This has got to stop. Seriously sick of this BS (Overland: crime rate, home)

[CrownVic95]

Originally Posted by MUTGR

Very well said. The time is here for those of us who are not gun owners to arm ourselves to be prepared to protect our families even in our "safe" suburbs.

I completely understand the emotion that drives this. After that Oak Park Mall shooting story was posted, I Googled Oak Park Mall crime and got back a long list of recent armed robberies and shootings. Reading them left no doubt that this was not the Johnson County I lived in 30 years ago. So if I were still there, I would probably feel the same emotion. But I would move rather than add myself to the gun problem. And the last thing I would ever want is a new deadly threat within my household. These tragic domestic incidents happen....and sometimes to the best of people. No one can say they are exempt from what powerful emotions can make people do.

Here's the reality....

Good guy with a gun myth: Guns increase the risk of homicide, accidents, suicide.

More guns only create more threat, more pain, more tragedy. If we are to ever make real progress toward peace, security, and civility, we've simply got to end this gun madness. And it truly is madness - the idea of any and every citizen walking around with weapons making killing at range in an instant the easiest thing they do all day.

We've got to start somewhere. The only thing holding us back is a deeply embedded mindset that stems from a stone age constitutional amendment written for a world and a lifestyle bearing no resemblance to ours today. That amendment was considered an asset in 1789. It turned into a liability at least 100 years ago.

[yabanci]

Originally Posted by CrownVic95

It is unfathomable to me that, in 2015, any intelligent adult could look at the population around him/her and tell themselves I want each and every one of them to be able to own a gun....and my family will be safer for it. For to believe that is to believe that having a dozen rattlesnakes roaming throughout your home's interior is the best way to keep it free of mice.

I love the analogy.

[SPonteKC]

Originally Posted by CrownVic95

You use Britain as an example to attempt to save your sinking ship? Seriously? Our gun murder rate is 40 times theirs.

While I agree with you about sensible gun control laws, it, I think, bears mentioning that while our gun homicide rate is horrifying by western standards, Britain (as well as France, Germany, Sweden, and most other western European nations) have astronomically higher violent crime rates than the US. Correlation, however, doesn't equal causation, as we all know.

[SPonteKC]

Originally Posted by GraniteStater

For better or worse rural areas have a deeply ingrained viewpoint on the right to bear arms due to the hunting tradition. Often times people would just take off work in the Fall to go out for the deer hunting season. As someone who has lived way back in the woods at times, I have more respect for people that actually use all the meat of the animal and keep it in the freezer for the Winter.
Urban scenarios with the right to bear arms are often substantially different from rural scenarios but there is some overlap.

As a hunter, and a gun owner, I hate, hate, hate when people pretend the 2nd amendment (or gun control laws) have anything to do with hunting. They do not. That argument is an invention of the NRA. The second amendment is NOT ABOUT HUNTING. It is about owning arms specifically to kill people. Period.

It is entirely possible to craft legislation that both respects the tradition of responsible, ethical, safe hunting, but also does something to control the plague of gun violence in America.

Almost everyone agrees with regulating and controlling "arms" - which is what the amendment refers to, not guns - after all, no sane person thinks citizens should be able to own dirty bombs or biological agents (both of which are "arms"), and it is totally reasonable to distinguish between the effective firearms used by hunters, rifle and shotguns, and those designed for, and used mostly for, killing people.

[CrownVic95]

Originally Posted by s.davis

While I agree with you about sensible gun control laws, it, I think, bears mentioning that while our gun homicide rate is horrifying by western standards, Britain (as well as France, Germany, Sweden, and most other western European nations) have astronomically higher violent crime rates than the US. Correlation, however, doesn't equal causation, as we all know.

I found that very hard to believe, so did some checking and quickly found this....

By the Numbers: Is the UK really 5 times more violent than the US? – The Skeptical Libertarian | Blog

What Swann either doesn’t know, or simply doesn’t bother to tell his viewers, is that the definitions for “violent crime” are very different in the US and Britain, and the methodologies of the two statistics he cites are also different.

The British Home Office, by contrast, has a substantially different definition of violent crime. The British definition includes all “crimes against the person,” including simple assaults, all robberies, and all “sexual offenses,” as opposed to the FBI, which only counts aggravated assaults and “forcible rapes.”

Checking the other countries would take more time, but I'd expect to find the same apples and oranges situation. Our overall murder rate is still 4 - 5 times higher than the UK, including all modes.

[Anonymous Lurker]

In regards to guns I am of the thought that individuals should be able to do as they want in terms of ownership and carrying them. There should be no attempt at repeal the 2nd Amendment. I say this not because I am some type of Patriotic 2nd Amendment type or even a gun lover NRA type but rather from a simple observational standpoint that criminals simply don’t care about any of those types of laws.

The 14 year old boy arrested on the Plaza with a gun is a perfect example of someone who should not have a gun and we can spend hours debating on who’s to blame for him having the gun but the fact is he had it and could’ve used it.

Look at Lynne Russell and her husband who were in a nice metro area motel when a wanted criminal with a rap sheet a mile long decided to make them a crime statistic. Had it not been for the fact they had a gun and killed the guy they might have been more than a robbery statistic and themselves a murder statistic.

The main problem with these hoards of kids on the Plaza is not their race but rather their apparent lack of class and culture but most importantly their lack of respect for others and their surroundings.

[yabanci]

Originally Posted by Anonymous Lurker

Look at Lynne Russell and her husband who were in a nice metro area motel......

Motel 6 is nice? When did that happen?

[Anonymous Lurker]

Originally Posted by yabanci

Motel 6 is nice? When did that happen?

We all have our own definition of what "nice" is but hey one nice thing about Motel 6 is all the free games and activities they provide their guests; for example,

Counting how many stains are on the bed sheets and pillow (that can be two games)

Count how many hairs are in the bathroom, shower and floor.

How many cigaret burns are on the furniture or counter tops ..




All joking aside I was referring to the city itself (not the Motel) as being fairly nice unlike crime ridden havens like parts of Detroit, Newark, East St. Louis

[Truly Missouri]

It is unfathomable to me that, in 2015, any intelligent adult could look at the population around him/her and tell themselves I want each and every one of them to be able to own a gun....and my family will be safer for it. For to believe that is to believe that having a dozen rattlesnakes roaming throughout your home's interior is the best way to keep it free of mice.

[/quote]

Originally Posted by yabanci

I love the analogy.

I don't know about yours, but my neighbors are very responsible. I would never compare them owning a gun to the analogy of them or me having twelve rattlesnakes roaming throughout the house.

I think that across the board, everyone agrees that there is more that needs to be done to restrict the proliferation of handguns in urban cores. So instead of constantly purposing and inciting these end to all of gun ownership measures, we need to work more on where we already agree. Stricter regulations on gun ownership; who, where, and why they can buy them.

[luzianne]

I wouldn't own a gun without first learning to use it. The last I knew, this was still America and Americans have a right to own a gun. Criminals are always going to own guns. Banning guns would put law-abiding citizens who actually follow the laws at a disadvantage. There are times when the police are not going to be there to help you (and honestly, after what has happened the last couple of years I don't know why anyone would event want to be a policeman anymore), or not able to get there fast enough to help you. And with the changes in society, I wouldn't doubt if those times become more and more prevalent. When it gets to that point, I think being without a gun makes you a sitting duck. I don't want a gun. I don't want to need a gun. But if it gets to the point that I need to get one and learn to use it to protect myself and my family, I will do it. The last thing in the world I would want to do is shoot someone, but if someone is breaking into my house/threatening my family, I would use it.