Ways to Curtail Gun Crime

Great Debates
1

The thread about guns killing people has been hijacked enough, and I know that there have been threads on this topic in the past, but how can we reduce gun crime in America? I posited that if we get rid of handguns, or somehow outlawed them, the handguns would (eventually) end up out of the hands of the criminals. People opposed it, and I added as a stipulation that people could get a handgun, but they’d have to have a permit to do so. (I’m starting to lean against that idea. I think the spirit of this is to make handguns harder to get overall and impossible to get for shady folks.)

Another way to stop violent gun crime that was brought up was increasing the penalties on the offenders (which I do not favor). It bears mentioning that to combat overcrowding, release the nonviolent prisoners.

Well, what about you guys? Time to revisit this one again?

2

Stop the War on Some Drugs. Legalize those drugs and make them cheaply available through the same channels as legal intoxicants. No black market = no gangs shooting it out over drug territory.

3

What war on drugs? I have been around for a long time and I have never seen any serious full blown WAR on drugs? Where is it?

4

Exactly. Ya gotta look at why people shoot each other. Cure the causes and you’ll inevitably reduce gun crime. The answer is not more gun restriction, but more personal freedom to do what you want - as long as it’s done peaceably, of course.

Specifically regarding the War of Some Drugs, as suggested above, in addition to the fewer gangs having at it in territorrial battles, you’ll end up with fewer dead cops. And fewer innocents made dead at the hands of cops serving no-knock warrants. These are both forms of violent crime.

5

Why not? Surely punishing those who do the offending is a better way than punishing those who aren’t doing the offending.

6

Any amount of enforcement that could actually make guns unavailable to determined criminals would be better applied to preventing or punishing the crimes they commit.

7

Education and opportunity. I have no idea how to create opportunity, but suspect it will naturally follow from education.
This, possibly, will start a reform of society to remove the allure of gang membership. If it doesn’t, it will still help a lot of people.

8

The War on (Some) Drugs.

9

Aren’t drugs like cocaine and heroin the ones that people are shooting each other over, whether it be gang turf or desperate users committing these acts?

I am in favor of legalizing marijuana, but not drugs like coke, speed and heroin. They are too dangerous.

10

I’ve heard of users doing a pretty fair amount of theft to maintain their habits, but AFAIK they don’t do all that much gun-crime. My experience with addicts is that if they had a gun, they’d be more likely to offer to sell me the gun for drug money than to shoot me with it.

11

Quite a claim. Any basis for it? Do have some ideas for preventing crime with investment of resources that have been shown to be effective? I’d be very interested in it. As to the efficacy of punishment, I doubt that building many more prisons will help much.

It would seem intuitive to me that the opposite is true: that enforcing the laws that are already on the books designed to keep weapons out of the hands of criminals would be fairly cost-effective.

Secure storage in manners that make theft of weapons less common would also help. Further reductions in strawman purchases, again by actually investing in enforcement of current laws alone, could be useful.

12

Are there really a significant amount of drug-running gang bangers making a living selling marijuana that, were marijuana legalized so that large corporations could switch over to growing it rather than tobacco, we’d see a drop in shootings as all those gang-bangers said “Well, dang, I guess I have to get a straight job now, maybe at a 7-11, where I can sell… marijuana…”?

If so, I fully support this, if only for the irony.

13

Drugs and guns defintely seem to go together. I don’t think legalizing drugs will do society any good though.

14

Address poverty and lack of education. I gurantee you’ll see all crime rates drop significantly.

As to how to reduce poverty and improve education… Well I can’t think of everything for you. Figure it out!

15

I’m all for legalizing drugs (we can go on about which ones in another thread) and I’m all for watching to see if gun crimes go down. Poverty seems to be the root cause of violent crime. Of course, equal punishment for white-collar offenders might be nice, too.

16

^ address poverty and lack of education will drop violent crime rates significantly, but methinks there’ll be a rise in white collar crime, but that’s besides the point.

We’re not necessarily against GUN crime as we are VIOLENT crime. Getting rid of guns will just set people back to times without guns when we’re all bashing people with a board with a nail in it. To curtail violent crime, you’re going to have to do as above and address poverty and education. Maybe even legislate a “child license” to prevent prolific birthing of at-risk youths. I know, very orwellian.

17

Somebody should invent a firearm that only works for people who are pure of heart. Or at least benign of intention.

Reasonably benign.

18

Increase the “cost” violent crime:

Lock up the criminals:
Strict sentences for violent crimes committed with firearms.

When background checks are run and the person is found to not be eligible to own a firearm - follow-up! The Brady Center claims that 300 bad people a day are prevented from purchasing a firearm - therefore there MUST be 300 arrest a day.

Pass Shall Issue Concealed Weapons permit laws nationwide, and allow for one state’s license to legal in another (just like marriage and driving). More honest citizens trained in the use of firearms who also carry reduces crime.

Decrease the “profit” from guns:
Decriminalize or legalize most (if not all) drugs. Take away the profit motive from the drug aspect of violent crime.

Reduce the misuse of guns through education:
Bring back firearms training in high schools. Kids should know about guns, instead of making them something from the movies. Kill some of the mystique.

Provide new opportunities:
Standard crime prevention work such as jobs in the inner city, improved schools, and outreach to teach kids that there are more opportunities out there.

19

Step one; enforce the laws already on the books, DO NOT draft new ones simply to make it look like you’re “doing something proactive”, strict penalties for anyone that uses a firearm in a crime, don’t want a free trip to the Straight-Bar-Motel courtesy of the state, then don’t commit crimes, simple, eh?

Step Two; see step one

the only “common sense” gun restrictions I could see a need for is for convicted felons to not be able to own/use firearms, don’t want to lose your 2nd amendment rights? DON’T COMMIT CRIMES!

Assault Weapon Ban? ditch it, it’s useless and meaningless, it only bans “scary looking” guns, an Armalite AR-15 shoots the same cartridge and has the same Semiautomatic (one shot per trigger pull, and reloads itself after a round is fired, but does not continuously spray bullets as long as the trigger is held back, one shot per pull only) action as a Ruger Mini-14 Ranch Rifle, a “normal” hunting rifle

Limit on magazine capacity? NO! the amount of rounds per magazine makes no difference, if a criminal wants to go on a shooting spree, they can easily carry multiple magazines, the average reload time for a semiauto firearm is a few seconds, drop the empty mag out of the gun, slap in a new mag, cycle the action to load

these are nothing more than busybody-feel-good legislations which have no impact on firearm crime, if Greg Gangbanger wants to expend thirty rounds of 9mm in a driveby, having three ten-round mags is not going to be a major handicap, and when Greg Gangbanger is caught by the police, he should be rightly put away for a very long time, if anyone is killed in said drive-by, automatic life imprisonment, no possibility of parole, no appeals, nothing, lock him up, and throw away the key

20

and when anti-board-with-nail legislation is drafted, the criminals will move on to pointed sticks, when anti-pointed-stick legislation is drafted, criminals will move on to fresh fruit, where will it end?