i FIND MOST lIers have a disdain for firearms and the 2nd Amendment! (education, government)

[Smash255]

Originally Posted by Gpsma

Quite simply very few people around here want a gun or see the need for a gun.

Guess you have taken a poll of the citizens of Long Island to know their views?

Well, I'm not sure if I would be able to dig it up since it was awhile back, but I have seen polls on gun ownership rates as well as questions on being in favor of gun control or not. The NYC suburbs had among the lowest gun ownership rates and among the highest pro gun control views in the country. (Question was broken down by state and then region IIRC)

[Peter B]

LI'ers basically do whatever the government tells them to w/out much protest. They accept almost anything government throws at them. Higher taxes? No, problem, we'll pay!! Less services? No problem! We accept that! Higher MTA fares to commute?? NO PROBLEM! We'll pay w/out protest! Less mass transit options? No problem! We'll add another car to the household!

Originally Posted by pragcap

A much smaller percentage of the population there seems to own firearms than in other parts of the country.

[Kisel17]

The gun laws are so restrictive around here that it is difficult for the average citizen to even get a sportsman's permit. You have to jump through a bunch of hoops, get four unrelated county residents (non-cops) to vouch for your character and notarize the statements, then the county calls your spouse and boss on top of it.

Six months later, if you pass the background check and investigation you'll get one. Of course, you'll pay over $100 to go through the process as well.

The silliness of going back and forth to Yaphank once you purchase a handgun is another topic altogether but lets just say that Suffolk is more than restrictive. Our rights are nearly violated IMO.

That's why I want to move to PA where I can get a carry conceal license and not be bothered.

[sheena12]

Hunters on Long Island are generally from certain areas. People who are native to Eastern LI, North and South, hunt more as do people in the Shirley - Mastic area, Bay Shore and Brentwood.
My observation.

I am fine with LI's general disinterest in guns. Something that I miss.

[LongIslandEddie]

I'm much less concerned with gun ownership than I am with personal rights, liberties and equality under the law.
If within our system of law, there were effective measures to remove the guns from the hands of the criminal element,
I would be satisfied to live my life on an equal and level playing field, not wanting nor needing a pocket weapon.
Neither the lawmakers nor the law enforcement agents are able to do this. You may say that this could never happen
because we are living in an imperfect world, to that I say: until we reach perfection, give me an equal chance at survival.

Shoot cops? How so? If you were capable of making that deduction from my comment, I suppose that I'm just pi$$ing
into the wind, by even discussing this issue any further with you. It is the very fact, that it is the government who controls
the cops that frightens me most, and after watching their performance after Katrina hit New Orleans, I've pretty well lost
whatever faith or respect that I might've had in their organization, when faced with a national emergency. I'm not looking for
protection from them, I'm concerned with protecting myself from the criminal element that they are ineffective in controlling.
It was after I came to realize that our government was warned by other nations, about the terrorists coming to us on 9/11,
months before the tragedy happened, that I opened my eyes to the gross incompetence of our bungling leaders and to be
more specific, I've seen nothing but a downhill slide, through the years that have followed. No, I don't want to shoot cops,
I want to be able to have an even chance if and when the system collapses. I want to guard my own door and protect my
canned food and my bottled water at a time when the great and neighborly spirit of love thy neighbor, has become a mad
rush for survival, that time when, as they say, the living will envy the dead.

No matter whether the crime rate has risen or fallen, I am not interested in statistics, they won't do me any good when I
find some meth-head crawling into my bedroom window, looking for easy money at 3 in the morning. Violent crime only has to
happen but once in a man's life, before it's curtains for him and he becomes another digit in your hyperbolic statistical pie-chart.
No Scottie, keep your foolish statistics, crime will always be with us.

Yes, the issue IS protection! Why shouldn't I be able to take my Walmart bought, Mossberg 12ga. riot gun, tuck it up under my
trenchcoat and hop on the L.I.R.R., after all, it's not a handgun. Hell, I'm just looking to exercise my right to life if that split second,
life or death decision, comes. Yes, we can agree on the overwhelming majority of gun owners and their responsibility but when I
think about the 50 bullets that were pumped at unarmed Sean Bell just 4 years ago, by 5 police officers, it is apparent that the
scales are out of balance or the guns are in the wrong hands. I wish you luck on your next life-or-death situation.

