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Do Gun Control Laws Control Guns?
townhall.com ^ | 22 January, 2013 | Thomas Sowell

Posted on 01/22/2013 10:20:49 AM PST by marktwain

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.

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


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Government; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: banglist; constitution; guncontrol; secondamendment; sowell
Thomas Sowell hits another out of the park.
1 posted on 01/22/2013 10:21:00 AM PST by marktwain
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To: marktwain

Do murder laws control murders?....................


2 posted on 01/22/2013 10:21:44 AM PST by Red Badger (Lincoln freed the slaves. Obama just got them ALL back......................)
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To: marktwain
"Do Gun Control Laws Control Guns?"

They only add further controls to law abiding citizens. Criminals, now and always, will be able to get their hands on illegal weapons.
3 posted on 01/22/2013 10:25:29 AM PST by indthkr
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To: marktwain
yes they do, and here's how:


4 posted on 01/22/2013 10:25:43 AM PST by Mr. K (There are lies, damned lies, statistics, and democrat talking points.)
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To: Red Badger
Do murder laws control murders?...

Tagable...

5 posted on 01/22/2013 10:29:08 AM PST by GOPJ ( Do murder laws control murders?... freeper Red Badger)
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To: Red Badger

>Do murder laws control murders?

Not sure this is an apt comparison. Murder laws do likely act as a deterrent.

Gun laws, OTOH, don’t really have any positive effect whatsoever. They disarm those inclined to follow laws which leaves them vulnerable to those who don’t.

I’m willing to bet there would be plenty of legal gun owners in Chicago were their gun laws not so draconian. There’s plenty of guns among the criminal element. Thus gun laws do in fact control guns. They just do it for the parties which are not a problem if they owned them.


6 posted on 01/22/2013 10:59:02 AM PST by drbuzzard (All animals are created equal, but some are more equal than others.)
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To: marktwain

7 posted on 01/22/2013 11:26:30 AM PST by New Perspective (Proud father of a 8 yr old son with Down Syndrome and fighting to keep him off Obama's death panels.)
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