[BigG]

Let the punishment fit the crime: I submit that automobile related "infractions" do not receive attention in proportion to their enormity. People driving automobiles kill other people yearly on a magnitude of at least 100 to 1 more than guns, yet nobody says we need "automobile control." A driver's license is easier and cheaper to get than a permit to carry a weapon also. What are they thinking?

[Beren]

You have a constitutional right to drive, but not a constitutional right to own a firearm. Didn't you know that?

[Dave R]

People "need" to drive. You don't "need" to own a gun.

That's what "they" tell me, anyway.

[GigaBuist]

It's far easier for people to see the consequences of a total ban on automobiles than a total ban on firearms. Automobiles are actively deployed for useful purposes by millions or billions of people on a daily basis. Firearms, while necessary, aren't used in such numbers in an _active_ manner.

[BigG]

Is it hypocritical to penalize a killing of a person by an automobile as a misdemeanor and the killing of a person with a gun as a felony?

[MicroBalrog]

Is it hypocritical to penalize a killing of a person by an automobile as a misdemeanor and the killing of a person with a gun as a felony?

No. Remember, many car killings are without any intent.

[BigG]

Well, dead is dead and if the guy were a breadwinner his family is just as deprived of income by a guy dead by reckless driver vs a guy dead by shooter.

[JohnBT]

BigG - Don't know about that 100 to 1 ratio. I would guess that most gun-related killings are not 'accidents' and most car crashes are - unless you'd like to argue stupid drivers don't really have accidents because they are conciously not paying attention while speeding, phoning, eating, messing with the kids or wife, and other assorted foolishness that distracts them from what they should be doing - driving.

The number of people killed in crashes in 2002 was 42,850, up from 42,116 in 2001, a preliminary National Highway Traffic Safety Administration report released Wednesday said. - USA Today site.

Some figures I pulled from a post on a small anti-gun site (so I assume the gun death figure is somewhat accurate, if not too high.)

US Highway Deaths: 42,815
US Flu Deaths: 36,000
US Gun Deaths (homicide, suicide, accidental): 28,163.

____________

I don't believe there is a Constitutional right to drive. Well, drive a horse and buggy maybe, but the Framers didn't have cars.

John

[BigG]

JohnBT: I think not paying attention while wielding 4000 pounds of steel at speed is as good an example of ill intent as I can think of. Just about as bad as premeditated murder.

[striker3]

There are no such things as accidental car crashes, just like there are no such things as an accidental discharge of a weapon.

They are both commited with gross negligence and if a fatality occurs, they should both be treated the same.

It is just that negligence while driving is accepted in todays culture, as it is such a common occurance.

[WonderNine]

Yes, let's make everything a felony. Since it isn't "fair" that some things aren't.

Don't worry, won't be long and everything will be a felony. It makes people easier to control because they can't vote or buy guns anymore. Of course it's hard to buy guns when you won't be able to find a decent job ever again either.

[striker3]

I didn't state that they both should be felonies, just that they both should be treated the same.

Negligence is negligence.

[7.62FullMetalJacket]

When car accidents become felonies....
Then we will need a new category for gun crimes :rolleyes:

Super Felony?
UN Felony?
Crime against humanity?
Weapon of Mass Destruction?

:fire:

[Bob Locke]

Negligence is negligence.
This ought to be highlighted and posted in every courtroom in the nation.

We, as gun owners, demand a very high standard of ourselves and other gun owners with respect to the safe handling of firearms, and rightly so. Whenever there is a thread on THR about someone being an idiot with a gun, and someone else ending up injured or killed as a result, most of us call for the book to be thrown at the idiot. Again, rightly so.

Why should it be any different with any other piece of equipment in society?

Do we not think the anti-gunners are idiots for blaming the gun rather than the person wielding it? Are we willing to accept a different standard for automobiles? Would it be hypocritical to do so?

I go back to a premise I have held for quite some time: The term "accident" is widely misused. That word indicates that there were circumstances beyond the control of the person or people involved. The vast majority of the incidences on America's roadways involving cars are just like the vast majority of those involving guns. Someone was being less careful than they should have been, and they or someone else was injured or killed as a result.

And I will agree that there is a difference, a BIG one, between an intentional act against a person with a firearm and one in which there was no intent. That's why we differentiate murder and manslaughter, by law. But we shouldn't excuse someone for injuring or killing another person with a gun, intent or not. The same should be true of a car, knife, or any other "inanimate object".

[Bill Hook]

Sooner or later, everything will be a crime. My money is on sooner.

[BigG]

Bob Locke hit on my point. Accident is a convenient weasel word in our society that takes the blame out of events that would otherwise have consequences attached.

[JohnBT]

I agree. About 40 or so years ago my father taught me that they were called wrecks and not accidents (unless it was an Act of God.) He'd been a VA Trooper after WWII and then worked as a safety engineer for major trucking companies.

He still has the little rubber stamp kit with all the symbols for different vehicles and directional arrows and such for producing diagrams for his reports.

John

[Ala Dan]

Sadly, my state of Alabama helps lead the
nation in alcohol related MVA death's.

Just last weekend, a male driver and his female
passenger were speeding on I-459*, in a brand
new Corvette. Guesstimate's say the Vett'e
was traveling close to, or in excess of 150 mph.
At any rate, the male driver lost control of the
vechile; and it crossed the median, and crashed
head-on into an 18 wheeler. The tractor-trailer
was fliped up on its side, but the driver was
uninjured.

Rescue personel on the scene scooped up pieces
of body part's for several hours after the late night
crash. The female passenger was transported to
Birmingham's U.A.B. Trauma Center by LifeSaver's
Air Amublance (Helicopter). Her injuries are thought
too be life threatening; cuz of severe head tramua.
The cause: Ruled to be ALCOHOL/DRUG related.


Update: 2130 hrs 18 Dec 03

The young female passenger passed away this evening
at U.A.B. Hospital in Birmingham.



*FootNote- the scene of the MVA was near the Academy
Drive exit.

Best Wishes,
Ala Dan, N.R.A. Life Member