In Congress, the Uphill Battle for Gun Control

The Wild West?

I've lived in TX, AZ, NV, and NM. People can have handguns in their home, carry them concealed in public, and all of them are safer than DC. Albuquerque and El Paso are 3 - 10 times safer than DC.

Tombstone AZ is safer than DC. It's safer now that it's people can legally carry concealed guns than it ever was when the Earps banned guns in town.

Second Amendment Works

During a VFW meeting in recent memory, a retired US veteran asked a retired Japanese admiral an interesting question: "You wiped our our Navy, and our air defenses. We had no military defense. Why didn't you invade?" His response?: "We Japanese know you Americans have a gun in every other house - and have championships with military rifles. We were not fools to get into such a quagmire..."

So while $240,000 Korean women as young as 13 were rounded up and put in military brothels to be violated every 15 minutes 30X/day; while 300,000 thousand Chinese surrendered only to be packed in buildings and burned and their women ran naked and bleeding in the streets from military gang-rapes - our women here in the US didn't get raped. Our civilians didn't get massacred.

Of course, we no longer worry about the Japanese - but to see the deterrence of an armed civilian populace, need we look no further than our current fiasco in Iraq? Civilians with guns make can make life pretty miserable for an occupying army (and I'm not even saying we're the bad guys).

Bottom line: Can you trust any government to have all of the guns?

Where was OUR government after Hurricane Katrina? With no 911 service, no water, no electricity, no fire department, and a police force AWOL while gangs ran wild raping and looting.

In a country of 300 plus million people, there will always be murder and mayhem with guns. That's the price we pay to keep soldiers in check: be they domestic or foreign.

You certainly are

Lame

You know what, when I hear legitimate evidence that suggests a handgun ban won't work, then maybe I'll consider arming the entire population.

*****

Look no further than DC. DC has effectively banned the posession of alll handguns and actionable long arms for thirty years. And, starting 30 years ago their crime rate went through the roof.

Read "More guns, less crime" by John Lott for statistical evidence that will probably astound you.

to many laws but no inforcement or follow through

this is about the shooting that happened in Illinois

In Illinois you have to apply for a foid card to the state police to have a gun. This should be the first background checks state & fed. Killer Bought 2 guns a year ago second background checks again state & fed. Then he bought 2 more guns more background checks. There is a three day waiting period for gun pick up. lets see 6 background checks in less than 2years.And they want more after the fact laws or laws that say this gun is evil looking lets ban it.

We should be pounding on senators heads to fix the backgrounds checks so people that have mental problems don't buy guns.DUH & the gang problem.Everything else will fall in line.NRA wanted the background check for gun dealers customers. We need to be united in this.All people need to look at the facts.Most of the anti gunners have no idea the amount of laws there is out there. Blame the judges for not enforcing these laws when these professionals criminals walk free for having a gun Illegally & then get busted for shooting someone for a credit card . It's our big brother that has let us down not the NRA.

schwartz

I wish the author and every other misguided liberal gun hater would stop the next time they contemplate recounting the tragedy of some loon who has shot up a bunch of individuals and using that as a reason to promote more gun control laws. During this pause, I want them to count up, get help if needed here, just how many existing firearms laws were broken BEFORE the loon ever even pointed the gun at the victim. When you have a count, then explain to us just how an additional law would have prevented the perpetrator from committing this crime.

Asault Weapons Innaccurancy

You have an error in your third paragraph:

"Back in 1993, a Democratic-controlled Congress passed the Brady bill, which imposed background checks on gun buyers, and the following year, Congress banned private ownership of assault weapons. "

This is not true, the 1994 assault weapons bill retricted manufacturer of weapons on the prohibited list, except for police and military, and weapons magazines that had a capacity of over 10 rounds.

The bill did not confiscate any weapons or magazines owned by citizens at that time. It also did not prohibit the sale or transfer of existing weapons or magazines, just the manufacture of new ones.

Police Protection and Gun Control

It is a common misapprehension in the public at large that the police have a responsibility for the safety of the individual. The opposite is, in fact the truth. Ever since the 1856 Supreme Court decision in South V. Maryland, it has been the defined principle that the police have no responsibility at all for individual safety. This has been upheld at the federal level as recently as 2005 in Castle Rock V. Gonzalez. D.C.'s own city court of appeals supported this concept in Warren V. District of Columbia, where it stated that "[a] government and its agents are under no general duty to provid public services, such as police protection, to any particular individual citizen." The police exist to enforce the law. If they happen to save you in the process, that is icing on the cake, not their defined purpose. The only person responsible for the safety of the individual is the individual. Firearms prohibition denies the individual the means to fulfill that responsibility to himself and his loved ones. This is what makes D.C V. Heller so critically important to the maintenance of individual liberty in this country, both as individual and as a people.

I do know...

...says Andy Goddard, whose son was injured in the shooting, "people don't know how poorly protected they are."

I do know how unprotected I am Andy. That's why I choose to provide for my own protection. When seconds count the police are only minutes away!

Wild West

Sure, the gun slinger takes over the whole town and terrorizes the citizens. Maybe in those TV shows and westerns you watched as a child, but reality was far different. Most of those citizens were veterans of the American Civil War and kept a rifle or shotgun handy for hunting and personal defense. What few shootings that occured out west usually happened across the tracks in the saloon and red light district. The incidence of shootings was far higher out east in the major cities which even back then were experiencing a significant crime problem due to economic and cultural issues.

As to VT, less than a year prior to the shootings the college successfully lobbied the Virginia legislature to defeat a bill that would have allowed concealed permit holders to carry on campus. A spokesman announced that now parents and students could feel safe on campus. And so they did, right up until a homicidal lunatic blew right past their regulations. And given the amount of planning the shooter put into his crimes, purchasing weapons over month long periods, bringing chains and locks to barracade the doors, etc. how can anyone believe that making it a little more difficult to obtain weapons would have deterred him in the least. He was determined to commit his agression and only a violent response was going to stop him. Pity that response came 32 lives too late.

Total bans on handguns solve the problem? Think so, just look at Chicago, or Washington DC, or England. All ban handguns and all have seen large increases in violent crime including gun crime since the bans.

Lame James

To james, mary may, and the rest of the sheeple who bleat and whimper for more gun control, just remember that it will be people with guns who will be trying to enforce any bans, and not sheep like yourselves.