Monday, May 20, 2013

MSNBC Discussion on the New Orleans Shooting


Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy


Good discussion in which they almost, but not quite, hit the nail on the head. Guns start out the legal property of people who have a right to own them.  Then, through various means some of those guns end up in the criminal world. There is no other source of guns used in crime.  At this stage guns are not smuggled in the country in significant numbers since they are so readily available domestically and they are obviously not manufactured in people's basements very much for the same reason.

This brings us to the inescapable solution: strict gun control laws which are primarily aimed at law-abiding gun owners in order to secondarily impact on the availability of guns to criminals.

What's your opinion?  Please leave a comment.

8 comments:

  1. Nothing inescapable about your solution. In fact, your solution is absurd. It makes no sense to go after people who abide by the law in order to stop criminals.

    Solutions that do work are locking up violent offenders for longer sentences, treating drug addiction as a medical problem rather than a crime, improving the educational system, and so forth.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Is it wrong to ask law abiding citizens to wear a seat belt to cut auto accident deaths? Is it wrong to ask law abiding citizens to put limitations on rights, to safeguard all other citizens? The common sense to not allow people to falsely scream fire in a crowded theater, is the same common sense to protect public safety, that should limit 2nd amendment rights.
    Suicide is illegal. The fact that more than half the deaths by gun shot in America are suicides, is still an illegal act by people who probably bought that gun legally.
    Criminals do not only get their guns illegally. The fact that many do only shows the sheer numbers of guns in society are to many and not safeguarded enough from theft.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous, thanks for that idea, which never occurred to me before. Almost all the suicides are committed by lawful gun owners who are doing a criminal act with their guns.

      Delete
    2. On that same topic, people who commit suicide with their car are committing a criminal act with the vehicle, so, as TS asked before, When will you start including garage suicides in with the Auto fatality numbers when you list all gunshot fatalities?

      Delete
    3. Is suicide illegal? Has anyone ever been charged with "attempted suicide"?

      Delete
    4. Any law against suicide is a violation of a person's basic rights. As for the other things that Anonymous said, show me how my gun ownership and carry puts any innocent person in danger. If I harm an innocent person, then I deserve to pay for that. But we can't punish people before they commit a crime or act of neglegence and still be a free society.

      Delete
    5. I think suicide is illegal and I believe people have been charged with it. Maybe T. can tell us.

      I don't believe a person's basic rights include the right to kill himself. The reason is in almost all cases suicide is a manifestation of mental illness. Mentally ill people do not have the right to kill themselves any more than they have the right to kill others.

      Delete
    6. It's generally illegal as a form of homicide, but charges are rare enough that I haven't heard of any. Of course, I do very little criminal defense work, so Laci might have heard of more cases. My impression, at least around here, is that attempts are usually not charged--instead, the person is hospitalized and given psychiatric treatment.

      That being said, suicide, at least in some cases, has been legalized a while back, at least in some cases, in at least one of the states in the Pacific Northwest over a decade back.

      Delete