No, cars are not designed for killing but still, they're doing an effective job at it.

All this indicates is that Texas has more crime and more criminals, guns notwithstanding! Texas needs to install electric bleachers
on death row, they've got a real problem there. Meantime, here in New York, "Old Sparky" is sittin' upstate, just collecting dust, it'll be
fit for a museum some day, crime marches on.

The gun lobby does not base it's operation on "fear mongering". They are the people who've been active in the preservation of
our second amendment rights, the constitutional right to KEEP and BEAR arms.

For the betterment and benefit of your education, please let me submit a link to a higher level of understanding,
in the clearly sincere hope, that you will better fortify yourself with knowledge, as you so vigorously pursue
your previously expressed hobby...

Here's the link:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_...d_bear_arms.22

[SilverBulletZ06]

Originally Posted by dman72

Because we aren't big on hunting and anti-government paranoia is not as prevalent here as it is in many other parts of the country.

Many people I know hunt. its not as prevalent, but its still a past time many people enjoy.

Originally Posted by h-tonian

Theres a direct correlation between education and gun ownership (and an understanding of government and the constitution). Most of us are college educated.

My, how high and mighty of you.

Originally Posted by scottzilla

I trust my following post will be viewed as anti gun. Rest assured, I am not. People who are really in to guns like spreading false information and I enjoy pointing this out. IT's kinda a hobby of mine.
So here we go:
Regarding your first paragraph:
Sounds like you want to shoot cops. Who enforces the governments will? Correct-cops. Having guns to protect you from the gov't is 200 yr old thinking. They have tanks and stuff.
The crime rate on LI has dropped. Matter of fact, violent crime has dropped quite a bit in the last year. For example, as of April 2010 violent crime in Nassau ans Suffolk was down compared to last year.
Unfortunately you are lacking facts to back up your fear mongering.

Where did you get shooting cops? Sounds like he doesn't believe in the government being around 24/7 for protection. This has been backed up by the SCOTUS, police are there to prevent and investigate crime, they are not responsible for your safety all the time.

As for "tanks and stuff", a common statement made by those who don't understand the implications of what they are saying. We have a population of 306 or so million people. We have 200 million or so firearms in private hands in the US. The force of arms needed to carry out the subdual of a population where there is 0.66 guns per person is outstanding. Look at places like Iraq, Afghanistan, Chechnya, Vietnam, et al. Now multiply guns by several factors and that would be the US. Japan said they wouldn't invade the US during WWII because of the sheer numbers of private firearms.

As for violent crime, the biggest offenders for violent crime also have the strictest gun laws.

Regarding your 2nd paragraph:
You can walk in to Walmart right now and buy a rifle. The issue is handguns and your desire to walk out in to soceity with it, for "Protection". I agree the overwhelming majority of gun owners are responsible but many people think it is their rights that are violated by being put in a position where you are making a life or death decision for them. It's a trust issue.
The automobile by design is not for killing, it's for driving.

Concealed carry persons are statistically the most law abiding citizens in the US. Too easy to lose your carry permit so you walk the line thats given.

As far as rights violations, I'll give you that its a grey area, but as far as "trust" thats not even something to bring up. DWI stats show that easily.

Regarding your last paragraph:
Yup, this has been said before and it's logical. However, facts do not support your position.
NY has among the strictest gun laws in the country and is not even in the top 20 for violent crime (At one time NYC was #2). Houston, TX has among the most liberal gun laws in the country and they have a high crime rate, and it's rising! Yes-even prior to Katrina. So if everyone in Houston is carrying a gun, wouldn't it be safer than NY? It's not; there is more gun related crime in Houston than NY, this indicates that more guns = more crime.

No offense but the gun lobby needs to stop the fear mongering and get to the facts. Fact is, LEGALLY obtained guns are not used to commit crimes. Instead, people such as yourself resort to MS13 references and incorrect statements to generate a need to be armed.

