RE: More shootings.
December 29, 2012 at 8:59 am
(This post was last modified: December 29, 2012 at 9:03 am by Anymouse.)
I object to the term "crazies" being used in place of "criminals."
Aside from unjustly painting the mentally ill as potential criminals, both the Department of Justice and NIMH point out that the mentally ill are eleven times more likely to be the victims of violence than the average person, and the disabled four times more likely.
On the issue of obtaining guns as a criminal, with such laws as no background check to buy them from a neighbour, E-bay, gun shows, &c, there is effectively "no ban" on criminals obtaining guns. And you can always steal your neighbour's.
Homicide statistics by firearm of course do not include suicide by firearm or accidental death by firearm of children.
The II Amendment, while its militia clause was only (in the last twenty years) interpreted to mean "anyone with money to buy a gun" rather than how it is written, does not prohibit the stringent regulation of firearms.
And note that New York has released its firearm related deaths for this year, and in keeping with its strict laws on gun ownership had its lowest homicide rate this year by firearms in living memory.
But the idea "its hard so we can't do it nor should we try" (expressed by many here, and in most First World countries when they implemented such laws) is not a reason not to try. If that logic were to prevail in other areas of thinking, we would not have science and technology.
And even the few firearms laws we do have are not enforced, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms is a captive agency of the NRA. The NRA has successfully blocked the appointment of a bureau chief since the middle of GW Bush's term. It is filled by part-timers who fly in from New York and Boston (lawyers) two days a month.
If the laws were actually enforced, the mentally ill or those who had been hospitalised in the past could not obtain weapons. Long-barrel guns (scatterguns and rifles) are not regulated, nor even registered. (Because no one ever commits homicide nor suicide with a shotgun or rifle).
Glenn Beck on the radio yesterday claimed that we need to examine the issue without "knee jerk" reactions. He defined those as gun-control regulations.
Saying "guns don't kill people, people kill people" has to be one of the most intellectually-dishonest memes ever devised by the NRA. It is equal to "electricity doesn't electrocute people, electricians do." That is the purpose of guns. They have no purpose other than killing. (I suppose you could use a pearl-handled revolver to hammer nails or a rifle as a prybar if they were unloaded, but there are better tools for that.
Aside from unjustly painting the mentally ill as potential criminals, both the Department of Justice and NIMH point out that the mentally ill are eleven times more likely to be the victims of violence than the average person, and the disabled four times more likely.
On the issue of obtaining guns as a criminal, with such laws as no background check to buy them from a neighbour, E-bay, gun shows, &c, there is effectively "no ban" on criminals obtaining guns. And you can always steal your neighbour's.
Homicide statistics by firearm of course do not include suicide by firearm or accidental death by firearm of children.
The II Amendment, while its militia clause was only (in the last twenty years) interpreted to mean "anyone with money to buy a gun" rather than how it is written, does not prohibit the stringent regulation of firearms.
And note that New York has released its firearm related deaths for this year, and in keeping with its strict laws on gun ownership had its lowest homicide rate this year by firearms in living memory.
But the idea "its hard so we can't do it nor should we try" (expressed by many here, and in most First World countries when they implemented such laws) is not a reason not to try. If that logic were to prevail in other areas of thinking, we would not have science and technology.
And even the few firearms laws we do have are not enforced, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms is a captive agency of the NRA. The NRA has successfully blocked the appointment of a bureau chief since the middle of GW Bush's term. It is filled by part-timers who fly in from New York and Boston (lawyers) two days a month.
If the laws were actually enforced, the mentally ill or those who had been hospitalised in the past could not obtain weapons. Long-barrel guns (scatterguns and rifles) are not regulated, nor even registered. (Because no one ever commits homicide nor suicide with a shotgun or rifle).
Glenn Beck on the radio yesterday claimed that we need to examine the issue without "knee jerk" reactions. He defined those as gun-control regulations.
Saying "guns don't kill people, people kill people" has to be one of the most intellectually-dishonest memes ever devised by the NRA. It is equal to "electricity doesn't electrocute people, electricians do." That is the purpose of guns. They have no purpose other than killing. (I suppose you could use a pearl-handled revolver to hammer nails or a rifle as a prybar if they were unloaded, but there are better tools for that.
"Be ye not lost amongst Precept of Order." - Book of Uterus, 1:5, "Principia Discordia, or How I Found Goddess and What I Did to Her When I Found Her."
