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In reply to the discussion: Ken Braun: Banning guns will work as well as the war on drugs [View all]
I do not feel they will be as well accepted or tolerated as pot or alcohol.
Why? In Berkeley or San Francisco, sure, guns are not accepted or tolerated. In Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, Texas, Nebraska, and other rural/mountain states, they're very socially acceptable.
And I still am a little short in understanding so many potential otherwise lawful gun owners apparently willing to become criminals to keep owning them. Personally it seems a very poor risk to take when faced with a criminal record and jail time.
It would also seem to be silly to drink booze during Prohibition. Why risk a criminal record for a drink? Strangely, millions of people were quite willing to do exactly that.
Even if gun possession were made illegal tomorrow, what would be the consequences for someone who owned guns and lived in an area where they are considered acceptable? The local police probably aren't going to come snooping, since most of them will probably consider gun ownership acceptable, and on the off chance that they actually do arrest the gun-owner, is a prosecutor actually going to bring charges? If the prosecutor does bring charges, is a jury pool picked from a population that's 80% in favor of guns going to convict someone for owning guns, or are they just going to nullify the charges like a Prohibition jury?
Why? In Berkeley or San Francisco, sure, guns are not accepted or tolerated. In Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, Texas, Nebraska, and other rural/mountain states, they're very socially acceptable.
And I still am a little short in understanding so many potential otherwise lawful gun owners apparently willing to become criminals to keep owning them. Personally it seems a very poor risk to take when faced with a criminal record and jail time.
It would also seem to be silly to drink booze during Prohibition. Why risk a criminal record for a drink? Strangely, millions of people were quite willing to do exactly that.
Even if gun possession were made illegal tomorrow, what would be the consequences for someone who owned guns and lived in an area where they are considered acceptable? The local police probably aren't going to come snooping, since most of them will probably consider gun ownership acceptable, and on the off chance that they actually do arrest the gun-owner, is a prosecutor actually going to bring charges? If the prosecutor does bring charges, is a jury pool picked from a population that's 80% in favor of guns going to convict someone for owning guns, or are they just going to nullify the charges like a Prohibition jury?
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Many here would LOVE to ban them. You seem to have forgot the hysteria around here. n-t
Logical
Mar 2013
#5
You refuse to face the facts that some are advocating total civilian disarmament
ProgressiveProfessor
Mar 2013
#13
Ah, I see: refuting the "professors"* pro-NRA nonsense is now "bullying."
apocalypsehow
Mar 2013
#24
So by all means, say that everyone does, or that those who do are shaping policy in any way.
Squinch
Mar 2013
#36
Because countries with strict firearms regulation have USA-levels of gun violence, obviously
Spider Jerusalem
Mar 2013
#17
"Ken Braun was a legislative aide for a Republican lawmaker in the Michigan House for six years"
apocalypsehow
Mar 2013
#25