Gun Control Thread- Should we?

I think part of the problem is that people like me, who doesn't own a gun, think the amount of guns this country has shows a problem.

It's the misuse of the guns, not the amount.

You're sound asleep when you hear a thump outside your bedroom. Half-awake and nearly paralyzed with fear, you hear muffled whispers.

At least two people have broken into your house and are moving your way.

With your heart pumping, you reach down beside your bed and pick up your shotgun.

You rack a shell into the chamber, then inch toward the door and open it.

In the darkness, you make out two shadows.

One holds something that looks like a crowbar.

When the intruder brandishes it as if to strike, you raise the shotgun and fire.

The blast knocks both thugs to the floor.

One writhes and screams while the second man crawls to the front door and lurches outside.

As you pick up the telephone to call police, you know you're in trouble.

In your country, most guns were outlawed years before, and the few that are privately owned are so stringently regulated as to make them useless..

Yours was never registered.

Police arrive and inform you that the second burglar has died.

They arrest you for First Degree Murder and Illegal Possession of a Firearm.

When you talk to your attorney, he tells you not to worry: authorities will probably plea the case down to manslaughter.

"What kind of sentence will I get?" you ask.

"Only ten-to-twelve years," he replies, as if that's nothing.

"Behave yourself, and you'll be out in seven."

The next day, the shooting is the lead story in the local newspaper. Somehow, you're portrayed as an eccentric vigilante while the two men you shot are represented as choirboys.

Their friends and relatives can't find an unkind word to say about them..

Buried deep down in the article, authorities acknowledge that both "victims" have been arrested numerous times.

But the next day's headline says it all:

"Lovable Rogue Son Didn't Deserve to Die."

The thieves have been transformed from career criminals into Robin Hood-type pranksters.

As the days wear on, the story takes wings.

The national media picks it up, then the international media.

The surviving burglar has become a folk hero.

Your attorney says the thief is preparing to sue you, and he'll probably win.

The media publishes reports that your home has been burglarized several times in the past and that you've been critical of local police for their lack of effort in apprehending the suspects.

After the last break-in, you told your neighbor that you would be prepared next time.

The District Attorney uses this to allege that you were lying in wait for the burglars.

A few months later, you go to trial.

The charges haven't been reduced, as your lawyer had so confidently predicted.

When you take the stand, your anger at the injustice of it all works against you..

Prosecutors paint a picture of you as a mean, vengeful man.

It doesn't take long for the jury to convict you of all charges.

The judge sentences you to life in prison.


This case really happened:

On August 22, 1999, Tony Martin of Emneth, Norfolk , England , killed one burglar and wounded a second.

In April, 2000, he was convicted and is now serving a life term.

How did it become a crime to defend one's own life in the once great British Empire?

It started with the Pistols Act of 1903.

This seemingly reasonable law forbade selling pistols to minors or felons and established that handgun sales were to be made only to those who had a license.
The Firearms Act of 1920 expanded licensing to include not only handguns but all firearms except shotguns.

Later laws passed in 1953 and 1967 outlawed the carrying of any weapon by private citizens and mandated the registration of all shotguns.

Momentum for total handgun confiscation began in earnest after the Hungerfordmass shooting in 1987.

Michael Ryan, a mentally disturbed man with a Kalashnikov rifle, walked down the streets shooting everyone he saw.

When the smoke cleared, 17 people were dead.

The British public, already de-sensitized by eighty years of "gun control", demanded even tougher restrictions. (The seizure of all privately owned handguns was the objective even though Ryan used a rifle.)

Nine years later, at Dunblane, Scotland, Thomas Hamilton used a semi-automatic weapon to murder 16 children and a teacher at a public school.

For many years, the media had portrayed all gun owners as mentally unstable, or worse, criminals.

Now the press had a real kook with which to beat up law-abiding gun owners.

Day after day, week after week, the media gave up all pretense of objectivity and demanded a total ban on all handguns.

The Dunblane Inquiry, a few months later, sealed the fate of the few sidearms still owned by private citizens.

During the years in which the British government incrementally took away most gun rights, the notion that a citizen had the right to armed self-defense came to be seen as vigilantism.

Authorities refused to grant gun licenses to people who were threatened, claiming that self-defense was no longer considered a reason to own a gun.

Citizens who shot burglars or robbers or rapists were charged while the real criminals were released.

Indeed, after the Martin shooting, a police spokesman was quoted as saying,
"We cannot have people take the law into their own hands."

All of Martin's neighbors had been robbed numerous times, and several elderly people were severely injured in beatings by young thugs who had no fear of the consequences.
Martin himself, a collector of antiques, had seen most of his collection trashed or stolen by burglars.

When the Dunblane Inquiry ended, citizens who owned handguns were given three months to turn them over to local authorities.

Being good British subjects, most people obeyed the law. The few who didn't were visited by police and threatened with ten-year prison sentences if they didn't comply.

Police later bragged that they'd taken nearly 200,000 handguns from private citizens.

How did the authorities know who had handguns?

The guns had been registered and licensed.

