A (DU) minority view on guns.

[krispos42]

92. Your side has plenty of solutions...

...so I assume you support at least of a few of them to one degree or another.

Magazine-capacity limits, assault-weapons bans, registration, waiting periods, smart guns, microstamping, permits to purchase ammunition... anything?

[div class=excerpt style=background:#AFEEEE]That's an interesting hypothesis, but there's no evidence whatsoever to support it. Studies examining the link between guns and homicide in the US don't find any significant substitution effect. And the instrumentality factor -- that gun crimes/fights are much more likely to result in homicide -- is well documented.

Well, remember, that cities like New York and Chicago put in very strict limits on guns, and they still had very high murder rates in the 70's and 80s... and their laws go back to the early 20th Century. NYC used to have about 6 people murdered a day.

It can't be assumed that 0% of what would be gun murders would instead committed with "other", just like it can't be assumed that 100% would be. The truth lies somewhere in between those, but, like you, I don't know what it would likely be.




And, no, we can't do both. Sorry. The reaction from any serious attempt to reduce the number of privately-owned guns in the country would put Republicans in power. You're talking about virtually freezing new-gun sales, at a minimum, and then either outright confiscation of guns, or a long-term plan that would prohibit people from receiving used guns under any circumstances. The latter would mean that as gun-owners died off, their guns would be taken by the government instead of being sold or inherited, thus disarming the country in about 80 years.

This would drive people nuts and energize the conservative base without a comparable reaction from the progressive side. It would be repealed, and putting the conservatives in charge of all three branches of government... yikes.


My question to you regarding numbers was in reference to gun-ownership rates.