Gun control
“”Guns don't kill people. I kill people...with guns.
|
| —Jon Lajoie[1] |
Gun control is a phrase with several meanings.
Contents |
[edit] Controlling your weapon
Gun control, in enthusiast and hunting terms, refers to making sure you hit your intended target when discharging a firearm. Some people seem incapable of this, but "oops, sorry, I thought you were a quail" seems to get most of them off the hook.[2] Some people are just not good enough and disciplined enough to use guns,[3] while others clearly are.[4]
[edit] Controlling other people's weapons
“”I do not believe in taking away the right of the citizen for sporting, for hunting and so forth, or for home defence. But I do believe that an AK-47 is not a sporting weapon or needed for defense of a home.
|
| —Saint Ronnie[5] |
Gun control, in legal terms, refers to limiting access, "carrying rights," or use of firearms by the general public.
Access limitations consist of completely banning the sale or possession of some types of firearms (like sawn-off shotguns, bazookas, and .50's on the foredeck of your yacht), and also regulating who is permitted to obtain firearms in general - for instance, preventing convicted felons from owning firearms, but oddly enough, not suspected terrorists.[6]
"Carrying rights," when regulated, limit how and where firearms may be carried on the person (or even in a vehicle) - whether in full view or "concealed." In some jurisdictions there may be restrictions requiring that firearms carried in vehicles not be in the passenger compartment.
Regulating the use of firearms often consists of preventing their discharge in densely populated regions, such as in cities and towns.
[edit] Political football
Gun control is a highly politicized issue in the United States, for many cultural and historical reasons that no one completely understands. It is often a moot topic in other civilized nations.
The first attempts at federal gun control legislation occurred during the 1930s. During that time unscrupulous weapons salesmen sold military grade machine guns intended for use in World War I (especially the Thompson Submachine Gun[7]) to criminals. The result was that gangsters and bank robbers were often better armed than many police forces (who may have only had side arms, or a rifle or shotgun at best) and could pretty much rob banks with impunity.
Indeed, every major shooting in the US is usually followed by a round of both gun control advocates and gun nuts wailing that said incident would never have happened if only we had strict gun control laws or everyone packed heat Wild West-style, respectively. A meta-analysis on gun control research conducted by the National Research Council, however, found efficacy for certain types of police intervention in reducing gun crime but also found that the literature was mixed and ambiguous on whether right-to-carry laws increased or decreased crime either way.[8] In addition, gun nuts will inevitably cite the "research" of serial cherry-picker, data fabricator, and sock puppeteer John Lott.[9] Some may also use the equally fraudulent arguments of Lott's source, the criminologist Gary Kleck[10].
Since both the creation of new gun control laws, and opposition to gun control laws, can be used to garner votes for politicians, the gun laws in the U.S. are a morass of often-contradictory rules and gaping loopholes with severe penalties for a misstep. The 1994 Federal Assault Weapons Ban, for example, created an entirely new legal category of firearms -- "assault weapons" -- identified not by their lethality but by a list of scary-looking cosmetic features. (Indeed, it only covered certain semi-automatic firearms and didn't ban a single fully-automatic weapon; laws regulating "machine guns" were already in effect at the time, and were even stricter than the new assault weapon law.) Silencers are even more strictly controlled than the guns they can be attached to. Guns that have had their firing mechanism removed are legal, but "imitation guns" are completely forbidden. Firearms dealers must be licensed, and all sales through such a dealer are subject to a criminal background check; but online purchases and gun show sales are technically exempt[11] from background checks. Individual states often supplement the Federal laws with their own maze of legal dos-and-don'ts.
[edit] Research Findings
Studies on firearms and ammunition bans have been inconsistent: certain studies indicated decreases in violence associated with bans, and others indicated increases. Several studies found that the number of banned guns retrieved after a crime declined when bans were enacted, but these studies did not assess violent consequences. Studies of the 1976 Washington, D.C. handgun ban yielded inconsistent results. Bans often include "grandfather" provisions, allowing ownership of an item if it is acquired before the ban, complicating an assessment of causality. Finally, evidence indicated that sales of firearms to be banned might increase in the period before implementation of the bans (e.g., the AWB).[12]
[edit] Hunting
In some more rural areas, the sound of firearms discharging in the nearby woods is a common occurrence, as various people try their hand at "shootin' at some food."
[edit] See also
- NRA
- A response to gun control - This non-PC putdown is a complete urban legend.
- Second Amendment
- School shooting
- World report on violence and health
- Godwin's Law - If you're going to invoke Hitler in gun control arguments, you're gonna have a bad time.[13]
[edit] External links
- Gun ownership and gun homicides murder map of the world - Any questions?
[edit] Footnotes
- ↑ I Kill People
- ↑ The Dick Cheney "Hunting Incident"
- ↑ YouTube - Shotgun Kicks Nuts
- ↑ YouTube - Fastest reloader
- ↑ Ron Reagan on Gun Control - Feb 6, 1989, video posted at YouTube
- ↑ Huffington Post - Bloomberg 'Terror Gap' Argument Shot Down By Pro-Gun GOP Senators
- ↑ More commonly, the "Tommy Gun"
- ↑ Firearms and Violence: A Critical Review, National Research Council
- ↑ Tim Lambert of Deltoid has been following the adventures of John Lott for years: See his debunking of More Guns, Less Crime and blog category for Lott.
- ↑ http://vacps.org/public-policy/the-contradictions-of-kleck
- ↑ In the case of online sales, unless purchaser holds a Federal Firearms License, or the gun was made before 1898, guns purchased online need to be sent to a gun dealer, who may opt to do a background check before releasing the firearm to the purchaser
- ↑ http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/rr5214a2.htm
- ↑ The Democracy Index would like to have a word with you.