Kind of like cars. Sound familiar? (http://seanlinnane.blogspot.com/2013/01/stormbringer-sends.html)

Goodness you gunnies are defensive about all this. The mere mention that reducing gun ownership in this country somehow unequivocally amounts to advocating gun control? Not what I meant.


I think part of the problem is that people like me, who doesn't own a gun, think the amount of guns this country has shows a problem. Understand this...when I say "reduce" I mean get our country to naturally not want to own over half the guns in the world. My gut is that taking guns from them isn't the way to achieve that.


Eric Holder: Gun Owners Should 'Cower' in Shame Like Smokers | NewsBusters.org (http://newsbusters.org/blogs/nb-staff/2013/01/10/eric-holder-gun-owners-should-cower-shame-smokers)

This is kind of like the 1990's Carlton Banks version of Eric Holder.

But instead of brain washing people to view gun owners like cigarette smokers, perhaps the government should lead by example/action. Why do police departments need military weapons? I would be supportive of a ban that reserved military weapons for the..... military, while empowering private citizens to defend themselves with the capability equal to that of local and federal law enforcement.

I agree it would be preferable to live in a country/world where people dont want to own guns, even though they can. Maybe one day we live in a world where people dont want guns, but that will likely only happen when we live in a world where people dont need guns.

New York just went full retard.

Gov. Cuomo and legislative leaders were on the verge Sunday night of finalizing a major gun-control deal that would give New York the nation’s toughest assault weapons ban, sources told the Daily News. (http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/dailypolitics/2013/01/gun-control-deal-close-could-come-as-soon-as-today-source)

I like the tying of mental health to gun ownership. The devil (or angel) of that will be in the details. But the rest... ban of private sales, some weapons, ammunition limits, all this will do nothing to reduce crime or violence.

And the whole pre 1994 thing is NOT a "loophole". Is the mag restriction also non-grandfather clause? Ex post facto if so...and makes previous law abiding citizens into instant felons. While still doing nothing positive.

It'll be interesting to see what emerges, and if anything is struck down judicially.

New York just went full retard.

Gov. Cuomo and legislative leaders were on the verge Sunday night of finalizing a major gun-control deal that would give New York the nation’s toughest assault weapons ban, sources told the Daily News. (http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/dailypolitics/2013/01/gun-control-deal-close-could-come-as-soon-as-today-source)

I like the tying of mental health to gun ownership. The devil (or angel) of that will be in the details. But the rest... ban of private sales, some weapons, ammunition limits, all this will do nothing to reduce crime or violence.

And the whole pre 1994 thing is NOT a "loophole". Is the mag restriction also non-grandfather clause? Ex post facto if so...and makes previous law abiding citizens into instant felons. While still doing nothing positive.

It'll be interesting to see what emerges, and if anything is struck down judicially.


Done deal.Maryland next

New York passes nation's toughest gun control law | NJ.com (http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2013/01/new_york_passes_nations_toughe.html#incart_river_d efault)

York state enacted the nation's toughest gun restrictions today and the first since the Connecticut school massacre, including an expanded assault-weapon ban and background checks for buying ammunition.
Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed the measure into law less than an hour after it won final passage in the Legislature, with supporters hailing it as a model for the nation and gun-rights activists condemning it as a knee-jerk piece of legislation that won't make anyone safer and is too extreme to win support in the rest of the country.
"Common sense can win," Cuomo said. "You can overpower the extremists with intelligence and with reason and with common sense."

Done deal.Maryland next

New York passes nation's toughest gun control law | NJ.com (http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2013/01/new_york_passes_nations_toughe.html#incart_river_d efault)

York state enacted the nation's toughest gun restrictions today and the first since the Connecticut school massacre, including an expanded assault-weapon ban and background checks for buying ammunition.
Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed the measure into law less than an hour after it won final passage in the Legislature, with supporters hailing it as a model for the nation and gun-rights activists condemning it as a knee-jerk piece of legislation that won't make anyone safer and is too extreme to win support in the rest of the country.
"Common sense can win," Cuomo said. "You can overpower the extremists with intelligence and with reason and with common sense."
I have no clue whether this law will have any substantitive effect, but one thing I can guarantee is that laws made on the heels of any major tragedy inevitably include bad parts, and parts that take away rights that most people wouldn't even consider giving up even a few weeks later.

"Common sense can win," Cuomo said. "You can overpower the extremists with intelligence and with reason and with common sense."

I love the use of words like 'Overpower' and 'Extremists' when discussing law abiding gun owners.

Bravo, noble sheepleherder, bravo!

Cuomo wants to "win" and have it his way. He doesnt have the countrys best interests at heart, just his own. You can tell by the way he words things.
Not to mention the guys idiotic 16 oz soda ban.
New York is a sh1thole of repression.

NY and CA are perfect examples of a Nanny State.

I love the use of words like 'Overpower' and 'Extremists' when discussing law abiding gun owners.

Bravo, noble sheepleherder, bravo!

I agree. I think this might apply here.

Articles: The Left's Greatest Mind-Trick: Politicizing Emotion (http://www.americanthinker.com/2013/01/the_lefts_greatest_mind-trick_politicizing_emotion.html)