Gun control brainstorming?

[bhunter]

Originally Posted by mpholland

So we should censor Hollywood and free speech/expression and legalize drugs to keep people from killing each other? There's an avenue I didn't foresee.

Glamorization of violence together with the relatively recent trend towards instant celebrity brought by technology is somewhat different than the notion of free speech and expression for political purposes IMHO. I think most violence here is caused by either gang violence or by those seeking to pay for drugs. The so-called war on drugs has been a failure and a different solution needs to be found. I tend to look at overall rates and massacres, like Sandy Brook, I don't feel can be prevented regardless of laws or restrictions.

[bhunter]

I found the following summary on rampage shooting research. The research is rather limited because of the lack of subjects to study.

http://journalistsresource.org/studi...search-roundup

[mpholland]

I think one of the problematic areas with implementing/reforming gun control is the fact that there are so many guns out there now. Had the laws been in place for generations, there wouldn't be the abundance of guns available. With the amount of guns out there right now, we will have to leave provisions in place for continued personal protection from the criminal/mentally ill element of the population that is already in possession of them.

[Bigerik]

Originally Posted by BlueStreak

Not saying this necessarily applies to you, but;

If one feels that he doesn't have too many, or what he has isn't over the top, then, therefore, he doesn't and it isn't?

Interesting comment from a philosophical standpoint.
"I don't feel as though I have engaged in excess, therefore I haven't."

Oh, and what you said about guns and cars.....

I believe it's the badass factor, that could be applied to a number of things;
Powerful guns, fast cars, women with huge bazongas, big speakers and powerful amps.
Pick your poison, one, some or all.

Regards,
Dave

Pop quiz. Which one of the above is designed to kill?

[Bigerik]

Up here, the laws were passed and people took their guns voluntary into the police station where they were arranged to be destroyed.

As a competitive shooter, I was saddened to see some of the gear that got trashed. They used to show piles of them. But the tradeoff if the tradeoff is a safer society, I'm good with that.

[mpholland]

Not trying to insinuate that Canada doesn't have any criminals, but it just seems to me that if everyone in the US just gave up their guns at once that we might have to substantially increase the size and presence of our police forces for a while.

[Bigerik]

Who said anything about giving up all weapons? We gave up assault rifles and handguns, basically.

If nothing else, if you guys gave up all your weapons, likely OUR gun crime rates would plummet. Most of them up here are illegally shipped across the border.

[BlueStreak]

Originally Posted by mpholland

Not trying to insinuate that Canada doesn't have any criminals, but it just seems to me that if everyone in the US just gave up their guns at once that we might have to substantially increase the size and presence of our police forces for a while.

I'm guessing there would be a short spike in crime, and I am absolutely certain Mr. La Pierre and his crowd would shove every last incident in our faces. However, I have just about totally lost my capacity to care what they think anymore.

Regards,
Dave

[BlueStreak]

Originally Posted by Bigerik

Who said anything about giving up all weapons? We gave up assault rifles and handguns, basically.

If nothing else, if you guys gave up all your weapons, likely OUR gun crime rates would plummet. Most of them up here are illegally shipped across the border.

There is a prevalent "all or nothing" mindset down here. Many have come to believe that to give an inch is to lose everything. It's really just a scare tactic relentlessly pushed by the gun lobby and the related political machine. It is, of course, utter nonsense.

Regards,
Dave

[bhunter]

Originally Posted by mpholland

Not trying to insinuate that Canada doesn't have any criminals, but it just seems to me that if everyone in the US just gave up their guns at once that we might have to substantially increase the size and presence of our police forces for a while.

There's a problem associating tighter gun control laws in these contries with less violence, namely, that these oft cited places had significantly less violence even before the imposition of the laws.

This was on point in today's SF Chronicle:

Not a new phenomenon

Mass killings have existed since the invention of weapons. The worst in American history happened in 1927, when a man in Michigan who was enraged by tax increases killed 44 people, including 38 elementary schoolchildren.

In recent years, the most searing massacre may have been the 1999 killings of 13 people at Columbine High School in Colorado, a crime that prompted soul-searching questions about school safety and the culture that produced the two teenage killers. In the years since, there have been about 50 mass killings that attracted national attention, experts say.

But there is no evidence mass killings are on the rise, according to James Alan Fox, a criminologist at Northeastern University in Boston who has written books about the phenomenon.

Citing FBI crime statistics, Fox wrote recently that the number of cases rises and falls from year to year but is not trending in either direction. He said an average of 20 mass murders - which he defines as the slayings of at least four people - occur annually in the United States. Those rampages kill about 100 people a year.
Misplaced emphasis

Fox's colleague at Northeastern, criminologist Jack Levin, said in an interview that crimes such as the Connecticut killings inevitably give rise to a fervor for changing laws. But he said, "Realistically, there isn't much we can do to prevent these kinds of random massacres."

Seizing on mass killings to push gun-control measures, Levin suggested, is the wrong approach. More than 8,000 people a year are killed with guns in the United States, he noted, and most of those die one by one, not in groups.

"Where would you put the emphasis?" Levin said. "If we're really serious about reducing the murder rate, we ought to be looking at strategies to reduce drug-related violence, domestic murder and homicides over arguments. Those represent the vast majority of murders committed in this country yearly.
http://www.sfgate.com/nation/article...es-4122020.php