Article from 12.24.12 issue of Bloomberg Businessweek

[Zouave 13]

About gun control or rather what to do in light of the recent tragedy in CT...

 

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Yep, from the magazine related to the company belonging to our favorite (ahem) NYC mayor. Thankfully not written by him but one of the senior writers named Paul Barrett who recently wrote the book, "Glock: The Rise of America's gun". This article is an Interesting read, though not sure in the end whether the writer is pro or anti gun. I'll let you decide for youselves.

 

A couple of my own thoughts, in red, on what was brought up in the article (spoiler alert if you want to read it first)...

 

"...calling for renewed ban on assault weapons. Proponents of the legislation vow they will do a better job this time. No loopholes, they promise. Skepticism is warranted. Senator Dianne Feinstein, author of the 1994 law, has conceded the bill she plans to introduce early next year will "grandfather in" weapons legally possesed on the date of enactment. Moreover, the California Democrat has said the legislation will exempt 900 weapons used for hunting and sporting purpose."

Yeah, a couple more holes and this AWB will be even less worthless like the last one, if that's even possible...

 

"Nearly half of American households have one or more firearms, according to Gallup"

Wow, that sounds a lot more than I would have thought. Would love to one day hear what the true number is, whatever it is...

 

"Although they may have a tough military look, semiautomatic assault weapons, shot for shot, are no more lethal than Grandpa's Remington wooden-stock deer hunting rifle"

Wish the gun control advocates would all read and understand the above and maybe they'd for once understand the futility of some of their intent and therefore adjust their thinkings accordingly.

 

"Arguing about whether a particular rifle is an assault weapon makes no sense. Worse, it creates the impression among firearm advocates that gun control proponents either don't know what they're talking about or that a ban on assault weapons is actually a precursor to broader prohibition."

Yep, yep and yep

 

"Feinstein says her bill will ban the manufacture, sale or transfer of magazines holding more than 10 rounds... to make such a limitation meaningful, Congress would have to ban the possession of large magazines, not jus the sale of new ones... Are lawmakers prepared to send sheriffs and police out to takeaway privately owned magazines exceeding 10 rounds? In the 1990's the answer was no. It's doubtful that's changed. (Imagine being the Texas or Florida cop given that assignment)"

Wow, I think this alone could start a 2nd American civil war. Could you imagine if they tried to do this house to house, crazy to think how bad it would get. I'm curious as to what the LEO's would think if they were given this order and what they would do...

 

"At both the federal and state level, there are numerous agencies with mental health infomation that has not been entered into the background check system. The president could remedy that with executive orders..."

Oh great and who says that info is accurate to begin with? I don't oppose adding info to the background check database so long as it's correct, but someone's got to assure me it is before I'd sign off on that. Otherwise you just removed 2A from a bunch of folks for no reason...

 

 

"Then there is the much more daunting challenge of what to do about the unintended legacy of deinstitutionalizing the dangerous mentally ill... As a result, we created a defacto policy of waiting until seriously mentally ill people commit crimes and then consigning them to prison. Over the past half century the number of psychiatric beds in the US has decreased to 43,000 from 559,000..."

Well, leave it to the government to take a reactive versus proactive approach to something. But seriously, holy cow, if that last number is even close to true, talk about a ticking time bomb. Just how many mentally ill people are out there that would've been institutionalized in the past???

 

"Other important research suggests that more effective treatment of the mentally ill can contribute to lower homicide rates"

Maybe this is the cynic in me when I say this but... REALLY??? YOU THINK THAT MIGHT HELP LOWER HOMICIDE RATES???!!!

 

"...Dr. Carl Bell, a psychiatrist and professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago... the soft spoken academic interrupted the conversation about the nuances of gun control to point out that random mass shootings are typically suicides augmented with mulitple murders as a way of dramatizing the shooter's pain and self hatred. Copious amounts of research show that media publicity of suicides lead to copy cat crimes... The media, Bell said, should self censor their sensational, detailed coverage of mass shootings."

By jove I think he's got it! Take that media, you're the problem!

 

"The bottom line, Stricter background checks are a start, but better care for the mentally ill will be more effective at reducing the number of shooting sprees."

I can live with the stricter checks if they are done correctly but the mentally ill health issue does need to be addressed. Does seem like that's the issue rather than a gun issue or even a crime issue.

[voyager9 3,434]

"...calling for renewed ban on assault weapons. Proponents of the legislation vow they will do a better job this time. No loopholes, they promise. Skepticism is warranted. Senator Dianne Feinstein, author of the 1994 law, has conceded the bill she plans to introduce early next year will "grandfather in" weapons legally possesed on the date of enactment. Moreover, the California Democrat has said the legislation will exempt 900 weapons used for hunting and sporting purpose."

Yeah, a couple more holes and this AWB will be even less worthless like the last one, if that's even possible...

 

Go read the summary of Feinstein's bill on her site:

http://www.feinstein.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/assault-weapons

 

Even grandfathering would have limitations: like mandatory registration. Also moves frm a 2 characteristic test to a single characteristic test.

[TheSmokingGun 0]

I'm curious as to what the LEO's would think if they were given this order and what they would do...

 

You can bet your sweet ass 90% of them would go right ahead and carry it out. And the other 10% wouldn't do jack shit to stop em.

[raz-0 1,259]

 

Think about this logistically....there is not nearly enough manpower....not ever gonna happen....the ban on firearms is a generational attrition...

 

Also, it's one thing to not question the validity of orders in the face of the law, it's another thing to go play Russian roulette with a very high frequency.

 

That's assuming they could even figure out where to look other than hitting every house and having jumped the hurtle of invoking the taking clause and funding compensation.

 

Take the desk jockeys out of the equation. Take the guy who will snatch stuff and line his own pockets out of the equation after a little bit of rinse and repeat. Same for the long line of cops who spent hours napping in their cruiser (or other non-sanctioned recreational activity) down in the parking lot at the end of my street, take out the normal level of churn you see in higher risk departments.

 

You didn't have enough man power before. You think all of the above are going to put it on the line to regularly risk picking a nasty fight with lots of people who are perfectly good neighbors in towns everywhere?

 

Even if they do, how do you think the neighbors will view even the incidents that just have swat teams kicking down the neighbor's door, forcibly subduing them out on the lawn, and then having the cops steal their stuff?

 

I think that might possibly make the populace not be keen on their leaders just for making them feel like they might be next, and next time might be worse, even without it degrading to a shooting fight.

[Qel Hoth 33]

Think about this logistically....there is not nearly enough manpower....not ever gonna happen....the ban on firearms is a generational attrition...

 

On top of that, magazines aren't tracked, at all. If they wanted to know what guns you bought they could go hunting through 4473s, but mags? Might as well ask how many chairs are in your house.

[alec.mc 180]

And think about the non registration for rifles, they don't know who has what. They come knocking on my door for my AK, sorry officer : I sold it to joe blow last month.