Thoughts on Gun Control and the War on Drugs

[Randall53]

We all know there are a lot of people wanting to take away our constitutional right of owning/bearing firearms. These people are very naive to say the least. Not only are they completely stupid of the fact that shooting is a great family sport and wonderful American Tradition, but the fact that they think stopping the sale of firearms, ammunition or both is going to disarm the criminal. A criminal obeys nothing but his own twisted desires. He is ALREADY NOT conforming with the laws of the land. DUH-HUH...he's a CRIMINAL!! TV news reports about drug busts ALWAYS show guns....LOTS of guns. I supposes the Brady's believe all these guns were bought at your local gun store/show and are registered to the owners..right? Yeah right! N-A-I-V-E....Many times, these guns are fully automatic mac-10's, UZI's and so forth, which are ALREADY ILLEGAL TO OWN since when...the 1930's?? And only now legal with the proper BATF license!!!! WHEW! This just wears me out! Not to mention PMO!!

One argument I've always used with these very ignorant people that usually leaves them stuttering, which I haven't heard used during gun control debates, is how impossible it is to disarm criminals in the first place. This is where the war on drugs comes in. I'm 53 years old and have watched this country's "war on drugs" for the past 35 years. You know what? The drugs seem to be more dangerous, in larger quantities and easy to get than ever.....in other words it's worse now than it ever has been!! 35 years of fighting to get substances off the streets that a trained dog can smell from 100 ft, through water, steel, cow dung. Police agency's brag how these dogs can smell illegal drugs through a vacuum! The crap is bulky, hard to handle, easily recognized, but still it comes into this country by the METIC TONS each year!!

Now lets look at gun smuggling. If our guns are ever outlawed, these same people that are smart enough to smuggle these hard to handle, bulky, dog sniffleable illegal drugs for an enormous profit, will now have another form of contraband to sell (some already do I'm sure!!). An unoiled gun smells like the materials they are made from.....Steel, plastic, carbon, etc.....just like 95 % of the stuff in our houses!! This takes the dogs out of the equation. How many guns would a capped 24"x30' aluminum/steel/iron pipe hold? How many tractor trailers do you see going down the highway loaded to the max with pipes this size or larger? Smuggling guns would be a cakewalk for these people. Our government cannot even slow the drug smugglers, so how would they ever stop illegal guns from entering this country? They won't.....They would only give criminals the upper hand they have long desired. If you were a car-jacker, rapist, armed robber, would you feel better/safer/bolder knowing theres a 95% chance your intended victim you are planning to highjack/rape/rob are unarmed, or knowing there's a 95% chance that they have a .45ACP in their possession? I think we all know the answer to that one. If our guns were ever taken away....I'm sure the criminals would be dancing in the streets. Hmmmm....with that thought in mind....I wonder who they vote for?

Sorry for the long post, but thanks for letting me vent my frustrations!!!!

 

[Art Eatman]

There's a 1985 book called "Under the Gun" by Wright, Rossi & Daly, from the Univ. of Fla. Press. The focus is on gun laws and violent crime in Florida. A couple of the authors are statisticians, IIRC. It is mentioned in an appendix that they began their work either neutral or mildly anti- about guns.

The primary conclusion was that no gun control law ever passed in Florida, or enacted by the feds, had ever affected crime rates in Florida.

Interviews with violent-crime prisoners in Florida's Raiford Penetentiary proved interesting. For instance, if handguns were made to totally disappear, they'd merely apply hacksaws to rifles and shotguns.

The authors then introduce an interesting datum: Of those shot with handguns, two-thirds live and one-third die. The reverse is true with long guns. Thus, I conclude that if handguns were magicked away the death rate from violence would increase.

Much of the gun crime in the US is associated with drugs. Drive-by shootings seem mostly to derive from "wars" over turf from which to sell drugs, but the public at large is told that it's the guns themselves which lead to the behavior. Logic has never been a strong point for those seeking governmental controls over the populace. Druggies need excessive amounts of money per unit of drug consumed due to the black market, so we have the "new" name given to convenience stores of "Stop'n'Rob"--and again, the gun gets the blame.

Since the media is in business to sell advertising by means of exciting the public, the background behind events is rarely analyzed. Analysis is boring. Soccer moms are led to believe that guns cause crime and we wind up with the MMM crowd, the Brady Bunch and other natterers.

1973 saw the beginning of an unending flow of ever more Draconian laws emanating from Congress and the Legislatures, yet the same old 10% of illegal drugs is interdicted. We have such inanities as "arrest the money" and the incredible tax-burden of chasing "money launderers". (I can't help it: I have this mental picture of a bunch of guys standing by washing machines, and a guy in the background in a Maytag uniform with a badge...)

"Beam me up, Scotty!"

Art

 

[Dead]

Art... I beleive that there is one "Gun Control Law" that had a major effect on crime in FL, that would be CCW. If it was a vermont style law then I was say it was a non-gun control law, but due to the fact that you have to obtain a license it is a "controlling" law. (I am just basising this on my own beliefs, hey if I was a criminal bent on robbing people, and knew that they could NOT legally be armed when outside of their home/property I would certainly be more inclined to rob them, knowing that I would be armed and that they most likely would not.)

I am surprised that gun control laws that restricted the rights of citizens to obtain firearms has led to an increase in crime, or did the study see if the crime rates decreased?

 

[shermacman]

Nice!!! Welcome to The High Road!
I love a good hot-headed rant!
Here is some fun stuff for the Kumbayha fools:

A World Without Guns

 

[Randall53]

WOW....Thanks Shermacman! That is a great article...and too the point. The gun control crowd always talk about taking up everything but single shot rifles (a concession I suppose?).....but they are so blinded to the truth. Imagine the havoc one man can do on a crowded subway, restaurant, bus, bank, school, or church with a very sharp knife/box opener/razor blade as he runs down the rows of innocent people slicing throats? (sorry for the visual)? How many could he kill in one minute? I'd say just as many or MORE as a man with semiauto handgun and a pocket full of mags!! With the knife, he's up close and personal and has a lot less chance of missing his target.

 

[slzy]

The prestige of government has undoubtedly been lowered by the Prohibition law. For nothing is more destrucvtive of respect for the government and the law of the land than passing laws which cannot be enforced. It is an open secret that the dangerous increase of crime in this country is closely connected with this.
This is what Albert Einstein said of alcohol prohibition. I am sure there is something relative to the discussion here.

 

[beerslurpy]

Wow schmercman, that is an awesome article. I didnt realize that actual air powered weapons for human-killing had been developed except as a curiosity.

Actually, I dont beleive that a fully automatic gun firing from a non-fixed cartridge counts as a machine gun or even as a firearm. This gives me a truly awesome idea. It had occurred to me in the past that the only thing keeping paintball guns from being useful as weapons was a lack of velocity and too mushy/heavy a projectile. You could easily develop a paintball gun that rapidly fired 9mm lead pellets (000 buck?) at 1000+ fps from a hopper. With a better feed mechanism you could fire regular handgun/rifle slugs from it.

The only real challenge would be to make a gas system that would support that kind of velocity and be both portable and reliable. Preferably enough gas to use all of your ammo. Carrying around a jug full of super high pressure gas near my face would make me nervous.