Cultivating a Realistic View of Gun Control - 2

1.  Gun advocates argue that if everyone carried a gun, society would be more safe from criminal activity.  They argue private gun ownership deters criminals. Criminals who can attack a defenseless population and are much more inclined to do so. 

The evidence of history does not support their theory more guns in everyones hands makes for a safer society.   Gun advocates need to explain why 100 years ago in much of the western united states many people carried a gun.  Did that stop crime?  If so explain to me why virtually the entire the "wild west" moved to banning people from carrying firearms in public in the space of a couple decades?

Explain to me why our murder rate with guns is orders of magnitude higher than other similar developed western countries where guns are generally not available?

Explain to me why we subject police officers to psychological tests and hundreds of hours of training before we let them carry a gun?  Yet even after all that training they shoot innocent and unarmed people from time to time because their hormones are surging and they make mistakes in judgment.  

Explain to me why does the military gives soldiers guns but not ammunition unless combat is threatened?


Are there actually documented instances where private citizens intervened to stop a crime?  I have seldom heard of such an event, but in a recent discussion a gun advocate cited the following web site as offerring examples of cases where folks with guns stopped a crime -  http://www.akdart.com/gun3.html

The cite presents lots of anecdotes without reliable documenation, and makes no distinction between people at their home or business defending themselves and people out walking the streets packing heat.  

The site tries to explain away the lack of reliable evidence (such as police reports or media reports) by starting with a disclaimer that the mainstream media doesn't report instances where people successfully defend themselves with guns because the mainstream media is for gun control.  That is certainly not the mainstream media I experience.  The mainstream media is about any story with emotional appeal, and with good guys and bad guys, and any gun confrontation has that appeal. 

The site then starts citing "examples", many of which are about instances where people are in their homes or businesses defending against intruders.  There are virtually no examples of people walking around the streets armed stopping a crime.  

The only instance close that has happened in my recent memory was when that gun toting self appointed vigilante in Florida shot an unarmed black kid he confronted on a street in the kids neighborhood.  Exactly the sort of event one would expect from members of the general public packing heat on the streets.


2.  Gun advocates argue ttat there is no way to stop criminals from having guns - since a black market arises for banned substantces such as drugs, or, once upon a time alcohol.  But the fact is when things are illegal, although markets in the banned substance are almost always developed by criminals, the banned item is vastly more expensive than the same item in a legal free market.  And trading in guns is vastly more difficult than selling illegal drugs that fit in your pocket.  If guns were illegal they would be much less available to the common criminal, or those operating in the heat of passion.  Existing licensing systems for those who need to carry concealed weapons would allow responsible citizens to obtain licenses, so further shrinking a potential illegal market.

In addition if carrying guns in public is illegal and the police stop someone with a gun and no license to carry the weapon, they can arrest them. When guns are legal to carry in public, and the police stop someone with a gun, even if they are on their way from a crime, or just committed a crime the police are unaware of, the police cannot detain that person unless the person has committed some other offense.








One approach is to require weapons that fire lots of rounds rapidly (more than 6 rounds a minute) to have special sized ammunition, and then tightly control that ammunition.