Rusty Young Man
Regular Member
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...01/the-costs-and-consequences-of-gun-control/
All good points, however they may fall on deaf ears as the ones who should listen to this would rather dance in the still-warm blood of murder victims.
Article said:Today the Cato Institute published my monograph “The Costs and Consequences of Gun Control.” The policy analysis examines several gun control proposals which have been promoted by the Obama administration and the gun control lobby: bans on so-called assault weapons; bans on standard magazines; confiscation; and the prohibition of all private sales, loans and returns, except when processed by a gun store. After explaining why each of these proposals is likely to do little good and much harm, the paper discusses realistic alternatives which really can save lives. The most important of these is providing a much broader safety net for people seeking help for severe mental illness. In addition, respecting the right to bear arms has been demonstrated to be successful in thwarting would-be mass murderers.
Prohibiting certain guns or magazines will be futile without confiscation of such arms currently owned by citizens; so said a 2013 memo by Greg Ridgeway, acting director of the National Institute of Justice (the research arm of the Justice Department). Likewise, the NIJ memo explained that “universal” background checks are useless without comprehensive registration of all guns and all gun owners. Yet Americans have historically resisted gun registration, precisely because of concerns about confiscation. These concerns are not unfounded; registration lists have been used to enforce confiscation in New York City, in Australia and in Great Britain. In Australia, the confiscation was euphemistically called a “buy back,” although it was in fact involuntary confiscation, with only partial compensation paid for the confiscated items.
Moreover, all of the the gun control laws discussed above affirmatively harm public safety. The term “assault weapons” is a political gimmick designed to foster confusion. These guns are not machine guns; they fire only one bullet each time the trigger is pressed, just like every other ordinary firearm. They are not more powerful than other firearms. To the contrary, their ammunition is typically intermediate in power, less powerful than ammunition that is made for big-game hunting.
SNIP...
Although some persons demand that we immediately “do something” about guns, we would do better to carefully examine whether particular proposals will be helpful or harmful. The best prospects for saving lives are by helping a politically powerless group — the severely mentally ill — and not in a culture war against the Second Amendment.
All good points, however they may fall on deaf ears as the ones who should listen to this would rather dance in the still-warm blood of murder victims.