General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: It's very simple: If you want new gun control laws, you need the cooperation of legal gun owners. [View all]spin
(17,493 posts)in recent years we have seen the sale of firearms skyrocket.
Surely if gun ownership was as bad as what you feel, we would have seen an increase in violent crime in our nation.
I could also point out that 39 states now allow "shall issue" concealed carry and at least 6 million people in the nation have concealed carry licenses. In the early 1980s only 1 million people had a permit to carry.
I personally feel that better policing is largely responsible for the drop in the nationwide crime rate. That's why I strongly support enforcing existing laws and passing legislation that increases the efficiency of our law enforcement agencies.
But catching criminals does little good unless strong punishment is administered. For example the penalty for being caught in Chicago carrying an illegal firearm is often probation.
OPINIONApril 1, 2013, 7:44 p.m. ET
OPINIONApril 1, 2013, 7:44 p.m. ET
Daley and Ander: Don't Take Your Guns to Town
Judges too often take a lenient view of illegally carrying a weapon. The results can be disastrous.
By WILLIAM M. DALEY AND ROSEANNA ANDER
The American criminal-justice system often penalizes petty offenses too heavily but is too lenient on a crime that is far from petty: illegally carrying a gun in public. When someone carries a gun illegally, a heated argument can swiftly turn into a fatal altercation.
Much of the national discussion in the wake of the Newtown schoolhouse shootings has focused on limiting gun ownership by high-risk people. But to truly address the many homicides committed in America's cities, lawmakers also need to ensure there are real consequences for illegally carrying a gun on the street. Regardless of whether or not the gun was lawfully obtainedcarrying one illegally is a more serious offense than possession, since it is directly linked with high murder rates.
In 2012, 506 people were murdered in Chicago. According to an analysis of homicide data by the University of Chicago Crime Lab, nearly 86% of those killings were committed with a firearm, and more than three-fourths occurred outdoors, virtually all with illegally carried guns. Across the country in 2010, guns were used in 11,078 homicidesand illegally carried guns were a central element in most of the killings.
Although gun offenses are generally taken seriously when they are part of crimes such as homicide, aggravated assault or robbery, the act of illegally carrying a gun itself typically doesn't incur significant punishment. Many judges often seem to focus on the fact that no one was hurt, and so they treat these cases lenientlyoften by sentencing offenders to probation. Time behind bars is saved for those who commit "real" crimes.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323605404578383072938628386.html
I feel that gun violence would be decreased far more by sending anyone caught illegally carrying a firearms to jail than another "feel good" assault weapons ban. Of course this idea would be far more expensive at first but shortly the bad guys would stop packing heat on a regular basis.
Many criminals get their firearms on the street. An individual straw purchases the firearm and these weapons get smuggled to the inner city streets of our nation. Stiffer punishment for anyone caught engaging in either the straw purchase or the smuggling a firearms could reduce the number of illegal firearms in our nation.
Theres a new bipartisan bill to crack down on gun trafficking. Will it work?
Posted by Brad Plumer on February 5, 2013 at 4:50 pm
Gun control can be a divisive issue, but heres something that at least some Republicans and Democrats appear to agree on: Congress could do more to crack down on illegal firearms sales and gun trafficking
Cut down the traffic. (AP)
On Tuesday, lawmakers from both parties in the House unveiled a bill (pdf) that would place new restrictions on illegal gun transfers. Among other things, the bill would impose steeper penalties on straw purchasers who knowingly buy guns for convicted criminals.
***snip***
The idea here is to try to prevent guns from falling into the hands of people who are nott allowed to own them. Surveys have found that most armed criminals acquire their guns either from friends, from family members or on the street. Often this can be done through straw purchases a person with a clean record will buy a gun legally and then transfer it to someone whos prohibited from owning a gun.
The House anti-trafficking bill would make these transfers a federal crime, punishable by up to 20 years in prison. The bill would also make it a crime to lie to a federally licensed gun dealer that is, thered be steep penalties for anyone who says hes buying the gun for himself when hes not.
But would this have any effect on trafficking? Gun experts say the bill could potentially help cut into the secondary firearms trade, though only if its part of a broader anti-trafficking strategy. If it leads to greater enforcement of existing laws and more resources for enforcement, theres some evidence it could help, says Jon Vernick, a co-director at Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Policy and Research.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/02/05/congress-wants-to-crack-down-on-gun-trafficking-will-it-work/
I feel that there is plenty of good ideas that would help to reduce gun violence in our nation but the gun control group appears to have focused on the AWB as the only solution. I feel the effort to pass this piece of legislation was doomed from the start and hurt the chances of passing far more effective legislation. If we make no headway in reducing gun violence even further than we have in recent years, I feel it will be a tragedy.
Of course I have other ideas that I think would be effective. Our mental health care system needs improvement. Our NICS background check could easily be improved. We should consider that we lost the War on Drugs decades ago and seriously consider the legalization of some drugs to take much of the profit out of smuggling them into our nation.