Posted on 12/30/2004 11:50:13 AM PST by neverdem
One of the continuing debates in this country is over gun control laws and their efficacy. Gun control advocates often cite the ease with which a person can purchase a firearm from retail outlets and worry that such outlets are arming criminals in huge numbers. Lawsuits have been filed against wholesalers and retailers alleging that their marketing practices make it easy for criminals to get guns.
These advocates continually push for more restrictions on firearms purchases in vain attempts to keep guns from criminals and others who shouldn’t have access to them.
The problem with such laws is that criminals routinely ignore them (after all, they are criminals). Law-abiding citizens who have every right to purchase and own firearms are the ones who pay the price for these laws.
In the wake of the 1999 Columbine shootings, Colorado voters passed a law requiring background checks for all firearm sales at gun shows. The argument in favor of the law was that criminals were taking advantage of the fact that such checks had been required only if a licensed firearms dealer was selling a gun. But if a recent report from the Justice Department is any indicator, this law and others like it are likely not very effective.
The study noted that the number of criminals who obtained guns from retail outlets was dwarfed by the number of those who picked up their arms through means other than legal purchases. The report was the result of interviews with more than 18,000 state and federal inmates conducted nationwide. It found that nearly 80 percent of those interviewed got their guns from friends or family members, or on the street through illegal purchases.
Less than 9 percent were bought at retail outlets and only seven-tenths of 1 percent came from gun shows. So much for the much-ballyhooed closing of the “gun-show loophole.”
The Justice Department’s interviews also showed the falseness of the notion that so-called assault weapons in private hands decrease the safety of police officers and citizens.
Only about 8 percent of the inmates used one of the models covered in the now-expired assault weapons ban, passed under Bill Clinton in 1994. If the supposed increased firepower of these firearms truly made them attractive to lawbreakers the percentage would have been much higher. And so another gun-control myth ends up on the ash heap.
© Copyright, YumaSun.com
You can tell this wasn't written in Tucson.
News Flash - this will not be covered by CNN/ABC/NBC/CBS/NPR/MSNBC/PBS
Yeah but the "Control freaks" never let things like the FACTS get in their way..
For decades, we gun owners have been saying the same thing...
"why are they called criminals? It's because THEY DON'T OBEY THE LAW STUPID!"
Some kind of new law is suddenly gonna make these people say "hey I'm not gonna steal my guns anymore, I'm gonna go BUY one!"
Find the cities with the strictest gun laws and you'll find they have the highest percentage of violent crimes committed with guess what? GUNS!
Why? Because criminals don't obey the law!! That's why they're CRIMINALS STUPID!
These laws only punish law abiding citizens, people who have never broken a law, respect the law and other peoples rights. What's wrong with this picture?
Thanks for the link.
That's when the number of criminals in America will jump by millions.
"And so another gun-control myth ends up on the ash heap."
We need to get this on Mythbusters.
Murder is illegal.
Speeding is illegal.
Drunk driving is illegal.
And since we passed laws banning those things they've never happened again.
Banning guns will stop 'gun violence' the exact same way.
"When you criminalize gun ownership, by definition, only criminals will have guns."
True enough. Effective January 1st a lot of .50 caliber rifle owners in California will join the ranks of "criminals" when they refuse to register their rifles with the State for possible future confiscation.
.50 cal. rifles have never even been reported to have been used in a misdemeanor in California. This law will have NO effect on crime.
Frankly, this law is crap and the people who refuse to submit to it are not criminals, but Americans.
It pains me to say this, but if a citizen, in self-defense, kills a law enforcement officer who is enforcing an un-Constitutional law then it is not the citizen who is the criminal.
Unfortunately, the people most deserving of a .50 through the cranium are the politicians who arrogate power to themselves at the cost of the liberty of the people.
I'm not encouraging such an act as I hope the politicians will come to their senses before such a tragedy becomes unavoidable.
If not, if we must take a stand, then I hope to God we have Americans in America with the same steel in their spines as the men who stood up to British gun-banners in 1775 on the Lexington green.
Did I mention my orig. 1863 Christian Sharps?
BTTT
"Did I mention my orig. 1863 Christian Sharps?"
Suh-weet!!!! (:
I've got a .45-110 on order from a smithy in Nevada and can't wait to try it out. Not nearly as good as the original, I'm sure, so I'm really happy for you that you get to hold a piece of history in your hands.
But if it saves one lif- *SMACK!*
Sorry...
God banned murder a long time ago. (and as you point out, no murders since then, right?)
If God can't effectively stop man from murdering by writing a law, how arrogant is it to thing than men can?
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