it don't matter whether your from the sticks or the big citys, guns do not kill people or cause violence so there is nothing to understand about being from chicago as far as a reason for taking guns away. seems the anti-gunners don't realise guns don't fire themselves, and that probably 99% of those crimes involving guns are most likely not done with legaly purchased weapons so even if the nutjobs do get them banned its not gonna stop crime. if anything i could see crime increasing cuz right now before some low life goes busting into someone's home there's that thought that the homeowner may be one of us crazy rednecks with a gun next to the bed, take that away what do the criminals have to fear? a possible *** whoopin?
they wanna fix the big cities they need to work on the people in them, not screw the people over that have nothing to do with them.
I agree 100%. I was wondering myself on what percentage of crimes committed with guns were legal/illegal and it looks like 93% were illegal. I started doing some research and here are a few neat facts that I came across. There's some good reading here
http://gunfacts.info/index.html
Fact: In Japan, the total murder rate is almost 1 per 100,000. In the U.S., there are about 3.2 murders per 100,000 people each year by weapons other than firearms.38 This means that even if firearms in the U.S. could be eliminated, the U.S. would still have three times the murder rate of the Japanese.
Fact: Four states require no permit to carry a concealed firearm, 37 are “shall-issue” states where non-felons receive permits on demand, eight states may or may not issue permits, and one state allows no form of concealed carry. Statistics for each CCW state show that crime rate fell (or did not rise) after the right-to-carry law became active.
Fact: Crime rates involving gun owners with carry permits have consistently been about 0.02% of all carry permit holders since Florida’s right-to-carry law started in 1988.48
Fact: Florida's homicide rate fell from 36% above the national average to 4% below after CCW enactment and remains below the national average (as of the 2005 reporting period)
Fact: Crime has been rising since enacting a sweeping ban on private gun ownership. In the first two years after Australian gun-owners were forced to surrender 640,381 personal firearms, government statistics showed a dramatic increase in criminal activity.31 In 2001-2002, homicides were up another 20%.32
From the inception of firearm confiscation to March 27, 2000, the numbers are:
• Firearm-related murders were up 19%
• Armed robberies were up 69%
• Home invasions were up 21%
The sad part is that in the 15 years before the national gun confiscation:
• Firearm-related homicides dropped nearly 66%
• Firearm-related deaths fell 50%
Fact: Gun crimes have been rising throughout Australia since guns were banned. In Sydney alone, robbery rates with guns rose
160% in 2001, more in the previous
year.33
Fact: A ten year Australian study has concluded that firearm confiscation had no effect on crime rates.34 A separate report also concluded that Australia’s 1996 gun control laws “found [no] evidence for an impact of the laws on the pre-existing decline in firearm homicides”35 and yet another report from Australia for a similar time period indicates the same lack of decline in firearm homicides
Fact: In Texas, murder rates fell 50% faster than the national average in the year after their concealed carry law passed. Rape rates fell 93% faster in the first year after enactment, and 500% faster in the second.50 Assaults fell 250% faster in the second year.51
Fact: More to the point, crime is significantly higher in states without right-to-carry laws52:
Fact: States that disallow concealed carry have violent crime rates 11% higher than national averages.53
Fact: Deaths and injuries from mass
public shootings fall dramatically after
right-to-carry concealed handgun laws are
enacted. Between 1977 and 1995,54 the
average death rate from mass shootings
plummeted by up to 91% after such laws
went into effect, and injuries dropped by over 80%.
Fact: In Texas, citizens with concealed carry permits are 14 times less likely to commit a crime. They are also five times less likely to commit a violent crime.66
Fact: People with concealed carry permits are:67
• 5.7 times less likely to be arrested for violent offenses than the general public
• 13.5 times less likely to be arrested for non-violent offenses than the general public
Fact: Of 14,000 CCW licensees in Oregon, only 4 (0.03%) were convicted of the criminal (not necessarily violent) use or possession of a firearm
Fact: In Florida, a state that has allowed concealed carry since late 1987, you are twice as likely to be attacked by an alligator as by a person with a concealed carry permit
Fact: In 80% of gun defenses, the defender used a concealable handgun. A quarter of the gun defenses occurred in places
away from the defender's home.79
Fact: 77% of all violent crime occurs in public places.80 This makes concealed carry necessary for almost all self-defense needs. But due to onerous laws forbidding concealed carry, only 26.8% of defensive gun uses occurred away from home
Myth: Registration does not lead to confiscation
Fact: It did in Canada. The handgun registration law of 1934 was the source used to identify and confiscate (without compensation) over half of the registered handguns in 2001.108
Fact: It did in Germany. The 1928 Law on Firearms and Ammunition (before the Nazis came into power) required all firearms to be registered. When Hitler came into power, the existing lists were used for confiscating weapons.
Fact: It did in Australia. In 1996, the Australian government confiscated over 660,000 previously legal weapons from their citizens.
Fact: It did in California. The 1989 Roberti-Roos Assault Weapons Control Act required registration. Due to shifting definitions of “assault weapons,” many legal firearms are now being confiscated by the California government.
