November 7, 2008

The right to keep and bear

Interesting article in the New York Times about sales at Gun Shops post election:
On Concerns Over Gun Control, Gun Sales Are Up
Sales of handguns, rifles and ammunition have surged in the last week, according to gun store owners around the nation who describe a wave of buyers concerned that an Obama administration will curtail their right to bear arms.

�He�s a gun-snatcher,� said Jim Pruett, owner of Jim Pruett�s Guns and Ammo in northwest Houston, which was packed with shoppers on Thursday.

�He wants to take our guns from us and create a socialist society policed by his own police force,� added Mr. Pruett, a former radio personality, of President-elect Barack Obama.

Mr. Pruett said that sales last Saturday, just before Election Day, ran about seven times higher than a typical good Saturday.

A spot check by reporters in four other states easily found Mr. Pruett�s comments echoed from both sides of the counter.

David Nelson, a co-owner of Montana Ordnance & Supply in Missoula, Mont., said his buyers were �awake and aware and see a dangerous trend.�

Mr. Nelson said sales at his store had risen about 30 percent since Mr. Obama declared his candidacy. �People are concerned about overreaching legislation from Washington,� he said. �They are educating themselves on the Internet.�

In Colorado, would-be gun buyers set a one-day record last Saturday with the highest number of background check requests in a 24-hour period, according to figures from the Colorado Bureau of Investigation.

�We�re not really sure who is promoting the concept that a change in federal administrations might affect firearms possession rights,� said an agency spokesman, Lance Clem, �but we do know that it�s increased business considerably.�
We need only look at this passage at CHANGE.GOV:
Address Gun Violence in Cities: As president, Barack Obama would repeal the Tiahrt Amendment, which restricts the ability of local law enforcement to access important gun trace information, and give police officers across the nation the tools they need to solve gun crimes and fight the illegal arms trade. Obama and Biden also favor commonsense measures that respect the Second Amendment rights of gun owners, while keeping guns away from children and from criminals who shouldn't have them. They support closing the gun show loophole and making guns in this country childproof. They also support making the expired federal Assault Weapons Ban permanent, as such weapons belong on foreign battlefields and not on our streets.
A couple of points: First, the Tiahrt Amendment has absolutely zero effect when a legitimate Law Enforcement Officer requests data regarding a firearm. The Tiahrt Amendment does restrict this information however and does not allow it to be passed on to policy makers or any people not directly involved in a specific case involving a specific firearm. We accept this level of security whenever we visit our Doctors or check into a Hospital -- there it is called HIPPA. Second -- I quote: while keeping guns away from children and from criminals who shouldn't have them If this is such a major issue to you, why, in all of your years as a Community Organizer in Chicago, have you done nothing about this? We can see from Chicago television station CBS2 that:
Chicago Beats New York, Los Angeles In Murders
Chicago is the Second City in nickname and the third in population, but when it comes to murder, the city has the dubious distinction of being second to no city in America.

As CBS 2's Mike Puccinelli reports, the Chicago Sun-Times pointed out on Friday that Chicago has seen 426 homicides this year through Tuesday, compared with 417 in New York and 302 in Los Angeles.

At the end of 1998, Chicago made international headlines as the U.S. "murder capital" after surpassing New York's homicide totals for the first time ever. Chicago shed that dubious distinction when murders plummeted over the last decade.

There are more than 8 million people in New York, compared to slightly under 3 million in Chicago. The population of Los Angeles exceeds that of Chicago by more than 800,000.
And even one of your own, John R. Lott, Jr., says (from an interview):
Question: It just seems to defy common sense that crimes likely to involve guns would be reduced by allowing more people to carry guns. How do you explain the results?

Lott: Criminals are deterred by higher penalties. Just as higher arrest and conviction rates deter crime, so does the risk that someone committing a crime will confront someone able to defend him or herself. There is a strong negative relationship between the number of law-abiding citizens with permits and the crime rate�as more people obtain permits there is a greater decline in violent crime rates. For each additional year that a concealed handgun law is in effect the murder rate declines by 3 percent, rape by 2 percent, and robberies by over 2 percent.

Concealed handgun laws reduce violent crime for two reasons. First, they reduce the number of attempted crimes because criminals are uncertain which potential victims can defend themselves. Second, victims who have guns are in a much better position to defend themselves.

Question: What is the basis for these numbers?

Lott: The analysis is based on data for all 3,054 counties in the United States during 18 years from 1977 to 1994.
(quick heads up -- John R. Lott, Jr. is a resident scholar at American Enterprise Institute. He was previously the John M. Olin Visiting Law and Economics Fellow at the University of Chicago Law School. The rest of the interview is a good read.) Finally, and I quote again: They also support making the expired federal Assault Weapons Ban permanent, as such weapons belong on foreign battlefields and not on our streets. The Federal Assault Weapons Ban was an incredibly poorly written piece of legislation that considered firearms to be "Assault" based on their looks and not on their performance. It banned guns that were "Oooooo Look at that SCARY GUN!!!" and let slip guns that could be quickly adapted to fire at full automatic, could take aftermarket extended clips and were truly an assault weapon. There very well might be a place in the books for a ban on certain weapons but to revive this piece of crap is not a good move. There is a reason why it expired so quietly... Arrrrggghhh -- Barak Obama is my next President and he has my full support. But I will be watching what he does very very closeley... Posted by DaveH at November 7, 2008 6:55 PM
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