Here are a few articles I picked up on regarding the gun control debate.
A little background
I shot .22 caliber rifles in New York City as part of a weekend sports program and then was on a rifle team in high school. This was 50 foot indoor competition shooting. I have never owned a firearm and thought most people who did were a little scary. I grew up in New York City and lived most of my life in Rhode Island. Guns were pretty much a non issue in these areas.
After the Rodney King riots I thought about getting a gun as it seemed as if everyone was getting one. This feeling passed in a few months.
I viewed guns as more of a danger (self inflicted gun shot wounds) than a safety issue (home invasion). Then three separate things happened to me.
- I took two 15,000 mile trips around the country and saw first hand the huge open expanses of the country and the need for protection against animals and bad humans.
- I moved to Florida where crime is close by and frequent.
- I started taking the constitution much more seriously along with becoming more and more discouraged with the larger role that government is beginning to play in our lives.
So now I still don’t own a gun but I have noted that people around me are more and more interested in guns. They either want to reduce them or control them or they want to buy one and carry one. It is common to have the subject come up at a party and I have, on more than one occasion, been proudly shown a concealed carry permit. I have also been show gun collections etc.. All of this is pretty new and exciting for a sheltered boy from New York.
To explore this issue I took a concealed carry course and applied for a permit from the state of Florida. I have no plans to purchase a gun so I can say that I am approaching this as a learning experience.
So this is a collection of thoughts on the subject. A good place to put them down and perhaps to develop an understanding of what is a very topical issue.
Here is a interview with Lott who ironically says more guns will make us safer.
Excellent and thorough website on the 2nd Amendment.
I really liked this link on it.
If you learn only one thing from GunCite, let this be it.
Our Bill of Rights does not grant rights, it preserves and guarantees pre-existing individual rights. How do we know this? The Ninth Amendment states:
"The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people."
Article Discussion by David Mamet
http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2013/01/28/gun-laws-and-the-fools-of-chelm-by-david-mamet.html
David Mamet is a very interesting guy. He is a Pulitzer prize winner and was once a liberal playwright. He has famously become a conservative and spoken in interviews of changes in his political positions,[10][11] highlighting his belief in free market theorists such as Friedrich Hayek[12] the historian Paul Johnson, and economist Thomas Sowell, whom Mamet called "one of our greatest minds."
I sent a copy of his article to some friends, one of whom is a Rhode Island State representative. They had both posted mostly anti-gun items on FaceBook. I didn't reply there as I have long since determined that FB is NOT the place for reasoned debate. Needless to say neither has completely read the article yet - it is hard to read something that will either change your mind or upset your world view - but I was able to fashion a reply to a partial response. (the numbers are for reference)
Her Post...
(1) Didn't read the entire article , but being a newly elected public official, don't agree with his characterization of the "govt" .
(2) Secondly don't agree with concealed carry . In 2008 and 2009 there were more children an young adults killed in the US than American soldiers killed overseas.
(3) This isn't about 2nd amendment mumbo jumbo. This is about keeping military assault weapons and illegal guns out of the hands of people who will do harm.
(4) As far as I am concerned, if I call 911 here in Middletown, an I am sure in many, many areas around the country. The police will respond before I would have time to find a key, and unlock a weapon.
(5) I do also believe that we do always have to balance personal rights with legitimate rights of others as well.
(6) More guns , to me, is not the answer
My Reply
I did look for a page where your political philosophy and legislative priorities are outlined. Is there one?
Here are my thoughts on your comments. I encourage you to read the entire article in it's entirety. It is getting quite a bit of notice nationwide. I also am happy to further engage on this or other issues if you would find it helpful.
1) Congrats - But What does being newly elected have to do with Mamet's characterization of Govt.. What is your characterization of government? I think that it is a huge issue for us all when the govt. over reaches the constitution.
Concealed carry is, ironically for your position, a very strict process that includes fingerprinting, a three hour course and a rigorous back ground check. I recently went through it here even though I don't even own a weapon. It was an eye opener. A citizen with a concealed carry permit is your safest gun owner and an effective deterrent to a criminal act.
2) Statistics - What does a war zone have to do with US gun statistics? The only relevant statistics must be culled from within own our borders where we can compare laws in one state to laws in another state. Mass shootings repeatedly have occurred in designated gun-free zones. These shootings only end when then gunman is confronted with armed resistance or they run out of bullets. There is a statistic somewhere about the average number of deaths at a shooting being lower when a citizen responds versus when the police respond.
3) Second Amendment isn't Mumbo-Jumbo, it's part of our constitution. As to military assault rifles there is no difference between a semi-auto deer rifle and a semi auto AR-15 but cosmetics and saying that banning military assualt rifles will "solve" the gun violence in America is not being honest with the American people. It was tried, well studied, and had no effect because criminals don't pay attention to bans. I heartily agree (who wouldn't) that we need to keep weapons out of the hands of mentally unbalanced people and criminals. We already have laws for that and BTW machine guns have been illegal for decades. Many people don't know the difference between auto and semi-auto.
4) Response to a home invasion. - The best gun safes now use fingerprint readers and can open in 5 seconds. Do an experiment as a public service. Call the Middletown police and time how long they take to get to your house. Now we may not have much of an issue on Compton View but if we lived in a house in Chicago (400 deaths last year with very strict gun laws) or Delray Beach this would be a huge issue.
5) Rights - I am unaware of any right of any person that is violated by another possessing a firearm in a lawful manner.
6) More Guns - As far as more guns or less guns being an answer to anything we need to move past that and realize the reality is guns are everywhere and especially in the hands of criminals. The question is what to do about that reality from a public policy perspective. My suggestions would be to try to work towards getting the weapons out of the hands of criminals and unbalanced persons.
Here are the steps that I would support you making and which will be mostly non-controversial.
- Require a background check for all transfers of gun ownership - period.
- Make gun crimes a federal offense with severe penalties for the use of a weapon in a crime. Some call this 10-20-life and it was proposed and passed in Florida in 1999 by Jeb Bush. Florida became a concealed carry state in 1987. Gun crimes are down 30% since 2000.
- Increase the sharing of databases on mental health issues and create a process to flag someone who may be a risk.
- Along with the databases do a much better job of collecting statistics on gun violence in order to better formulate smart public policy.
and if you want to really be effective and reduce gun violence.
- Pass a concealed carry law in Rhode Island modeled on the Florida law which is recognized by 35 other states. Criminals think twice when a citizen may be armed, that is an indisputable fact.
While it would be lovely to have a world with no guns we don't live there. I recently traveled the USA twice (2010 and 2012) and met all sorts of folks and saw all sorts of attitudes on guns. I have become more pro-gun as a result of the travels. If I had stayed in Rhode Island I am sure I would have stayed as anti-gun as you are.
I know that you are fully invested in being anti-gun and anti-2nd amendment but hopefully this will illuminate your position.
Original article linked again here.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2013/01/28/gun-laws-and-the-fools-of-chelm-by-david-mamet.html
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