When one argues gun control is good and CCW is bad..

[bg]

..one has only to look a this statement from the L.A. Times of all places..
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-op-dustup24apr24,0,4701442.story?coll=la-opinion-center

excerpt

Finally, there is practical experience. In none of the 40 states with licensed carry have the hysterical predictions of the anti-self-defense lobby come true. Since 1973, the number of guns in America has doubled, while the number of gun accidents has plunged from 2,618 to 730, and the homicide rate has fallen by over a third, from 9.5 per 100,000 population to 5.9.

This is from an opinion by Dave Kopel.

There is rebuttal from Chris Lockwood. His thinking is gun control will be back sooner rather than later.

excerpts

The NRA's political power has been further boosted by the essentially 50-50 nature of American politics in this period. Small House majorities, an extremely tight Senate and a presidency determined by a relatively small number of voters in a few swing states has maximized the power of well-financed lobby groups—and they don't come any bigger or better financed than the NRA. Were the Democrats to win thumping majorities in 2008, this disproportionate influence would decline. The NRA may have over 4 million members, but a majority of the 300 million Americans disagree with its views. The NRA's last redoubt will be the Senate: Broadly speaking, city-dwellers want gun control, and rural dwellers don't. But since there are two senators for every state, regardless of population, the rural dwellers are strongly over-represented in Congress.

There is, however, another factor to watch out for. In the early 1990s, the political climate was quite receptive to gun control, because gun crime had soared during the late 1970s and 1980s—a consequence of the drug wars of that time. In the 1990s, thanks to better, and better-funded, policing and (in some degree) to the Clinton administration's steps in the direction of gun control, homicides fell sharply. As the homicide numbers came down, so too did the proportions of people wanting more gun control.

But gun crime has now started to rise again. The 2005 figures showed a sharp rise over the 2004 ones, and although we don't yet have the full 2006 figures, urban police chiefs and the FBI are warning of a further enormous spike in the numbers in medium and big cities (population over 500,000). John Timoney, the police chief in Miami told The Economist that he thinks this spike is attributable to the ending of the assault weapons ban. The LAPD's own chief, William Bratton, runs a group of police chiefs that have warned of a "gathering storm" as more powerful weapons become more freely available. If this trend continues as predicted, I would not be surprised to see public demands for action increase again. Gun control could come back on the agenda sooner than you might think. And although the Democrats say they think guns lost them the elections of 1994 and 2000, it's not entirely true. There were a lot more reasons than gun control at play in 1994 (Hilary Clinton's medical failures, gays in the military etc), and Al Gore had weaknesses of his own.

This statement underlined is flawed as Ca has one of the strictest AWL in
the Nation.

Those whose agenda is a complete ban of firearms for the law-abiding public
lay blame on "illegal" guns. How can this be ? How does a gun know it's
illegal and hence proceed to go on a crime spree ? How does a "legal" gun
know NOT to do so ? I've many times eyed the few weapons I have sometimes
for at least an hr on & off, and have yet seen ANY type of mischief from them
as of yet. Maybe the tiny weapons assortment I have is also flawed. They
don't appear to do anything but lie in or stand up the safe.

Finally when those who would do away with our rights to own weapons point
to them as the new terror and easily obtained devices Al-Qaeda would use,
I have to ask this..Why has Israel, most of whose adult citizens ARE armed,
not been attacked by these thugs ? I know Israel has serious problems with
many people on borders their nation, but why hasn't Al-Qaeda tried attacks
there ?

I don't know, but it seems to to me that the saying " A Armed Society Is
A Polite Society " is far more true today than ever before. I'm just afraid
that come the 08 aftermath we'll be stuck with a Gov whose priority will be
to geld those who DO believe in a pro firearm platform. I for one am not
attending.



This is really an interesting debate between two fellas who see
things differently on the firearm issue. It's not very long. It's
runs about 5 days worth and quick reading.
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-op-dustup23apr23,0,4242688.story?coll=la-opinion-center

 

[Prince Yamato]

Broadly speaking, city-dwellers want gun control, and rural dwellers don't

BS, I'm a sophisticated, pretentious urbanite... and I freakin' LOVE firearms.

 

[nobody_special]

Yamato, you're the exception to the trend.

Of course, the problem with the anti's argument is that it's based on flawed reasoning. First, the AWB didn't actually prevent the sale of modern firearms, it merely limited magazine capacity and features such as flash hiders, folding stocks, etc.

Second, I haven't heard of many murders or other crimes committed with "assault weapons." The Virginia Tech killer used handguns.

Third, correlation does not imply causation. The sunset of the AWB may coincide with an increase in the crime or homicide rate, but that doesn't mean it caused said increase.

 

[nobody_special]

(Nothing to see here, move along.)

 

[gunsmith]

city dwellers want criminal control

Broadly speaking, city-dwellers want gun control, and rural dwellers don't

City politicians want gun control, the people who live there have little firearm experience and only know what they see on tv and read in the paper.

I guess I was an exception, as a born and raised New Yorker, I always assumed the 2nd meant what it said.

 

[obxned]

"Broadly speaking, city-dwellers want gun control, and rural dwellers don't "

The city dwellers that really want gun control are those who are committing the crimes. They really want more freedom and safety when robbing, raping, murdering, and dealing drugs. After all, the gun laws do not apply to them.

 

[DomMega]

I'm a city-dwelling Los Angeles citizen and gun control is the last thing I want.

Also, Al Queda attacks Israel all the time. Granted, they thwart about 9 of every 10 attacks but it still happens there all the time. Read the book "Living with Terrorism" written by an Israeli in the civil Sniper guard who talks about how his entire life has changed to adapt him and his family to terrorism. I think Israel just knows that an armed populace stands a far better chance at defending themselves against terrorism than a defenseless society does. Israel is the country in the middle east to learn from as far as their tactics and strategms in dealing with terrorism. They've dealt with it for years and the United States needs to take everything they say seriously. Also, another country few realize that has quite the modern network against terrorism and sleeper cells is the Philippines. In fact they were the first to fill in the United States about the possible attacks that happened to fall on September 11th. They knew, we didn't listen.

 

[bumm]

Contrary to what the anti writer says, there was no detectable blip in violent crime rates when the AWB went into effect, or when it was allowed to sunset. As I understand it, the recent increase in violent crime is due to an increase in the number of young males in their teens and early twenties, which is the group most often responsible. This increase in crime has long been predicted as this surge in the population grew to reach the "right" age, and the situation has no doubt been looked forward to with anticipation by gun control advocates.
Marty

 

[camslam]

It is scary to think if just one of these anti-gun idiots would take the time to actually educate themselves on the facts of firearms and their use, we would see much less of this garbage.

I love how he states poll after poll after poll of the american people has shown that they want tighter gun controls. That doesn't surprise me one bit with the way mainstream media presents any issue regarding guns. Secondly, the way they ask the questions has as much to do with the responses as anything.

Give me 5 minutes to educate someone with the logic of the gun debate and I have found success in doing so.

 

[748]

The antis base all most every thing on emotional decisions and not logical ones.
I am a well armed city dweller .

 

[lamazza]

More laws, restrictions and taxes make it much harder for lower income people to get by. You can bet crime is going to just keep on rising.