Thursday, December 20, 2012

On Me and Guns 2 (And, Yes, It's a Complicated Topic)

Like I said, I don't own any guns. But neither am I going to go around advertising that sucker. Like I'm not going to be putting a monstrous sign in front of my house that specifies, "gun-free house", and I doubt that any of my colleagues would be willing to do that, either.

10 comments:

Les Carpenter said...

Always better to keep em guessing. But if the wackiest have their way nobody but criminals and the police will have firearms anyway.

Will "take no prisoners" Hart said...

Les, Florida has over 1.8 million permit holders for concealed carry and, of those, only 167 have had their permits revoked (and most of them for minor indiscretions). This whole concept of people who own guns being whacky isn't at all born out by the evidence.

Les Carpenter said...

Agreed. The real issue is are, 1) there are a few wackos and there always has been and will continue to be, 2) the difficulty in identifying who the wackos are and keeping firearms out of their hands.

Of course for some the solution is tight federal control of firearms and ammo, leading to rationing of both. Banning semi automatic firearms and outlawing extended magazines.

The ultimate goals of the extreme left is a society in which only the military, police, border patrol etc. Are licensed to carry firearms.

Further erosion of the Constitution's 2'nd amemdment.

BB-Idaho said...

Wacky? Some character gets on a plane with explosives in his shoe and millions of us have to remove our shoes and grandma gets strip searched. We even establish an expensive new arm of gov't. So,
we stand by month after month and
wring our hands? It isn't a problem? It is too complex? No big
deal? Even serious gun owners are concerned; decent folks who cringe
everytime a lunatic goes on a shooting frolic. If I wanted to lug
a Bushmaster, I'd move to Somalia, frankly...

Will "take no prisoners" Hart said...

My sympathies are with you, BB, but the facts are a troublesome thing some time. a) When D.C. instituted its "right to carry" law, the murder rate went down 23% in one year and 36% in three years. b) When Chicago instituted its gun ban, the murder rate there went up dramatically. And c) virtually every multiple victim public shooting in America has taken place in a gun-free zone. You want to pass some additional gun laws? Fine, just don't expect any miracles.

BB-Idaho said...

Miracles? Heck, Will, we made it past the Mayan Calendar End Of The
World. If we all have to carry firearms this country has moved to
a sorry state. An armed guard or
squad of Marines at every school?
We can't even protect our embassies. I was in the ammo industry for 30 years. My people
made the stuff for percussion primers. Something over 20 billion rounds. Let me have a vested interest and understand that I dislike 'collateral damage'. Surely, there has to be a common
sense approach that meets 2nd Amendment criteria without making
this country a free-fire zone?

Will "take no prisoners" Hart said...

The NRA idea of armed guards at schools is a stupid one. I fully agree. All that a maniac would have to do is kill that individual first. But if a killer thinks that somebody at a location might have a concealed gun, he or she is probably far less likely to go there. I mean, just look at the Aurora Colorado shooting. There were 7 movie theaters in that location and where pray tell did that lunatic go? He went to the only 1 of the 7 that didn't have right to carry. I doubt that that was a coincidence.

Will "take no prisoners" Hart said...

And who obeys gun laws? Law-abiding citizens do. Criminals essentially chuckle over them.......I would also add that only 4-5 states in the country currently DON'T have right to carry permits and the murder rate has actually gone down. This whole notion of people en masse killing each other over fender-benders clearly hasn't happened.

dmarks said...

BB said: "We can't even protect our embassies."

We can very easily if the higher ups don't receive, evaluate, and ignore calls for more security. Yet this happened with Benghazi

clif said...

Yet this happened with Benghazi

You failed to mention;

2008 United States consulate in Istanbul attack

2008 American Embassy attack in Yemen

2008 Belgrade Embassy Burned

2007 Athens Embassy attack

2006 Damascus embassy attack

2004 Jeddah consulate attack

2004 Tashkent embassy bombings

2002 US consulate bombing in Karachi


PS: Benghazi wasn't a US Embassy at all, it was a diplomatic mission. The Libyan embassy is in Tripoli, the Capital of Libya.