clakclak wrote:Masterbagger wrote:[...]
The past few years have seen more States pass laws removing restrictions on public carry of a firearm for self defense. A few have even gone to Constitutional carry and deregulated it entirely. The blood on the streets and the wild west shootouts never appeared in any of those states. The addition of more lawful guns circulating in public didn't produce more violence. The situation isn't as simple as less guns less crime.
What states are you talking about specifically?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constitutional_carry
Look at the animated graphic on the right to see how carry laws have proliferated over the last few decades. Most of America went from no carry or may issue to shall issue or constitutional carry in a relatively short amount of time.
Usenko wrote:
Interesting statement - I think it demonstrates that you are acclimatised to a higher level of violence than most of us. To people outside the USA, "Blood on the streets" is almost exactly what we're seeing.
Not trying to be cruel or anything, just to point out that at least part of the issue is American perceptions. If you're accustomed to a society in which gun violence is a rare thing (pretty much any discharge of a weapon in city areas of Sydney gets reported on the news), hearing of regular shootings of 3 or more people seems very much the kind of violence that one would describe in (albeit emotive) terms such as "blood on the streets".
I'm a student of violence and formerly a practitioner. I believe violence has a place in even the most civilized of societies down to the lowest level of citizenry. Most of our gun violence is criminals killing criminals. No one wants to deal with that. It's outside the boundaries of our own comfortable lives. We don't care how many people are shot in Chicago each weekend but we lose our minds when it happens to a school full of the good people. No one can come up with a good solution so we come up with emotionally driven crap and try to force it into law. The problem is never dealt with.
Observe wrote:
Again, I don't know the stats, but I'm guessing most gun deaths are caused by those under 25 years of age. Raise the gun purchase age to 25 and we will significantly lowered the number of gun deaths. If you are over 25, it can be presumed that you have at least half a brain. Under that age - not so much.
Two issues. First, you would be denying legal adults a natural right the government is barred from infringing under our Constitution.
Second, the majority of murderers and murdered are young male minorities in inner cities. To me that screams GANGS in giant red letters. Straw purchase, theft, illegal dealers, illegal transfers. They can still get the guns. How did Adam Lanza and Eric Harris get their guns? I'm not going to tell you. Look it up.