Friday, March 29, 2024

Take Away Your Guns, Americans Shall Not Allow That.

October 12, 2017 by  
Filed under News, Opinion, Politics, Weekly Columns

Like
Like Love Haha Wow Sad Angry
1

(ThyBlackMan.com) Almost immediately after the Las Vegas shooting came the calls for “common sense” gun control. The quest almost always begins with a reassurance that “no one wants to take away your guns.”

Not everyone read the memo.

Nelson Shields, founder of Handgun Control, Inc., the organization that became the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, in a 1976 interview could not have been more clear about his group’s goals: “Our ultimate goal — total control of handguns in the United States — is going to take time. My estimate is from seven to 10 years. The first problem is to slow down the increasing number of handguns being produced and sold in this country. The second problem is to get handguns registered. And the final problem is to make the possession of all handguns and all handgun ammunition — except for the military, policemen, licensed security guards, licensed sporting clubs, and licensed gun collectors — totally illegal.”

In 1993, a Los Angeles Times editorial called for the repeal of the Second Amendment: “You will not feel safe, your children will not be safe, until there are almost no guns on the streets and in homes. No guns, period, except for those held by law enforcement officers and a few others, including qualified hunters and collectors. … We must, as a nation, move toward a very different model, one that presumptively bars private citizens from owning a firearm unless they can demonstrate a special need and ability to do so. … We think the time has come for Americans to tell the truth about guns. They are not for us; we cannot handle them. They kill people, our children included. It’s time to get rid of them. Period.”

Fast-forward to the Las Vegas shooting. The Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson calls for a gun “buyback”: “A real gun debate has to look at that fact: 300 million guns. And we need, you know, to look at what was done in a place like Australia, where they had a gun buyback. And gun control is permissible, according to the Supreme Court. And so if Congress were to decide — it won’t happen — were to decide that automatic assault rifles, long guns … (and) military-style weapons are something that citizens should not have, they should be police and military only, and we’re going to buy them back, that would have an impact. … And that’s what the debate ought to be.”

Recall that Hillary Clinton, during the 2016 election, also gushed over the allegedly successful Australian gun buyback program: “Australia had a huge mass killing about 20, 25 years ago. Canada did as well, so did the UK. In reaction, they passed much stricter gun laws. … The Australian government as part of trying to clamp down on the availability of automatic weapons, offered a good price for buying hundreds of thousands of guns and basically clamped down going forward, in terms of having more of a background check approach — more of a permitting approach.”

True, Australia, over 20 years ago, banned semi-automatic and self-loading rifles, as well as self-loading and pump-action shotguns. The government offered up to a one-year grace period during which it would buy back the banned firearms at preset “market value” prices, financed by a tax on health insurance. After that, people possessing the banned weapons would be subject to strict penalties, including imprisonment.

But did Australia’s gun buyback program reduce violent gun crime?

No, according to John Lott of the Crime Prevention Research Center. “Their firearms homicide rate,” said Lott, “had been falling for a decade prior to the buyback. It continued falling at the same rate after the buyback. There was no sudden drop, just a fairly constant decline that continued even as gun ownership rose back up to previous levels. The armed robbery rate rose in the first five years after the buyback. After another ten years, the rate had fallen to pre-buyback levels.”

The near-term “common sense” goal of the gun controllers is to ban the “bump stock” that enabled the shooter to turn a semi-automatic into a fully automatic weapon. Never mind that of the modern mass shootings in America, only one killer used a machine gun: Stephen Paddock. And where was this “common sense” when President Barack Obama’s ATF approved the bump stock, pronouncing it a part, not a weapon? California has some of the most stringent gun laws in the country, yet has experienced mass shootings, including the San Bernardino shooting in 2015, where 14 were killed.

This is not to say that nothing can be done to make a Las Vegas-style shooting more difficult. But most of these things will be done by private actors. Las Vegas hotel/casino owner Steve Wynn, for example, said his Vegas resorts already had additional security measures in place.

The “common sense” goal of many “gun control activists” is not a ban on this or that feature but a ban on civilian ownership of guns. Just ask the Los Angeles Times.

Written By Larry Elder

Official website; http://www.larryelder.com

 

 


Comments

One Response to “Take Away Your Guns, Americans Shall Not Allow That.”
  1. Anirban (aka Abner) Bhattacharya says:

    We never have and never will own a gun. Owning a gun should be a privilege not a right. If people want to own handguns and rifles, then they should go through same reqt. as owning and driving a car, such as licensing, training and insurance. People who don’t understand guns owning guns must not own guns for the same reason as people who don’t understand cars should not be driving.

    If people want to own a hunting rifle to hunt for food, then require marksmanship for hunters, so that it’s a fast kill. While I support animal welfare, I don’t go to the extreme as PETA does. Though PETA would differ, I would rather see a hunter quickly shoot and kill a quail, duck, deer or rabbit and eat their kill vs. a python killing a rabbit. Yes, the python is doing what is nature, but nature can be cruel.

    I can tolerate hunting wild goats, deer, ducks, pheasants, hares, rabbits & squirrels for food as long as animal is quickly killed for food. But I can’t tolerate hunting animals just because it’s there & poaching is bad. I am a vegetarian but could not be vegan because I like dairy and eggs.

    It’s best that guns are owned mainly by police, security guards and military.
    There’s no need for people to own military weapons and ordinary citizens must not be allowed to own them. Machine guns, tanks, flamethrowers must be for military only just as ICBM, atomic weapons, etc. belong to military. Guns and other weapons are there to kill and it’s the military who must own the most destructive weapons. If people want to own handguns and rifles, then again, go through the same reqt. as getting a car.

    My interest with guns and other weapons are limited to military especially watching military programs such as the Big Picture (TV show presented by US Army from the Korean War until 1971), USMC Presents, US Navy presents and others, dealing with topics such as the 2 World Wars, Korean War, Vietnam War. While alot can be said, on the Big Picture, 3 of the best commenters they had on that program were Capt. Carl G. Zimmerman, Sgt. Stuart A. Queen and Sgt. Mansfield.

    Many people including educated people do not know much about the Korean War and many do not know that the Korean War did not end in a peace treaty but in a 1953 armistice which has been violated a few times by North Korea. Many do not know that during the Vietnam War, North Korea sometimes violated the 1953 armistice by doing attacks on American Soldiers and their South Korean allies south of the 38 Parallel DMZ.

    Big Picture also discusses topics such as nuclear powered submarines, small nuclear reactors, Ranger training, training military dogs, Berlin Airlift, Berlin Wall, Cuba Missile Crisis, etc. The USMC, US Navy Presents and USAF presents did shows on these topics, as well as the Korean War and Vietnam War.

    Finally, the military has used atomic energy since the 1950s. President Dwight David Eisenhower came up with the idea of atoms for peace. I support nuclear/atomic energy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. We must use Small Modular nuclear reactors (SMR) and we must use Liquid Fluoride Thorium Reactor. I also support hydroelectric dams and geothermal. American Lung Association supports nuclear/atomic energy since that gives cleaner air and benefits asthmatics. Professor Steven Arthur Pinker supports atomic/nuclear energy. There are wildlife experts who support nuclear/atomic energy.

Speak Your Mind

Tell us what you're thinking...
and oh, if you want a pic to show with your comment, go get a gravatar!