Gun control : Pros and Cons

[jke456]

Just for the record i am NOT jke456 i am his daughter and i am writing and essay about gun control pros and cons. What i ask of is any websites or information dealing with the facts of what happened with gun control in other countries and your opinions of why the US does or doesnt need Gun control.

 

[Atticus]

Hi there. Here's a good place to start. Six million good reasons against gun control. http://www.jpfo.org/

 

[Solo]

Pros: Well, it makes the masses a lot easier to control

Cons: Restricts individual liberties, does not disarm criminals, encourages criminals to prey on civilians, may set the stage for a police state, may allow for further restrictions on other freedoms, and reduces the abilities of the civilians to rebel when the government becomes tyrannical.

More learned people than I will be here shortly to post their viewpoints.

 

[Stickjockey]

Check out http://www.guncite.com

 

[LoneWolf]

http://www.a-human-right.com/

This is an excellent site for those just starting to get into the 2nd amendment debate.

 

[jke456]

Thanks

Again this isnt jke456 its his daughter.

I just wanted to thank those who have replied and who will repley i will be back on tomorrow to check for more replies.

Again your comments are appreciated. please and thanks.

 

[Solo]

I feel obligated to say this... no article is complete without reviewing the other (dark) side, so you might want to check out the Brady Campaign

 

[Justin]

Here's a link to 'Gunfacts v. 3.2' which is an excellent Adobe PDF file.

It's definately got a pro-rights slant, but does a good job of laying out all of the anti-gun arguments and then deconstructing them. What's nice is that they cite sources, and generally they are neutral ones such as the CDC or FBI instead of NRA or VPC.

http://www.keepandbeararms.com/downloads/GunFacts_v3.2.pdf

 

[Art Eatman]

It's either last month's or the current issue of Soldier of Fortune magazine which lists some 48 dichotomies in the gun-control arguments. E.g., why is a semi-auto pistol with no more than seven controls more difficult for a person to learn to use than a car--which has over 20?

An excellent statistical study of gun control laws vs. rates of violent crimes is Wright, Rossi & Daly's "Under The Gun" from the University of Florida Press (1985, IIRC) Their primary conclusion was that no gun control ever passed or applied in Florida had any effect on rates of violence with firearms.

The statistical surveys of Prof. Gary Kleck of FSU are germane as to the self-defense rates of use vs. the rates of criminal use of firearms.

John Lott's work is also very pertinent.

Art

 

[buy guns]

post the essay when youre done?

 

[jke456]

hello all


jon here

The daughter, bless her heart, came to me a few days ago and told me about her essay and that she had chosen to right it on Gun Control: The Pros and Cons....

I pretty well told her about the same thing Solo told her, but a little more emphasis on the true intentions of the anti crowd

Gun control has hit home a bit lately as my gun toten cheerleader loves to shoot several weapons that Illinois is going to try and ban, which has really p###ed her off a bit.

Her essay is supposed to take a nonbiased look at the subject and get opinions from both sides, yet it is to be short and sweet with multitudes of information. I think she is feeling a little overwelmed by all the information (links to websites, position papers, quotes from both sides( that I have presented her with.

She is also to talk to people on both sides of the spectrum ( any anti's lurking on her she can pm with )

She is having a hard time trying to just focus in on the basic aspect of both sides and her being a teenager and myself not very well at communicating my exact thoughts ( as anti is a four lettter word to me and I have a hard time not expressing major bias ) to her I am not the best to help her with this..... so I suggested she come on her and get thoughts from you , who are more able to express yourselves in better thought out words than I myself ever could....... for this I thank you all in advance

She will be back on here tommorrow, and the other sites you have given along with the sites I have givin her, If anyone has any sites that presents both sides just in basic details without all the propaganda that both site use so much, that is what I believe she is actually lookin for...... but I could be wrong as I'm not sure she actually knows what she is looking for

the site justin gave, on the surface,seems like the type of thing she needs, but as we are on phone line every time we have opened it, our comp has locked up and we have only seen the table of contents,,,, will keep trying it though thanks justin

thanks to all who have replied and will reply

later

jon

 

[tyme]

Be careful using that gunfacts pdf. First, it's not the latest version. Second, I've never been impressed with its accuracy. I much prefer Stickjokey's recommendation, www.guncite.com , even though it's less compact. I guess I find the gunfacts pdf to be too pre-digested for my tastes, and too focused on facts and figures rather than theory and philosophy.

Here's a page with gunfacts 3.3: http://www.2asisters.org/gunfacts/
Primary location for gunfacts: http://www.gunfacts.info/

 

[Jeff White]

Jon,
If you need to borrow any printed material let me know. I have a modest library....

My former RTO has a teenage daughter....now I do feel old

Jeff

 

[ReadyontheRight]

I always revert back to two questions regarding gun control:

1. Can you name one law that would keep guns out of the hands of law-breakers?

2. OK - Assume that somehow you've removed non-military gun ownership from all but the police. How do you stop: "Hello, I'm a policeman, this is my gun - hand me your wallet."?

Not to disparage police officers, but what really protects our rights? I believe we each have to protect our own rights. This is very difficult without guns. Police exist to figure out who's the bad guy and collect evidence AFTER an altercation, not to dive through your doorway shooting bad guys caught in the act like on T.V. I commend the work of the police force, but there's no possible way they can stop all crime.

In your discussions, you may get to the "giant magnet" theory. This is where you somehow remove all guns from the face of the earth - like with some sort of giant magnet.

Before guns existed, strong men with fists, sticks or swords grouped together under a leader to force their will upon others. People banded together to fight back.

If you were just trying to live your life -- maybe trying to farm some land, you needed the protection of the united forces of your neighbors to come and fight with you if invaded. This system is most efficient under a heirarchy that manages multiple chunks of farmland backed up by a brute force of bodies to protect it. This leads to kings, dukes and knights to collect taxes and alliegence in exchange for protection from the barbarians next door - first through brute force and later through negotiation and periodic wars.

Guns take brute force out of the equation. Almost anyone from 7 to 100 can aim and shoot a gun to deter an attacker. Just one experienced person with a good rifle can hold off a horde of invaders.

Guns changed the world. America grew up without a need for protection through kingdoms and feudalism.

Some would argue that times have changed and we don't need guns any longer in our sophistocated world. I argue back that Europeans in the 1920s seemed to think that they were extremely sophistocated and many probably didn't think they needed guns after "The War to End All Wars".

Many who thought this were exterminated by armed monsters.

If you look at www.JPFO.org as suggested above, you can find that an average of more than 2000 unarmed men women and children were murdered by their own government for each day in the 20th century -- after gun control laws disarmed them.

I hope this helps. Good luck and keep shooting safely!