Fact: It did in New York City. In 1967, New York City passed an ordinance requiring a citizen to obtain a permit to own a rifle or shotgun, which would then be registered. In 1991, the city passed a ban on the private possession of some semi-automatic rifles and shotguns, and “registered” owners were told that those firearms had to be surrendered, rendered inoperable, or taken out of the city.
Fact: It did in Bermuda, Cuba, Greece, Ireland, Jamaica, and Soviet Georgia as well
Myth: Licensing will keep bad people from obtaining or using guns
Fact: Not in Canada. Canadian homicide rates were virtually unchanged before and after gun registration requirements were implemented (151/100,000 people in 1998 and 149/100,000 in 2002).109
Fact: In New York State alone, approximately 100,000 persons are convicted of unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle each year, and this is probably a small proportion of the actual number of people who drive without a valid license.110 Licensing requirements don’t stop ineligible people from driving, and they do not stop ineligible people from acquiring guns.
Fact: As long as the unlicensed purchaser is never caught with the handgun, the unlawful sale will go unnoticed. The risk of detection is negligible. If the unlicensed handgun owner is arrested, he could claim that he did not need a license because he had owned this handgun before licensing went into effect.111
Fact: Currently, federal prosecutors do not eagerly accept felon-in-possession cases for prosecution unless the felon is a hardened criminal who represents a threat to the public.112
Fact: According to the Supreme Court, criminals do not have to obtain licenses or register their weapons, as that would be an act of self-incrimination.113
Fact: Prohibition (which started as a ‘moderation’ movement) didn’t keep people from drinking. Instead it turned millions of otherwise honest and sober citizens into criminals, overnight.
Fact: Most police do not see the benefit. “It is my belief that [licensing and registration] significantly misses the mark because it diverts our attention from what should be our common goal: holding the true criminals accountable for the crimes they commit and getting them off the street.”114
Fact: In 2005, agencies reported 1,400 arrests of persons denied a firearm or permit; but the U.S. Department of Justice accepted only 135 of those denial cases for prosecution.115 Given the poor performance of the Federal government in prosecuting felons identified by an instant background check trying to buy firearms, there is little to support firearm licensing as a crime prevention measure.
CRIME AND GUNS
Basic to the debates on gun control is the fact that most violent crime is committed by repeat offenders. Dealing with recidivism is key to solving violence.
• 71% of gunshot victims had previous arrest records.
• 64% had been convicted of a crime.
• Each had an average of 11 prior arrests.117,118
• 63% of victims have criminal histories and 73% of the time they know their assailant (twice as often as victims without criminal histories).119
Most gun violence is between criminals. This should be the public policy focus
Myth: Private guns are used to commit violent crimes
Fact: 90% of all violent crimes in the U.S. do not involve firearms of any type.131
Fact: Even in crimes where the offender possessed a gun during the commission of the crime,
83% did not use or threaten to use the gun.132
Fact: Less than 1% of firearms will ever be used in the commission of a crime.
Fact: Two-thirds of the people who die each year from gunfire are criminals being shot by other criminals.134
Fact: 94.4% gang murders are committed with guns.135 Gangs are responsible for between 48% and 90% of all violent crime.
and here is what I was looking for. Fact: 93% of guns used in crimes are obtained illegally (i.e., not at gun stores or gun shows)
THOUGHTS ON GUN CONFISCATION
In 1911, Turkey established gun control. Subsequently, from 1915 to 1917, 1.5 million Armenians, deprived of the means to defend themselves, were rounded up and killed.
In 1929, the Soviet Union established gun control. Then, from 1929 to 1953, approximately 20 millon dissidents were rounded up and killed.
In 1938 Germany established gun control. From 1939 to 1945 over 13 million Jews, gypsies, homosexuals, mentally ill, union leaders, Catholics and others, unable to fire a shot in protest, were rounded up and killed.
In 1935, China established gun control. Subsequently, between 1948 and 1952, over 20 million dissidents were rounded up and killed.
In 1956, Cambodia enshrined gun control. In just two years (1975-1977) over one million "educated" people were rounded up and killed.
In 1964, Guatemala locked in gun control. From 1964 to 1981, over 100,000 Mayan Indians were rounded up and killed as a result of their inability to defend themselves.
In 1970, Uganda embraced gun control. Over the next nine years over 300,000 Christians were rounded up and killed.
In all, over 56-million people have died because of gun control in the last century.
SERIOUS QUESTIONS TO ASK YOURSELF
• If guns are effective enough to be a criminal's preferred tool, why are they not good enough to use for protection?
• Why do politicians insist their bodyguards be armed, but not you and me?
• If you and your children were face-to-face with a male attacker twice your size, what
would you do; If you weren't armed? If you were armed?
•
If guns are "too dangerous" to be in our society, then why do our leaders want to be the only ones who have them? Do you trust our leaders implicitly to protect you at all times?
• Which is better – more gun control and the eventual banning of all guns in our society, or not sitting by helplessly watching as an intruder repeatedly rapes your 13- year-old daughter?
• If we ever completely ban guns, do you think there would be no more armed criminals in America?
• With so many gun laws already on the books, why do "gun crimes" still exist
But I couldn't agree with you more!!
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