Nightline on Obama, gun control

[unixronin]

Nightline broadcast a good and pretty balanced segment last night, discussing Barak Obama's gun control position and the massive gun buying rush that's going on across the US now by people concerned that if they don't buy them now, they won't be able to.

Particular points to note:

• The customer who keeps repeating to the reporter, "Never mind Obama's words, look at his actions."¹
• The gunshop owner reporting Obama supporters coming into his store wearing their Obama buttons, who just voted for him but are still afraid he'll ban guns.

[1]  You might have seen me say this once or twice.  Assuming you've been paying attention.

Comments

Re: (kind of) slipery slope

[milktree.livejournal.com]

There have been a bunch of studies that show that an armed populous isn't what makes people safer, but rather that fewer restrictions on legal access to guns does.

Which is to say, the actual rate of armed citizens isn't particularly important, but there's a high correlation between restriction on gun rights and violent crime.

When the "bad guys" don't know who has guns and who doesn't, (because it's easy for law abiding folks to get them) violent crime goes down.

Public safety is related to gun access, not gun ownership.

Obviously this doesn't apply to individuals, but it absolutely does to populations.

Re: (kind of) slipery slope

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

There have been a bunch of studies that show that an armed populous [sic] isn't what makes people safer, but rather that fewer restrictions on legal access to guns does.

Well, the two sort of go together.

Public safety is related to gun access, not gun ownership.

To a point. If it's common knowledge that anyone can, but also public knowledge that no-one actually does, then firearms may just as well be prohibited for all the suppressive effect on crime the knowledge that, hypothetically speaking, someone could will have.

Re: (kind of) slipery slope

[milktree.livejournal.com]

Obviously if you take any statement to an extreme it falls apart.

But the studies I remember reading actually compare gun laws to violent crime separately from gun ownership. There's a correlation between the laws and crime, but not ownership rates and crime.

In any case, you can't make laws that give people guns, you can only make laws that give people access to guns. (and rightly so!)

The point is that no individual has to have their own gun to benefit from the crime reducing effects of more liberal gun laws.