So legally obtained guns aren't used for crime, but we should control it anyway. No logic to follow that line of thought. You also convienently skip Chicago, DC, etc who have extremely strict gun laws, but are on the top of the lists.

[cr1080]

The amount of nonsense I have gone through over getting my gun permit is ridiculous. The fact that our government dedicates countless dollars and teams of morons to making it more difficult is for good people to defend themselves is sickening. Why? Becasue if I really want to bypass the system I can get an illegal firearm with little to no effort and no one will ever know....so what are they accomplishing? Nothing other than frustrating good honest people...surprised?

[robb350]

Originally Posted by LongIslandEddie

Gun ownership here on the Island, has little to do with "being big" on hunting and even less to do with anti-government paranoia.
We are for the most part, legal, United States citizens, who have as much trust or distrust of government, as is in practically any other
place in America. This bastard economy has seen a rise in crime, from white collar criminals, flim-flam and scam artists to street level and
gang related crime. We are a bit more vulnerable here than we would be in many other places because our legislators have made it that
way, with what seems like a revolving door on the criminal court system, coupled with an "out of touch" approach and attitude towards
property and personal protection. Why would we Long Islanders be any less affected by this anti-government paranoia? Aren't we all
governed by the same policies, the same legislators and the same laws?

As long as guns are outlawed, only outlaws will have guns, it's always been that way. Learning to be responsible with a weapon is not
too different than learning to be responsible with an automobile, often, an instrument of death too. If you can say: "Cars don't kill people,
reckless and irresponsible drivers kill people", why wouldn't you also say the same for guns? I read of many three or four time DWI losers
who finally get behind the wheel and kill someone out on the road before they are brought to justice and often the sentences handed down
are far less than proportionate to the crime.

There is something wrong with a system that cannot stop the criminal element from arming itself, yet works so hard at keeping the public
at large, from parity by possessing weapons of their own. Maybe if some of those MS13 and Latin Kings or the growing gangs of Crips, Bloods
or Gangster Disciples, had to wonder if their intended victim was carrying protection, perhaps they'd be less apt to victimize the man in the street.
Today, the gangs know the laws and they also know that the laws are working for them in a better way than they are for us. They can pretty well
be sure that when they accost someone on the street, that person won't be carrying a weapon. Our legislators have had years and years to deal
with the growing menace of gang activity that seems to be forever rising in our neighborhoods, but like it is with the failed drug war, the balance of
power has gone in the direction of the criminals. That's where it always seems to go.

This is great.

LI is an enigma, so many people I know from LI are pretty stout independant small government type people yet they live under an immensively over-regulating, over taxing government. At least LI gun laws are better than NYC under the mayoral dictatorship, unfortunately too many NYCers support having every aspect of their lives regulated, then impose this upon everyone else when they migrate elsewhere.

[robb350]

Crime is related to poverty, it should not be of no surprise that crime is lower in wealther areas of the country than poorer areas.

A basic distrust in government and the notion that government becomes tyrannical over time when unchecked is not 200 year old paranoia based thinking.

Every oppressive power on earth disarmed their citizenry to control them, it is naive to think that it could never happen here given the evidence of history. With over 100 million gun owners such control can not be exerted but slowly this right has been eroded to a priviledge requiring permission from the government.

The 2nd amendment is not about the right of the National Guard to be armed, this is the new argument being used against our right to bear arms

Whether or not YOU or anyone else thinks I should own a gun or not, or whether YOU or anyone else wants to own a gun or not is irrelevant.

[desertdetroiter]

Originally Posted by Smash255

Long Island has one of the lowest crime rates in the country, it is one of the wealthier sections of the country, its one of the highest educated portions of the country, and while it certainly has some its certainly not filled with the radical the government is trying to kill us types, very few people around here go hunting.

Quite simply very few people around here want a gun or see the need for a gun.

This^^^!!!! I don't know how it can be explained any clearer.

Besides, so long as YOU have a gun, what difference does it make whether or not your neighbors have one? I don't even get the point of this thread.