New York City Police Commissioner Ray Kelly's War on Guns (Barf Alert)

Opposingviews ^ | 9 April, 2012 | Michael Allen

[Labyrinthos]

Listen jerk, I did not draw any conclusions as to whether NYC’s low violent crime rate is because of the strict gun control laws or in spite of it. I was simply correcting a factual error with respect the common misconception that NYC has a high violent crime rate. It does not. I don’t need a lecture from you about gun control, gun laws, Nazi Germany, or Communist China. Do a little research instead of spouting the talking points and you might discover a number of “Red State” urban areas with similiar if not higher population densities than NYC that have very few restictions on the ownership of firearms and the right to carry a firearm, but have violent crime rates that are significantly higher than NYC’s rate. You will also find a number of densily populated “Blue State” cities with gun control laws as strict if not stricter than NYC that have crime rates significantly higher than NYC. These are facts. I’m not drawing conclusions and I’m certainly not suggesting that we should trade our 2nd Amenedment Rights for a low crime rate. What I am saying is there doesn’t seem to be a meaningful correlation between violent crime and gun control or the lack of gun control.

[cumbo78]

There certainly are illegal guns under the US Constitution. Licenses fall under the Reserved Powers which belong to the states. If you have a license to carry a gun in North Carolina, you can NOT carry that gun legally in New York. Therefore, you broken the law and have an illegal gun. In fact, you can be charged in Federal court because you involved more than one state.

[cumbo78]

NYC crime statistics for 2009 :
Violent crime rate 28.5 % above the National Average
Property Crime rate 44.3 % below the National Average

Charlotte Mecklenburg crime staistics for 2009
Violent crime rate 68.3 5% above the National Average
Property crime rate 64.8 % above the National Average