Guys, we got trouble.
A recent poll with decent credentials behind it shows that too many people are still fixated on “keeping guns out of the hands of criminals”:
---
Poll Claims NRA Members More Moderate than Leaders: Part of the NRA’s strategy of instilling fear is a “never-pass-any-new-gun-laws imperative,” which lawmakers often abide by out of concern that they will be punished at the polls by gun owners. But in his Washington Post column today, E.J. Dionne highlights a new survey of 832 gun owners (including 401 NRA members) by conservative pollster Frank Luntz. The poll finds that NRA members are “more reasonable than the organization’s leaders and supporters in Congress in understanding the urgency of keeping guns out of the wrong hands:
* 86 percent of all gun owners believe the country can “do more to stop criminals from getting guns while also protecting the rights of citizens to freely own them.”
* 78 percent of NRA members support “requiring gun owners to alert police if their guns are lost or stolen.”
* 82 percent of NRA members support “prohibiting people on the terrorist watch lists from purchasing guns.”
* 69 percent of NRA members support “requiring all gun sellers at gun shows to conduct criminal background checks of the people buying guns.”
http://thinkprogress.org/2009/12/10/nra-poll/
----
Jim again. OK, so what's wrong with that?
We can't control criminal access to guns. It doesn't work. You guys understand that, right? Criminals WILL get guns. They'll import them from overseas if necessary (as is happening in Mexico), they'll steal or bribe them from the gov't (also a major Mexican thing right now), they'll steal them from regular citizens or worst case, they'll make them in garage machine shops.
A gun benefits a criminal financially far more than it does a law abiding citizen. Therefore, with more economic incentive to score them, they'll always try harder and when restrictions are cranked up, the *inevitable* result is to disarm the law-abiding in relation to the criminal class.
Always, without fail.
What we're dealing with here is the prohibitionist mindset. Prohibition doesn't work. We can't keep something as simple as pot out of the country, we're not going to be able to do so with guns either.
Because prohibition doesn't work.
We have to push that theme. And yeah, that means pushing for the legalization of at least most drugs.
One of the stupidest conversations I ever had, with anybody, was at a gun show. I was discussing legalization of drugs with some old dude, and he came up with what he thought was the ultimate answer: “yeah, but I hate those damned drug dealers!” And with a smirk and a nod, he walked away. All I could do was stare, because legalization would be the absolute worst nightmare for the current street dealers.
If you're a prohibitionist, for God's sake stop and re-think. If you think the government should control what adults do with their own bodies, and you vote to make sure the government can do so, you are in favor of criminality in government and an enemy of personal freedom. As a “bonus” you're working to destroy the RKBA.
I'm just had it with the prohibitionists within the RKBA community. Sick to death. It's the dumbest aspect of what we are collectively, that MOST of us are prohibitionists.
Arg!
A recent poll with decent credentials behind it shows that too many people are still fixated on “keeping guns out of the hands of criminals”:
---
Poll Claims NRA Members More Moderate than Leaders: Part of the NRA’s strategy of instilling fear is a “never-pass-any-new-gun-laws imperative,” which lawmakers often abide by out of concern that they will be punished at the polls by gun owners. But in his Washington Post column today, E.J. Dionne highlights a new survey of 832 gun owners (including 401 NRA members) by conservative pollster Frank Luntz. The poll finds that NRA members are “more reasonable than the organization’s leaders and supporters in Congress in understanding the urgency of keeping guns out of the wrong hands:
* 86 percent of all gun owners believe the country can “do more to stop criminals from getting guns while also protecting the rights of citizens to freely own them.”
* 78 percent of NRA members support “requiring gun owners to alert police if their guns are lost or stolen.”
* 82 percent of NRA members support “prohibiting people on the terrorist watch lists from purchasing guns.”
* 69 percent of NRA members support “requiring all gun sellers at gun shows to conduct criminal background checks of the people buying guns.”
http://thinkprogress.org/2009/12/10/nra-poll/
----
Jim again. OK, so what's wrong with that?
We can't control criminal access to guns. It doesn't work. You guys understand that, right? Criminals WILL get guns. They'll import them from overseas if necessary (as is happening in Mexico), they'll steal or bribe them from the gov't (also a major Mexican thing right now), they'll steal them from regular citizens or worst case, they'll make them in garage machine shops.
A gun benefits a criminal financially far more than it does a law abiding citizen. Therefore, with more economic incentive to score them, they'll always try harder and when restrictions are cranked up, the *inevitable* result is to disarm the law-abiding in relation to the criminal class.
Always, without fail.
What we're dealing with here is the prohibitionist mindset. Prohibition doesn't work. We can't keep something as simple as pot out of the country, we're not going to be able to do so with guns either.
Because prohibition doesn't work.
We have to push that theme. And yeah, that means pushing for the legalization of at least most drugs.
One of the stupidest conversations I ever had, with anybody, was at a gun show. I was discussing legalization of drugs with some old dude, and he came up with what he thought was the ultimate answer: “yeah, but I hate those damned drug dealers!” And with a smirk and a nod, he walked away. All I could do was stare, because legalization would be the absolute worst nightmare for the current street dealers.
If you're a prohibitionist, for God's sake stop and re-think. If you think the government should control what adults do with their own bodies, and you vote to make sure the government can do so, you are in favor of criminality in government and an enemy of personal freedom. As a “bonus” you're working to destroy the RKBA.
I'm just had it with the prohibitionists within the RKBA community. Sick to death. It's the dumbest aspect of what we are collectively, that MOST of us are prohibitionists.
Arg!