass murder in 1996 England strengthened its already very tight gun laws and banned handguns outright in 1997. Between 1999 and 2000 the handgun crime rate reached its highest level – up 37 percent. An international crime victims survey conducted by Lieden University in Holland found that England and Wales were ranked second overall, behind Australia, in violent crime among industrialized nations and were among the highest in the world. After Australia, England and Wales, Holland was at 25 percent, Sweden at 25 percent, Canada and 24 percent and the United States at 21 percent victimization rate. England and Wales also led in auto thefts; the US is not even in the top 10.
Australia banned private ownership of most guns in 1996. Since then homicide are up 3.2 percent. Assaults are up 8.6 percent. Robberies are up 45 percent and homicides with the use of a gun specifically are up an amazing 300 percent.
The areas in the US with the most restrictive gun laws are also among the most violent. Washington DC, Chicago, New York City and the state of California have some of the most restrictive gun laws and are the areas with some of the highest violent crime rates in the nation. Even though gun ownership in the US has soared in the past 15 years or so, the violent crime rate and steadily decreased nationwide, after increasing every year from 1960 to the mid 1990’s.
While I used to believe that fewer guns meant less crime, statistics have certainly proved me wrong. Our constitution allows for the private ownership of guns for law-abiding citizens. At the same time, it is against the law for a criminal to own, to possess, to purchase, or even attempt to purchase a firearm. Let’s enforce these laws and punish the criminal rather than restrict the rights of law-abiding citizens.
I’ve been involved in this gun debate for about 40 – 45 years now. The first 25 years or so I was a gun control advocate. The last 20 years or so my thoughts have evolved. I remember well the assassinations of John Kennedy, Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King. When Reagan and James Brady were shot I was all for the Brady handgun ban. When Clinton passed the assault weapons ban I supported it. I thought that fewer guns meant less crime. Boy did I need an eye opening.
A good friend of mine asked me why I supported the assault weapons ban and I said that no one needed an assault weapon. Even though I had been a lifelong gun owner and hunter, I had bought into the liberal mantra, and they very convincingly had coined the term “assault” weapon. My friend asked me the difference between an assault weapon and any other gun and I couldn’t answer him. So I began to do my research on the law. It realized that a gun is a gun is a gun. The only difference between and assault weapon and my deer rifle is the look. After reading the law I also realized that if I placed a pistol grip on my little .22 rifle, it was all of a sudden banned. If I placed a custom stock on my shotgun it too could very well be banned. I couldn’t purchase a high capacity magazine but could own as many regular magazines and I wished. These restrictions just didn’t make sense to me.
Then I really started to do my research. Here are some facts. After a mass murder in 1996 England strengthened its already very tight gun laws and banned handguns outright in 1997. Between 1999 and 2000 the handgun crime rate reached its highest level – up 37 percent. An international crime victims survey conducted by Lieden University in Holland found that England and Wales were ranked second overall, behind Australia, in violent crime among industrialized nations and were among the highest in the world. After Australia, England and Wales, Holland was at 25 percent, Sweden at 25 percent, Canada and 24 percent and the United States at 21 percent victimization rate. England and Wales also led in auto thefts; the US is not even in the top 10.
Australia banned private ownership of most guns in 1996. Since then homicide are up 3.2 percent. Assaults are up 8.6 percent. Robberies are up 45 percent and homicides with the use of a gun specifically are up an amazing 300 percent.
The areas in the US with the most restrictive gun laws are also among the most violent. Washington DC, Chicago, New York City and the state of California have some of the most restrictive gun laws and are the areas with some of the highest violent crime rates in the nation. Even though gun ownership in the US has soared in the past 15 years or so, the violent crime rate and steadily decreased nationwide, after increasing every year from 1960 to the mid 1990’s.
While I used to believe that fewer guns meant less crime, statistics have certainly proved me wrong. Our constitution allows for the private ownership of guns for law-abiding citizens. At the same time, it is against the law for a criminal to own, to possess, to purchase, or even attempt to purchase a firearm. Let’s enforce these laws and punish the criminal rather than restrict the rights of law-abiding citizens.
Very misleading! UN Statistics clearly show that while crime may be higher in some, GUN RELATED crime in the US is 10x what it is in western European countries. There is more to it than guns, though. Americans love violence and guns. The two don't go well together. Americans, in the aggregate, are not responsible or civilized enough to be trusted with firearms.
I think it would be like Europe or Canada where the murder and violence from guns rate is a tiny, tiny fraction of what it is in our country. It is utter BS that guns in the hands of everyone prevent or even deter crime. How much difference did they make in Tucson? In Virginia? The only valid comparison there is is with societies that closely restrict gun ownership. They are ALL much safer than ours. The US is the most violent society in the developed world. Either guns have a lot to do with that or we, as a people, are not responsible enough to own them. Either way, their ownership should be a privilege and not a right.
There is a big big difference between imposing gun control laws 40-50+ years ago in Europe etc. than trying to come into a country with huge amounts of existing guns and expecting to make things *safer*.
It's a nice idea on paper but fails in practical application.
Most of the gun problems are gang, drug, urban related....but most of those areas are too "politically sensitive" to actually go in and crack down on that element. So, you get the mayors of cities with hundreds and hundreds of annual guns deaths looking to pass the buck because if they crack down (like Giuliani did in NY pre-9/11) you get called a facist etc. or just voted out of office.
P.S. My co-worker (alone at home with her kid) recently had to shoot a drugged up man trying to burst into her home. Super super long police record and at best she was going to wind up beaten, robbed and likely much worse along with her kid. Thankfully she was able to defend herself and I'm not attending her and her kids funeral.
Very misleading! UN Statistics clearly show that while crime may be higher in some, GUN RELATED crime in the US is 10x what it is in western European countries. There is more to it than guns, though. Americans love violence and guns. The two don't go well together. Americans, in the aggregate, are not responsible or civilized enough to be trusted with firearms.
So we should pass laws restricting guns. These laws will then be followed by the responsible, civilized members of society.....oh wait.
Well at least we made crack and meth illegal and so it is no longer found in the US.
Location: In a city within a state where politicians come to get their PHDs in Corruption
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I wonder how many of you gun owners actually lived in a society/country where guns are a necessity for every day life like I have. US is full of very, very paranoid people.
Very misleading! UN Statistics clearly show that while crime may be higher in some, GUN RELATED crime in the US is 10x what it is in western European countries.
With all due respect, so what? The crime is still there. That just proves it's not the gun causing the crime, it's people. Eliminate one tool and they'll just use another.
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