The Slippery Slope of Gun Control

Posted // January 30,2013 -

I read your cover story about the history of the National Rifle Association [“Gunsmoke,” Jan. 24, City Weekly] with mild amusement. It was quite one-sided in describing how the NRA has modified its views over the years.

What it failed to address was that the opposition to gun ownership has also changed over the years. It isn’t measures like universal background checks that we object to. It’s what they inevitably lead to.

When those who want gun laws say they want compromise, what they really want is capitulation. They haven’t given the other side anything in return in decades, if ever. It’s just another inch toward registration, ban and confiscation. The attitude of the NRA and gun owners has changed because it has become evident that those who want “reasonable gun-control measures” don’t want to stop there. Every time we give them something, they come back wanting more.

MICHAEL L. JOHNSON
NRA-certified pistol instructor & Utah concealed carry instructor
Stansbury Park

REPLY TO THIS COMMENT

malcshee

Posted // February 14,2013 at 20:26

Thanks for your reply Karl.

However gun supporters dance around my figures - for the USA public they remain uncomfortably unaswered. More Americans die each day. EACH DAY!. . . . . than the only English speaking European country experiences in ONE YEAR,

Since the recent New Town children killings five and a half thousand of our fellow citizens died from the nozzle of a gun.

Face the facts. We cannot push these deaths aside. This surely can't continue. What do you suggest we do?

Posted // February 13,2013 at 21:51

No responses needed to the pro gun lobbyists replies - apart from a damning reiteration of the salient figures. I repeat. . . . .

Here in the USA 83 people died each single day from firearms.

In the UK 51 died each 365 days!

How can any sane person deny these statistics.

Karl

Posted // February 14,2013 at 11:29 - It's not a matter of denial, it's a problem of simplistic minds tending to like simplistic solutions. You still avoid addressing the basic problem with your viewpoint. . . if your solution is something along the lines of what England has done (complete confiscation of essentially all firearms), please explain why this has not reduced the overall homicide rate in England? That rate is higher today than it was prior to gun confiscations while the US rate has declined by over 40% WITHOUT rendering citizens helpless. Have you done any investigation into the number of defensive gun uses each year in the US? Have you actually read the final report on the 1994 so called "Assault weapons ban" (it's by hosted by Univ of Penn. and indicates that the ban had essentially no detectable effect)? Have you considered why it is that Chicago is the murder capitol of the country but Aurora Ill. (the second largest city in Ill, located about 20 miles west of Chicago) had a 2012 homicide rate of 0, that's zero! Are you aware that studies in several US cities indicate that the vast majority of gun related homicides are criminal on criminal (both assailant and victim tend to have significant criminal records). You want the government to make you completely safe? The only way to achieve that is by locking you in your own cell. You'd do well to consider the words of Ben Franklin. . . "those who would give up essential liberties for a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety". . . and history generally demonstrates that they tend to lose both.

Posted // February 8,2013 at 20:49

Please Mr Johnson remove your profit motivated NRA blinkers. Here are the recent annual figures.

51 ANNUAL gun related deaths in the UK.

Here by contrrast 83 gun ralated deaths - PER DAY.

The difference? One country has very strict firearm regulations - one doesn't.

Need anything be added. . . .

Posted // February 9,2013 at 19:58 - Malc, just to keep it honest. . . correction to my numbers. UK homicide rate declined by 4% since 1995, US rate declined by 42%.

Posted // February 9,2013 at 19:14 - Malc, yes actually, a few things do need to be added. . . UK population 62. 6 million, US population 313. 9 million. Homicides, worldwide, rose from the 50's till approx 1995. From 1995 on worldwide homicide rates have been falling in practically all countries irrespective of gun control/gun bans/gun confiscations. UK homicide rate has fallen by 4% since it's peak in 1995. US homicide rate peaked earlier but to make the time series comparison equal the US rate has fallen by 174% since 1995. . . . without rendering its citizens individually defenseless. Moreover, the homicide rate in the UK is higher now than it was in the 60's and 70's well before they instituted what would eventually become an effectively complete confiscation. A completely disarmed people with no real reduction in overall homicide rate. Personally I'm not sure how good a tradeoff that is. Source: http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_intentional_homicide_rate_by_decade

Karl Lies

Posted // January 30,2013 at 09:39

An excellent discussion of precisely this point can be found here. . http://guncite. com/journals/okslip. html

It looks at the example of England in which exactly this has occured. It's also worth noting that despite Englands essentially complete ban on firearms, their intentional homicide rate today is higher than it was when there were very few restrictions on gun ownership.

Equally interesting is the final report on the effectiveness of the US assault weapons ban which found that the ban had little or no effect on gun crime (no surprise really since assault weapons are only used in some 1. 7% of all gun crimes). Here's a link to that report. . .

http://www. sas. upenn. edu/jerrylee/research/aw_final2004. pdf

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The Slippery Slope of Gun Control