Kordic27 wrote:ClipsFanSince98 wrote:Idiotically harsh sentence. I personally believe banning concealed carry is unconstitutional PERIOD, registered or not. He should of been fined, not sentenced to 3.5 years. He had a loaded gun on the car seat, which is no doubt a crime... but people do this regularly without jail time. He didn't try to rob or harm anyone. Nothing happened. Unfortunately the emotional events recently are fueling politicians thirst to disarm the population and severely restrict guns. My guess is the extreme liberal policies seek to make examples out of people in places like NY and CA.
PS... the buzz word "Semi automatic firearm" is dumb as ****. It's similar to "assault rifle". It's broad, non specific and meant to trigger emotion with little substance. Pretty much every gun produced is "semi automatic". Even "assault rifles" which are treated as fully automatic "machine guns" are actually semi automatics. You pull the trigger each shot. "Why do civilians need similar guns to the military!!!?"... um well no ****. The whole premise of 2A is for America's citizens to be able to prevent tyranny from it's own government and be able to hold it in check in essence. If law enforcement/military severely outguns it's citizens, there are no longer checks and balances (we are already to that point in some ways).
Not a baiting question, but you seem a bit more thoughtful than most 2nd amendment pro gun people I talk to - what’s the pro gun thinking with regard to the fact that other countries with similar social norms (video games, music, social media etc) but harsher gun control, have unbelievably lower murder rates, and specifically gun crime and gun related deaths?
I ask because it does seem like the talking heads always blame something other than the guns, when it seems like the main difference between the USA and similar countries is the guns...
Have you looked these actual numbers up? I happened to delve into it last week (I can grab the links when I'm on my computer tomorrow, but they are extremely easy to find) and in fact if there was any trend in the relationship between guns per capita and a nations murder rate, it was inversely proportional. USA was an exception as having the most guns per capita, but a much higher murder rate than most 1st world nations. Particular Asian nations with both extremely low guns per capita and murder rates were another group of exceptions. But by and large, the nation's with the most guns per capita had extremely low murder rates, while a majority of those with the least guns per capita had extreme murder rates. I personally think there is an obsession with gun culture here that does feel unhealthy and is clearly unsafe when in the wrong hands, but I found the stats very interesting/telling. It was made abundantly clear that there was much more to it than this common mantra of simply more guns = more killing.
Also bears mentioning that in the USA gun deaths are caused (for the vast majority) by two factors:
#1) Suicide. And nearly all suicides by gun are via a handgun/revolver or shotgun. IE, guns that even under the strictest of firearm restrictions will not be removed. My solution to at least help remedy that issue (specifically for kids) is to impose significant fines + community service and possibly jail time if it was found out that the weapon was owned by somebody else and not properly secured. There needs to be more education in this area of gun management period.
#2) Gang violence. Gang murders are what drive up America's murder rate to be significantly higher than most 1st world nations (super easy to Google these numbers as well, but again I can grab them tomorrow). That, plain and simple, is the issue for everyone to attack head on if the goal is a lower murder rate.
The mass murders draw the big headlines and are a serious/scary issue of course, but they are a drop in the bucket when it comes to the reality of what needs to be addressed in the gun debate (IMO that starting with the education/increased penalties concerning proper/safe storage of your guns, thorough - non same day - background checks, and addressing the massive gang problems we still have). There are ~35-40 gun deaths (non suicide) every day in the US (that is 10,000 - 15,000 people every year for decades). And most of those are inner city killings. That's the state of the USA as it relates to gun violence.