No, they really seem to think having a gun handy will turn and the average normal law abiding person into a crazed lunatic shooting at anyone for any slight.
Are you sure? Do you have any quotes to back that up?
I'm not disputing it, it just seems such a stupid idea, I'd like to see the evidence to support the claim that that's their position.
so nashwan.... Does that mean that you are all for concealled carry?
I don't see anything wrong with it, if guns are widely available anyway.
I've never thought guns turn people into criminals. (I just believe guns turn criminals into more dangerous criminals)
Be aware that to get the licence you normally need do no more than apply and maybe take a 4 hour course
I see no problem with that.
. Before the guys like you got ahold of the laws... kids got more training than that in school by the NRA.
Guys like me?
I see nothing wrong with teaching people how to shoot, if lessons had been offer in my school, I'd have jumped at the chance.
So you are saying that.... that what? Law abiding citizens should be allowed to carry concealled?
In the states? Yes.
In the UK? No.
Why? Because guns are rare here, and I'd rather keep it that way. How many concealed weapons are lost each year? Or stolen from cars etc?
But if you've got a glut of guns, as in the states, then it's a good idea, I'd have thought.
You are doutlessly being logical and noting the drop in crime in the states that allow concealled carry right?
No, I just don't see any harm in it. I'm sure large numbers of your criminals are carrying concealed weapons anyway, because criminals tend to ignore the law.
As to drop in crime, the US had a large drop in crime in the late 90s anyway, didn't it?
According to the Brady campaign (I just went and looked) crime fell less in the states that allowed more widespread concealed carry than those where it didn't.
Certainly in the UK we've heard a lot about the drop in crime in New York, they don't allow CC in the city do they?
Who would have thought that you were so logical? I thought that you believed that banning guns was the solution.
No, I believe making it harder for criminals to get guns is a partial solution.
I just don't see any way to do that without gun registration at least.
Mostly because the "anti" arguments are..... so retarded.
But are they? Genuine question, because I don't tend to visit US pro or anti gun sites.
The quotes you've posted show a desire to ban all guns, not a belief that guns make normal people into deranged killers, or that guns are sneaking out and commiting crimes on their own.
Saying that banning guns will make it harder for criminals to get guns, and that will reduce the murder rate doesn't seem retarded, even if it might be wrong. It is at least a logical position.
Almost. They routinely say, not suggest, that any gun is immensely dangerous
Well guns are dangerous. Not on their own, of course.
They come very close to saying possession of a gun inevitably "causes" the owner to commit gun crime.
If that is the case then they truely are retarded.
In fact, in moments of candor (or stupidity) the heads of the various anti organizations like Handgun Control will admit that total ban/confiscation is their ultimate goal and that they will never give up.
I'd say that's a fair enough position. Whether or not you (or I) agree it would help reduce murder, and whether or not you (or I) think that much restriction on law abiding people's right to do as they wish is worthwhile is another matter. (I don't personally think that's a sensible position)
Generally the anti's appeal to ridicule or outright lying because the facts destroy their arguments. Like Lazs contention that Concealed Carry laws, once passed, are almost always followed by a drop in gun crime.
There's been a large drop in crime in the US anyway. Whether that has anything to do with concealed carry is debatable, and quite honestly I've learned not to trust the information put out by the US gun lobby at all. More on that below.
Nope. What is surprising is the argument that Concealed Carry will result in wild west shootouts on the streets or vigilante justice committed by those with CC licenses is routinely made by the antis.
That doesn't seem like a very sensible position. Whilst I've no doubt such things do occasionally happen, I'm sure the concealed carry owner occasionaly stops a crime as well.
It is. However, the antis are far past the point of rational discussion on guns and admit that only total bans/confiscation will sastify them.
Is it just the anti though? Or even the antis at all? As I said, I'm genuinely asking, because all I know of the US gun debate is what's posted on boards like this, and they all seem to be pro gun.
But one of your quotes sums up the attitude to the truth of the pro gun lobby as well. I'll get to that at the end, if that's ok.
Nash, no I don't carry a weapon.
In the first place, I rarely feel the need.
In the second place, Kansas does not (yet) have a Concealed Carry law.
In the third place, if I felt the need (and there have been times I've been carrying mucho dinero to/from places far apart) I "carry" without a permit.
But then, Kansas is a very low murder state, especially if you remove the murders between/among criminals like dope deals gone bad.
Kansas is actually a fairly high murder state, 4.5 per 100,000 according to the FBI.
Yes, oh yes... we're making it all up.
quote:"Our main agenda is to have all guns banned. We must use whatever means possible. It doesn't matter if you have to distort the facts or even lie. Our task of creating a socialist America can only succeed when those who would resist us have been totally disarmed."
-Sara Brady, Chairman, Handgun Control Inc, to Senator Howard Metzenbaum. The National Educator, January 1994, Page 3.
That quote struck me as so outrageous it couldn't possibly be true, so I went looking to track it down.
It's repeated fairly frequently on the web, all seem to be pro gun or right wing sites.
So I looked on Google groups, to find the earliest reference.
It's attributed in your quote to the "National Educator" magazine, Jan 1994.
However, it first turns up on google's usenet cache in 1993, and then it's attributed to "machine gun news, June 1991, volume 6, p5", in a column by Dan Shea.
The "National Educator" is also listed by the ADL as an anti-semitic publication, (see
http://www.nizkor.org/ftp.cgi/orgs/american/adl/armed-and-dangerous/armed-and-dangerous Nizkor is a site about the holocaust, not a pro or anti gun site)
After searching for Dan Shea, I came across this:
This quote did not originate with me. It came from a Class 3 Dealer in Indiana, who said the "Quote" at Knob Creek, with a big circle of other Class 3 dealers, who all became outraged. After he said it, I asked him for the source, and he gave me one that sounded credible.... later, after it went into print, and everyone got all excited about it, I called him for the source again... he waffled, and said he really didn't know where it came from, but "It sounded like it would be true, didn't it?"
I got quite an education on that, it was the first time in 15 years that I had ever let something that important go without writing it down first.... and yes, it did "Sound like it would be true" in that time period. Very embarrassing, but a good insight into the birth of an "urban legend."
Dan Shea
Gen Mgr, Small Arms Review magazine (http://www.smallarmsreview.com)
http://www.guncite.com/gun_control_bogus_ds.html
Guncite is actually a pro gun site, isn't it?
Regardless, I'd say that "quote" attributed to Sarah Brady is bogus.