Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
That there were still speakeasies and moonshiners does not negate the fact that it largely achieved what it set out to achieve. It's just that it wasn't very popular, hence, its demise. It's like what I said above: Even if it was only 70% or 50% effective, it still made some improvements.
The conventional view that National Prohibition failed rests upon an historically flimsy base. The successful campaign to enact National Prohibition was the fruit of a century-long temperance campaign, experience of which led prohibitionists to conclude that a nationwide ban on alcohol was the most promising of the many strategies tried thus far. A sharp rise in consumption during the early 20th century seemed to confirm the bankruptcy of alternative alcohol-control programs.
The stringent prohibition imposed by the Volstead Act, however, represented a more drastic action than many Americans expected. Nevertheless, National Prohibition succeeded both in lowering consumption and in retaining political support until the onset of the Great Depression altered voters’ priorities. Repeal resulted more from this contextual shift than from characteristics of the innovation itself.
Second, alcohol consumption declined dramatically during Prohibition. Cirrhosis death rates for men were 29.5 per 100,000 in 1911 and 10.7 in 1929. Admissions to state mental hospitals for alcoholic psychosis declined from 10.1 per 100,000 in 1919 to 4.7 in 1928.
Arrests for public drunkennness and disorderly conduct declined 50 percent between 1916 and 1922. For the population as a whole, the best estimates are that consumption of alcohol declined by 30 percent to 50 percent.
Third, violent crime did not increase dramatically during Prohibition. Homicide rates rose dramatically from 1900 to 1910 but remained roughly constant during Prohibition's 14 year rule. Organized crime may have become more visible and lurid during Prohibition, but it existed before and after.
Need I go on? Yes, making something illegal does indeed lessen use or consumption of that something. Otherwise, banning just about anything would be worthless.
That's like saying that laws against murder don't prevent people from murdering, so why do we bother with laws against murder? Or that laws against stealing don't prevent people from stealing, so why bother with laws against stealing at all?
If you made it so that it was difficult to purchase a gun, over time, there would be fewer and fewer guns in circulation, and some of the wanna-be criminals would be deterred from getting hold of a gun, so shootings like this would be reduced. No, they would not disappear, but would go down.
We have made it more difficult to purchase a gun over time. The result hasn't turned out as you predict. Prior to 1998, there was no NICS involved in purchasing a firearm. Go back even farther, and you'll find a time when you could order a firearm out of a magazine and have it shipped directly to your house. Mass shootings were far less common in those days.
For some reason, hoplophobes never want to look at actual history and how gun laws have affected violent crime. The mentality is always "this time it will work," despite the fact that it never has before.
Hard liquor drinkers who had been turning to beer reverted back to hard liquor.
Furthermore, prohibition eventually led to drinking alcohol becoming the social norm:
Quote:
Moreover, despite the failure of prohibition, it did change American society – and the country’s drinking habits – for ever. The old-style saloons disappeared; drinking at home became much more frequent; drinking among women, who had previously found saloon culture uncongenial, indeed hostile, became more common; drinking became regularised, normalised, and eventually an accepted part of “polite” society – by the 1950s cocktails were seen as the height of civilisation in many middle-class homes.
Drunkenness had not been eliminated, but somehow society had come to accept drunks. The entertainer Dean Martin even managed to build a career on pretending to be addicted to the bottle. He was so convincing that some viewers thought he was. Far from changing nothing, the era of prohibition changed everything. Consumption levels did eventually return to pre-1920 levels, but drink was never seen – or consumed – in quite the same way again.
In the end, prohibition was not about alcohol in and of itself (which is why it was never actually illegal to consume alcohol but only to make, sell or distribute it), but about saloon culture, immigration, the rise of urban centers and ghettos within them, and domestic violence (among other issues).
This is exactly how gun restrictions do nothing to address all of the issues surrounding gun violence, such as gangs, illegal drugs, pharmaceutical drugs, mental illness, the breakdown of the family, and so forth.
Quote:
Originally Posted by James Bond 007
You cannot restrict the supply of angry young men.
You can restrict the supply of the tools those angry young men can use to easily kill large quantities of people.
Answer the question then.
Do you support banning or restricting cars, planes, knives, axes, bows and arrows, fertilizer, clocks, poison, explosives, matches, gasoline, lighter fluid, etc.?
Quote:
And no, I don't think the "all" were on antidepressants. Some, sure, but not "all."
Yes, all. Read the links TMS and I have posted. And not just any “anti-depressants”, but SSRI’s.
We have made it more difficult to purchase a gun over time. The result hasn't turned out as you predict. Prior to 1998, there was no NICS involved in purchasing a firearm. Go back even farther, and you'll find a time when you could order a firearm out of a magazine and have it shipped directly to your house. Mass shootings were far less common in those days.
For some reason, hoplophobes never want to look at actual history and how gun laws have affected violent crime. The mentality is always "this time it will work," despite the fact that it never has before.
For every NCIS there have been a flurry of statewide efforts (in red states) to loosen gun restrictions.
A mass shooting Tuesday that killed at least 19 children and two teachers at a Texas elementary school came less than a year after legislators drastically expanded gun rights.
Pledging to keep Texas a “bastion of freedom,” Gov. Greg Abbott in June signed seven laws, one of which allows people to legally carry handguns without licenses.
“Texas will always be the leader in defending the Second Amendment, which is why we built a barrier around gun rights this session,” Abbott said that day, flanked by representatives of the National Rifle Association.
Hard liquor drinkers who had been turning to beer reverted back to hard liquor.
Furthermore, prohibition eventually led to drinking alcohol becoming the social norm ...
You clearly didn't read a single thing I posted. You directly contradicted what all 3 of my articles said.
Quote:
Answer the question then.
Do you support banning or restricting cars, planes, knives, axes, bows and arrows, fertilizer, clocks, poison, explosives, matches, gasoline, lighter fluid, etc.?
No, of course not. But those items you listed either need a license to operate (cars) or have other practical purposes which cannot be substituted with something less harmful. This is not the case for self-defense. As I said before, if you agree the items in your list can be deadly, then you can use them for defensive purposes and do not need a gun.
If cars and knives and gasoline are such great weapons, why do you need a gun for self-defense?
Quote:
Yes, all. Read the links TMS and I have posted. And not just any “anti-depressants”, but SSRI’s.
Perhaps I missed them, but I don't see any links your or TMS posted that prove that all recent mass killers were on antidepressants.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
