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Sowell: Do Gun Control Laws Control Guns?
Creators Syndicate ^ | January 22, 2013 | Thomas Sowell

Posted on 01/21/2013 9:48:24 AM PST by jazusamo

The gun control controversy is only the latest of many issues to be debated almost solely in terms of fixed preconceptions, with little or no examination of hard facts.

Media discussions of gun control are dominated by two factors: the National Rifle Association and the Second Amendment. But the over-riding factual question is whether gun control laws actually reduce gun crimes in general or murder rates in particular.

If, as gun control advocates claim, gun control laws really do control guns and save lives, there is nothing to prevent repealing the Second Amendment, any more than there was anything to prevent repealing the Eighteenth Amendment that created Prohibition.

But, if the hard facts show that gun control laws do not actually control guns, but instead lead to more armed robberies and higher murder rates after law-abiding citizens are disarmed, then gun control laws would be a bad idea, even if there were no Second Amendment and no National Rifle Association.

The central issue boils down to the question: What are the facts? Yet there are many zealots who seem utterly unconcerned about facts or about their own lack of knowledge of facts.

There are people who have never fired a shot in their life who do not hesitate to declare how many bullets should be the limit to put into a firearm's clip or magazine. Some say ten bullets but New York state's recent gun control law specifies seven.

Virtually all gun control advocates say that 30 bullets in a magazine is far too many for self-defense or hunting — even if they have never gone hunting and never had to defend themselves with a gun. This uninformed and self-righteous dogmatism is what makes the gun control debate so futile and so polarizing.

(Excerpt) Read more at creators.com ...


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Editorial; Government
KEYWORDS: banglist; guncontrol; nra; secondamendment; sowell; thomassowell
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To: imjimbo

Please note my tagline (and yours as well) :)


21 posted on 01/21/2013 6:54:54 PM PST by SirLurkedalot (My carry permit was issued in 1791.)
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To: JudgemAll

Gun control is a misnomer. You can’t control an inanimate object.

It’s really people control.

The common denominator in all Statist, leftist elitist thoughts is 2 words...

IF ONLY

If only the unwashed masses would give up their money, freedom, guns, cigarettes, trans fats, plastic bags and listen to me the world would be a better place.


22 posted on 01/21/2013 9:11:48 PM PST by Eric Blair 2084 (I don't always drink beer, but when I do, I prefer to drink a bunch of them. Stay thirsty my FRiends)
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To: Seaplaner

Yeah, and these aren’t guns, either. (My dad’s ROTC instructor said, “That ain’t a gun; THAT’s a gun” - sorry no pix, my PC is dead and using iPad. Guns have ammo of at least 2 lbs.) Semantics. We know what the point is.


23 posted on 01/22/2013 7:10:21 AM PST by the OlLine Rebel (Common sense is an uncommon virtue./Technological progress cannot be legislated.)
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To: jazusamo

So the left’s “logic” is: take guns away from law abiding citizens and we’ll all be safer...?


24 posted on 01/22/2013 7:22:04 AM PST by mom.mom
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To: jazusamo
One can cherry-pick the factual studies, or cite some studies that have subsequently been discredited, but the great bulk of the studies show that gun control laws do not in fact control guns. On net balance, they do not save lives but cost lives.

Guns save lives.

25 posted on 01/26/2013 9:22:22 AM PST by alrea
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To: alrea

Very good site, thanks for linking!


26 posted on 01/26/2013 9:38:17 AM PST by jazusamo ("Mercy to the guilty is cruelty to the innocent." -- Adam Smith)
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To: jazusamo
This paper (http://www.law.harvard.edu/students/orgs/jlpp/Vol30_No2_KatesMauseronline.pdf) by 2 Harvard professors who have thoroughly researched the subject of murders committed by gunshot in various nations should tell anyone in either government or private life that extreme gun control has done NOTHING to reduce murder rates in every country that has banned or severely restricted gun ownership.

It's a long read, but the sections most pertinent to the current demand for more restrictive gun laws in the US are the tables showing the murder rates in European nations with very strict gun laws compared to the murder rate in the US. For example, I was very surprised to find that the US per capita murder rate is much lower than that of Russia where privately owned handguns are almost totally banned, and very few people (mostly in Siberia) can legally own rifles or shotguns for hunting. Russia is only one European nation with a very high overall murder rate and a relatively low rate of murder by gunshot, but you won't hear that in any of the upcoming battle to ban those eeevill "assault weapons" that somehow manage to compel their owners to slaughter crowds of innocent women and children all across the US.

If you want documented true facts to refute the anti-gunners' lies read this research paper and learn the truth about European gun bans and their negligible effect on the overall murder rates of those other nations.

27 posted on 01/28/2013 11:36:33 PM PST by epow (The light of the world is Jesus)
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To: epow

Thanks for posting and linking, will read and save for reference.


28 posted on 01/29/2013 8:29:13 AM PST by jazusamo ("Mercy to the guilty is cruelty to the innocent." -- Adam Smith)
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