Reply to Study on where DC criminals source illegal guns?

Forum Index » Metropolitan DC Local Politics

Reply to "Study on where DC criminals source illegal guns?"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Most gun crimes are committed by a small number of people who’ve been arrested a million times. Instead of fruitlessly complaining about what other states are doing, we could just convict the bad guys, put them in jail and (here’s the crazy part) leave them in jail.  Google people on trial in DC. Their rap sheets are astounding.[/quote]

I follow the police experts and research rather than random folks posting on DCUM.  [/quote]

You don’t - you just cherry pick selected evidence that already accords with your opinion.

Trying to control gun crime by reducing supply instead of punishing people who illegally carry/use guns is a fools errand that doesn’t pass the common sense test. There are almost 400 million firearms estimated to be circulating in the US, with almost 10 million more being added to the supply each year. We don’t have walls or checkpoints around American states and cities which allow us to search all the vehicles going in and out. You aren’t going to stop circulation of guns in this country. It’s fine to try to crack down on straw purchases, I favor it, but to think it will be anywhere close to as effective as cracking down on illegal users of guns is foolish. [/quote]

Actually what I support the most is extension of blue state laws at a federal level. It would cut gun crime across the US efficiently (again because it's clear sensible gun legislation works when criminals and even Mexican drug cartels turn to certain specific US states for guns because they can't get them locally because of more stringent laws). Sadly, I don't see it happening in the near future, but I believe future generations will get it done, perhaps in 10-15 years with population trends. That's a separate thread for the political forum.

FWIW saying I believe this does not mean I believe police should be defunded or violent criminals shouldn't be prosecuted and jailed which is clearly a current, local problem. However I do feel the straw purchase issue gets sidelined and ignored when it's multiple pieces to a problem to be addressed. [/quote]

Exactly.  Criminals, gunrunners and cartels will seek out the weakest link where it comes to sourcing guns - and that is going to be whichever state has the weakest, most lax gun laws (invariably red states).[/quote]

The cartels bring millions of pounds of drugs and bus loads of human beings into the US every year. Do you honestly believe that “sensible” gun laws (hundreds of which already exist without even a ding against criminal behavior) will stop them from acquiring (or even manufacturing) firearms somewhere else (say, Central America, the Mid-East, and other war-torn places, not to mention countries that are happy to see the US embroiled in stride) and then importing them into a vast waiting market among the criminal underworld in the US?  “Sensible” laws against interstate sales, against straw purchases, against possession by felons, and against the criminal misuse of firearms already exist at both the federal and state levels.  They clearly don’t solve the problem. Because the problem isn’t inanimate objects you have an unreasoning fear of, grounded in your fear of your own unacknowkedged interior rage and violence. It’s criminals. Deal with the criminals and the problem goes away. [/quote]

Q. If sensible gun laws don't work, why do local criminals source guns far away from red states to get guns?

A. Because local gun laws work.

See research by Baltimore law enforcement that found that if local states added sensible gun laws, Baltimore homicides would drop by 25%.

Backing the blue means not just funding them, but LISTENING TO THEM.[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics