woolfe9999
Diamond Member
- Mar 28, 2005
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When I see a paper prepared by the gun lobby to supply talking points for debates on the internet and in the media, I immediately raise an eyebrow. When I start checking sources, and the first source I find has been blatantly misrepresented, I start to wonder about the value added of putting more time into it. It takes a while to check through that many sources. I'll give it a look this weekend if I have the time. In the meantime, you might check some of them yourself, particularly if you want to keep linking that paper.
Incidentally, I am not in favor of stricter gun control, at least not here in the U.S. I tend to doubt it would decrease violent crime here for a variety of reasons. Miron has some interesting points in that paper I linked - that drug prohibition here is likely a factor in our relatively high homicide rate, and there are possibly cultural factors as well. My own view is that other democracies which have more gun control tend to have populations which support gun control, and they likely support gun control because they are less violent cultures. But it isn't the gun control itself that reduces the homicides, but the fact that the culture is less violent to begin with. Here, I think gun control is counter-productive. We like our guns so much that we're going to get them no matter what. There's that, and the fact that we have the Second Amendment which must be respected.
- wolf
Incidentally, I am not in favor of stricter gun control, at least not here in the U.S. I tend to doubt it would decrease violent crime here for a variety of reasons. Miron has some interesting points in that paper I linked - that drug prohibition here is likely a factor in our relatively high homicide rate, and there are possibly cultural factors as well. My own view is that other democracies which have more gun control tend to have populations which support gun control, and they likely support gun control because they are less violent cultures. But it isn't the gun control itself that reduces the homicides, but the fact that the culture is less violent to begin with. Here, I think gun control is counter-productive. We like our guns so much that we're going to get them no matter what. There's that, and the fact that we have the Second Amendment which must be respected.
- wolf