Posted on 01/04/2013 10:55:28 PM PST by neverdem
In light of the tragic shooting in Newtown, Conn., partisan voices are only getting louder on the issue of gun control. Recently, Washington Post columnist Matt Miller argued that “everyone knows we need to reduce gun violence” and that “we still need to boost the economy.” Mr. Miller proposed a massive, $100 billion gun buyback program, using the ballyhooed Australian buyback program as his template. According to Mr. Miller, this included banning semi-automatic and automatic rifles and shotguns, and conducting a compulsory buyback program.
Unfortunately, the reasons underlying Mr. Miller’s support for the Australian method of gun control collapse upon close scrutiny.
First, Mr. Miller says we need gun violence to go down. Yet according to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, homicides have gone down since 2003 in America (albeit by a smaller margin than the average), and a Just Facts chart shows the homicide rate in America has gone down by approximately 50 percent in the past 20 years. Moreover, Reason’s Nick Gillespie points out a few important statistics, including that the rate of student victimization dropped severalfold from 1993 to 2010, and school murders went down by almost 50 percent. “Serious violent” crimes dropped by half.
So it is clear that pervasive gun ownership in America has not prevented violence as a whole from decreasing. The Guardian has noted FBI statistics that show firearms are the weapon of choice for homicides in the United States. Those statistics, however, also show the use of firearms for murder has declined in the past few years. It is also important to distinguish between good and bad violence. “Good” violence saves the lives of innocent citizens threatened by others. Just Facts notes guns are used far more often in self-defense than in committing crimes, according to a number of government...
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
Gun buyback programs aren’t intended to reduce crime.
Kavon W. Nikrad is a total moron. He runs the website race42012 and it is heavily censored. He is a RINO.
Indeed. It is intended to impose an oligarchy, a tyranny.
NUTS
Reduce gun violence. Require that at least one adult member of every household attend a mandated gun training and weapons familiarization program, as a prequisite for collecting any government benefits or being given the franchise to vote. Purchase of sidearm is optional, but strongly recommended. Authorize both open and concealed carry in public, including government offices.
An armed society is a polite society, and also a free society.
For those of you unfamiliar with the concept, this is called “seizing the nettle”. The weed commonly known as “stinging nettle” has a profusion of small stinging hairs on it, and to merely brush against the leaf or stalk will leave red welts and cause a strong tissue reaction upon the passer-by. But to simply grasp the stalk and leaves firmly, crushing them (and the surfaces of the hairs) also renders the plant’s defenses impotent.
As a matter of fact, stewed nettle leaves are a highly nutritious soup constituent. Dead dry nettle plants are also excellent horse feed.
Wouldn’t be a little cowboy heritage there, would it?
But where are the funds for the HUNDREDS, perhaps THOUSANDS of funerals for the jack-booted thugs who are collecting them?
More like $300 per gun.
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