Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Heibges
A big part of the problem with gun violence in the United States is capitalism.
These small gun companies, making shoddy guns, who sell them on the basis of them being cheaper than your Smith & Wessons and Sturm Rugers, and are easily obtainable by criminals.
These cheap guns have flooded the market in mass numbers, are often resold because they have no real value like a nice gun will to its owner, and these are the guns you always hear the cops complaining about.
In gunowning families, once a gun comes in, it does not go out. It's like adopting a new baby.
|
Wrong. Gun violence in the United States tracks almost exactly with where your ancestors came from.
Those of European descent (and by the way the most likely to own a gun), have homicide rates similar to that of Western Europe taken as a whole. Those of African descent (one of the least likely groups to own a gun) have the highest homicide rate.
I deduce, therefore, that homicide rates are cultural. It has nothing to do with the availability of cheap guns.
If you don't believe me, check for yourself. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have a nifty mortality tracking site here:
http://webappa.cdc.gov/sasweb/ncipc/mortrate.html
Go ahead and check out the homicide rates for whites, blacks, hispanics, etc., and let us know what you find.
It also borders on classism and racism to blame the availability of those guns for the homicide rate in the US. Those guns are basically for the poor and disadvantaged, who shoulder the overwhelming majority of homicides. To deny them the ability to protect themselves legally, which is what legislation aimed at 'junk guns' is really about, is morally indefensible unless you deny ALL the ability to protect themselves (which is morally indefensible itself, but in a different way).
The racism part is at the root of all gun control in the US: No one talks about it, but really only the black population has a serious problem with homicide rates. So, making guns more expensive to obtain, or by making the requirements strict, you will restrict the number of black people who will own them (at least legally). Historically, laws against cheap firearms originated in the post Civil War south, as a way to prevent blacks who now had the theoretical right to own a gun from owning one. Arkansas is a perfect example: A law passed in 1881 forbade the carrying of any pistol or revolver except "any such pistol as used in the army
or navy of the United States". That meant Colt or Remington revolvers, which were generally too expensive for blacks to own. Rich whites could be armed, but poor blacks couldn't.
There was a massive change in the laws in the South after the 14th Amendment was passed, from laws that explicitly forbade blacks from owning guns, to those that while their language is race neutral, their effect is mainly against blacks. Those laws, and the court cases that arose out of them, are the basis for gun control in the United States today.
Oh, one last little historical tidbit: Do you know why 'junk guns' in the US are exclusively made in the US? Protectionism. Congress passed laws against the importation of inexpensive handguns at the behest of the gun industry, to protect their markets. That isn't capitalism.