Thursday, April 21, 2011

What is Gun Control?

 This is part of a little discussion over at Common Gunsense.
Bryan Strawser said...
So a shooting in California and a shooting in Illinois, two states where we have some of the "tougher" gun control laws in the country. What does this say about the effectiveness of gun control? Bryan

my response:

Bryan says what he's heard other pro-gun folks say. Chicago has tough gun control laws and lots of gun crime.  That proves gun control doesn't work.

That is the most unthinking argument you guys have.  But, you keep repeating it and repeating it.

Here's the thing. We DON'T have gun control in the US, period. We do have lots of gun laws, but they are so uninforceable and easily circumvented that the end result is NO GUN CONTROL, or very little anyway.

Use a tiny bit of common sense. On the federal level let's say we have the following rules 1. all gun owners must be licensed. 2. every gun must be registered to a licenced owner. 3. no transfers of guns without a background check. 4. safe storage standards will be enforced. 5. any violation, any accident or negligent discharge results in permanent loss of gun rights.

That would be gun control. And that would work.
What's your opinion? Please leave a comment.

6 comments:

  1. Actually, we don't have many gun laws at all.

    A common NRA lie is to claim there are "over 20,000 gun laws" but the reality is the 20K figure is fictitious.

    http://www.brookings.edu/es/urban/publications/gunbook4.pdf

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  2. What is gun control?

    Gun control is the notion that a woman found in an alley raped and strangled with her own pantyhose is somehow morally superior to a woman explaining to police how her attacker got that fatal bullet wound.

    As for Jade's assertion that we don't have many gun laws, codswallop. If anything, we have too many gun laws.

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  3. Lets do that and at the same time, we'll make the same rules for driving a car...have an accident and you lose your driving privilege permanently, get a parking ticket, lose your driving privilege permanently, you get the gist. A automobile in the wrong hands is just as deadly as a gun in the wrong hands.

    Mike G.

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  4. Mike, We're talking about guns not cars.

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  5. Yeah mrguy - who cares how many people are killed by irresponsible car operators? They are not worth counting because it wasn't a gun that killed them. The only deaths worth doing something about are gun deaths. No need for other discussions or comparisons that nobody would agree to anyway.

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  6. No, Jim, I didn't say anything like that. What I said is one this blog we mainly talk about guns. You can help yourself to the MADD site if you want to talk about cars.

    Why is it that you guys continually use comparisons to make your argument? If you have such a good point, why can't you just make it without involving cars or swimming pools or knives?

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