Gun Control & RKBA

there are a lot of gun control measures we should adopt immediately and will have no impact or at worst a slight impact on people who get their guns legally.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/guns/procon/guns.html

From the article:

"Stolen guns account for only about 10% to 15% of guns used in crimes,": so people who talk about locking up the guns that are legally obtained do have a good point if we can keep stolen guns off the street it will make a small, but significant impact on gun violence. It just isn't a solution by itself.

straw purchase sales: this is definitely where we need to crack down on. I have heard that this isn't a real issue, but I have a hard time believing it if this is how criminals are saying they are getting their guns.

corrupt at-home and commercial gun dealers: life sentences for these people.

unlicensed street dealers: I don't know what we currently do when someone doing this is caught, but see above sentencing guidelines.

I think we should concentrate on getting illegal guns off the street. But, just taking guns from people who don't get them illegally is not going to solve the massive problem of people becoming victims of gun violence. It certainly won't solve the more common problem of people committing suicide by gun.


So, that would be what we can do legally which I think is significant. It however, won't drive the statistics on violence down very much in the long run. What we need to do in addition to stopping the flow of illegal guns is do something and a lot of somethings to cool down our culture of violence.

1. This will sound a little kooky, but tuition free college and housing if necessary, probably only about 10% of students will actually need free housing, but make that available as well. College educated people are a lot less violent in general than those who don't go to college.

2. Fix the freaking holes in the safety net. So that people who live in violent households can get out and stay out.

3. Stop the militarization of the police force. No more broken windows policies and hire more police from the community and more beat cops that just go around and actually talk to people. They can also keep tabs on things that might be helpful for people in the community and find out which families are struggling and just maybe save some kids from starving. Social workers on the beat? Yes I think we need this.

4. More focus on intellectual activities like oh I dunno the chess club, give those kids bigger trophies or something. Feature them in the news things like that. And less focus on violent contact sports, don't get rid of those things, just stop hero worshipping people that can tackle a 300 lb man running at them at 10 miles an hour.