There is historic precedent for reducing gun carry in order to reduce gun crime, throughout the Old West. Every town which was infamous for gun crimes, was "tamed" by gun control laws. Not by having everyone packing.
You are right, gun crime has decreased quite steadily since the 90's with a small increase, then decrease again in recent years (crime tends to correlate to economics).
But in the statement above you are assuming that gun control was responsible for decreasing crime in "gun free" towns. We do not know that. During that time your local sheriff knew pretty much everybody, and often ruled with an Iron fist. A repeat rapist or a murderer would likely be hung within days of a crime, after a brief local trial. His body was sometimes put on display as a message to potential offenders. Perhaps the same sheriff so quickly to order all citizens to surrender all arms may practice this extreme authority over criminals too. I am not advocating such behavior by any means. But it would potentially and drastically cut crime rates, perhaps much more so than simply taking everyone's guns.
Nope, I'm not assuming anything. I'm reporting facts which contradict one of the favored fantasies of the more rabid Second Amendment-as-word-of-god crowd.
I am a gun owner too. I'm also a devotee of factually based logic, and not wild emotional nonsense masquerading as patriotism.
The Iron Fist Rule which you describe, included what would now be called gun control.
My point, is only that allowing anyone and everyone to carry guns, doesn't cause crime to fall. There is no historic support for that claim, and that is what has been claimed in this thread. That some large organization of "liberals" all declared that Texas would erupt in gun battles, is also false. SOME people may have said that, but SOME people say crap no matter what happens.
If we are going to discuss a subject, any subject, I want the discussion to be factual and logical. Not just exchanges of emotionalized political bombast and self-worship.
Edited by
IgorFrankensteen
on Wed 07/29/15 12:35 PM