Jan 10th 2013, 4:13:43
This is an interesting issue, and I think the first question that needs to be asked is: What is the actual problem that we're trying to solve?
If the problem we're trying to solve is "Murders by gun" then the solution is easy: Legalize all drugs tomorrow, selling them in pharmacies to anyone with ID showing they're over 21.
The fact is that it is gang-bangers, mostly black gang-bangers, shooting one another. These are all our (collectively) our fault, and account for about half of all gun murders while only 13% of the US population.
We'd also stop incarcerating half of the people we currently hold in federal prisons (who are there on drug charges) and about 1/3rd of those in state prisons (ditto). Those people, having no felony record any longer, would have better economic opportunity, which would do even more toward making it possible for them to choose a productive life instead of a criminal one.
The fact is that nobody is interested in putting a stop to all the black youth being killed in this country. Nobody is proposing that which we know would stop it, just as it did when we repealed Prohibition.
Of course, it would put the private prison companies out of work and remove lots of prison guard FTE's.
How does this relate to guns?
You want to know where gun laws came from and why they were first enacted? The first was in 1751 in Louisiana. Gun laws came from the same place marriage laws came from: To keep "those people" from having firearms. Free blacks in slave states were required to obtain a license and show need to have a firearm. Whites, of course, did not have any such restriction.
The fun thing about gun laws: They don't stop anything. Columbine killers committed over 100 federal felonies, starting with sawing off shotguns to commit the murders and including dozens of felony bomb creations and high-capacity magazines.
Here's another fact about the gun laws: Virtually all of the "active shooter" incidents involve someone who is on, or has recently been on, psychotropic medication. Yes, "under 1%" of people experience that effect.. but if 2 million kids take a drug, 20,000 kids have that bad reaction -- potential killers. All of the killers aren't looking for a fight -- the instant bullets fly the other way, the killers blow their brains out. Of course, any bullets flying causes collateral damage -- recently in NYC police had to take a suspect out.. and out of 17 shots fired at the target, 9 bystanders were hit.
All of these issues are, of course, why "public health" is a very worthwhile field -- and why the public debate over ties to the pharmaceutical industry should happen.
But the knee-jerk response of disarming doesn't address the fundamental problem, it exacerbates it.