Babetron: Gun Control -
I have a hard time understanding why this one incident has sparked a raging debate about gun control and gun violence. Are you all not aware of the gun/gang violence that rages in Chicago on a daily basis? The weekend I came back from Chicago this year 17 people died. 17 in ONE weekend! How does…
The quibble I have with the “you can’t ban assault weapons, because people will still get them” is this: At each of these horrible mass shooting events, the perptrator usually states that his objective was to exact as many casulties as he could. So usually he has the most effiecient weapon designed for that purpose. (AR-15, Tec-9, etc). However, think about what kind of havoc they could have done with a fullly automatic Uzi, AK-47, MP5, grenades, claymores, etc. If they were available, I don’t think it’s a logical stretch to say that they would have made apperance at one of these crimes. The reason they don’t, and this is not based upon any real research- just a hunch, is that they are not even illegal, but very VERY tightly regulated. For all extents and purposes, for someone wanting to aquire one without law enforcement scrutiny, they are illegal. So by restricting ownership, they don’t show up in crimes. So I don’t think it’s a giant leap that treating assault weapons (note: the types of weapons banned by the 1994 assault weapons ban were not thought out very well) like class III weapons* would reduce the likelyhood that they would be used in crimes. And, as to the “where’s the rage with every other shooting?”, Amen, sister. A-fucking-men. *I am fully aware that during 1994-2004 there were mass shootings and other murders committed with “pre-ban”weapons. Part of that stems from the fact that there were so many out on the market already and they were still bought and sold to/from private parties. To truly treat assault weapons like class III would require confiscation - which aint gonna happen. That this makes the argument for a ban rather weak is not lost upon me.
