I Don't Know Exactly What to Do About Guns
But I do know this: I don't trust anyone who pretends the following facts simply don't exist:
"In 1954, there were only a dozen armed robberies in London but, by the 1990s-- after decades of ever tightening gun ownership restrictions-- there were more than a hundred times as many armed robberies.
"Gun control zealots' choice of Britain for comparison with the United States has been wholly tendentious, not only because it ignored the history of the two countries, but also because it ignored other countries with stronger gun control laws than the United States, such as Russia, Brazil and Mexico. All of these countries have higher murder rates than the United States.
"You could compare other sets of countries and get similar results. Gun ownership has been three times as high in Switzerland as in Germany, but the Swiss have had lower murder rates. Other countries with high rates of gun ownership and low murder rates include Israel, New Zealand, and Finland."
"In 1954, there were only a dozen armed robberies in London but, by the 1990s-- after decades of ever tightening gun ownership restrictions-- there were more than a hundred times as many armed robberies.
"Gun control zealots' choice of Britain for comparison with the United States has been wholly tendentious, not only because it ignored the history of the two countries, but also because it ignored other countries with stronger gun control laws than the United States, such as Russia, Brazil and Mexico. All of these countries have higher murder rates than the United States.
"You could compare other sets of countries and get similar results. Gun ownership has been three times as high in Switzerland as in Germany, but the Swiss have had lower murder rates. Other countries with high rates of gun ownership and low murder rates include Israel, New Zealand, and Finland."
Hence why Thomas Sowell is one of the most articulate figures on the right I've heard of. Dennis Prager is another one I can think of with such intellectual capacity. The American Conservative another website I really like which shares a lot of my viewpoints. Glad you have that one on your blog list. I don't understand why certain people don't understand that no matter how many laws are passed, the criminals will ALWAYS possess guns or other weapons or find ways of obtaining them. If there was a gun ban in the US, how would one go about confiscating the guns from every gun owner? Sounds like a highly ludicrous, idealistic fantasy to me. I also believe that bad, irresponsible parenting had a lot do to with what happened.
ReplyDeleteA cartoonist friend of mine used Australia as an example of where strict gun control laws have worked and cited a twenty page study, but now I'm not so sure. I'm also remembering of the 2011 Norway shootings.
Check out the lousy parenting here. It wasn't video games alone that caused this whole mess like the mainstream media is pathetically making it out to be. The mother was dumb enough to leave her son home alone for two and a half days.
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/massacre_left_killer_adam_lanza_ryNR31OfvVKAMm6Aw1y8FO
"The mother was dumb enough to leave her son home alone for two and a half days."
DeleteWell, he was 20! I don't know how disturbed he was looking around the house, so maybe it didn't make sense, but in general it's ok to leave a 20-year old alone for a day or two!
Gene, you've got to get rid of the purple. Not the lining of the site, but the very light bright lavender contrast that is more bright than white.
ReplyDeleteYes, I know that rimes.
OK, now?
DeleteEek no. The contrats is bad, and the banner unreadable.
DeletePurple is for prose Gene!
Yes, much better.
DeleteThy wills be done!
DeleteI've never really thought much about gun control before, beyond being against it on general libertarian principals.
ReplyDeleteI agree that there is no unbreakable correlation between gun control and murder rates. I also agree that even with tight gun control criminals will still find a way to get hold of weapons.
That said: Had Lanza not had such ready access to a deadly assault weapon I think it very likely that it would have been much harder for him to plan and execute this crime to the extent that it may never have happened. It therefore seems that we are increasing the odds of these kinds of crimes occurring by allowing some classes of deadly weapons to be so easily obtainable. It is not clear to me what the upside of allowing their ownership is beyond representing a libertarian principal.
I assume that even the most ardent weapon-control opponent would at some point see the sense in restricting some kinds of weapons (Would they think it OK for someone to keep nuclear missiles in their back-yard as long as they were only being kept for self-defense ?).
For these reasons I am am starting to see gun-control as a valid option for a community based purely upon the risk (or even the perceived risk) to public safety that gun ownership brings to the community.