[xerxes]

From The Atlantic, a short history of gun control in the US and what forces were behind it. I found it pretty interesting.

Full article: http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2011/09/the-secret-history-of-guns/8608/?single_page=true

Quote:

The Panthers’ methods provoked an immediate backlash. The day of their statehouse protest, lawmakers said the incident would speed enactment of Mulford’s gun-control proposal. Mulford himself pledged to make his bill even tougher, and he added a provision barring anyone but law enforcement from bringing a loaded firearm into the state capitol.

Republicans in California eagerly supported increased gun control. Governor Reagan told reporters that afternoon that he saw “no reason why on the street today a citizen should be carrying loaded weapons.” He called guns a “ridiculous way to solve problems that have to be solved among people of good will.” In a later press conference, Reagan said he didn’t “know of any sportsman who leaves his home with a gun to go out into the field to hunt or for target shooting who carries that gun loaded.” The Mulford Act, he said, “would work no hardship on the honest citizen.”

[DanSC]

An interesting story on the history of gun control. If anyone wants an excellent history of guns, the Buffalo Bill Historical Center in Cody, WY has an excellent firearms museum, along with their museums of Native history, Western Art, Natural History, and Mr. Cody himself.

http://www.bbhc.org/explore/firearms/

[BartSimpson]

The first gun controls in the USA were rooted in racism. Blacks were banned from owning guns so they could be more readily victimized by the Klan and lynch mobs. If you look at the places where gun control is still prevalent you'll find that it is still a tool of repression primarily employed against poor urban blacks.

[bootlegga]

Good find Xerxes!

[herbie]

BartSimpson wrote:

The first gun controls in the USA were rooted in racism. Blacks were banned from owning guns so they could be more readily victimized by the Klan and lynch mobs. If you look at the places where gun control is still prevalent you'll find that it is still a tool of repression primarily employed against poor urban blacks.

Dumb Conservative Slogans are in another thread.

[Peeves]

I've lived in the South. Any gun law I know of never stopped anyone that wanted a gun from having one.

While I don't doubt that gun ownership is discriminatory against some, Blacks included, any criminal of any color does not care if there's a law against ownership.

Those generally restricted from owning guns by laws, are the law abiding, not the criminal.

Gun laws will not prevent crime. Gun laws deny law abiding citizens the ability to protect themselves.

[Scape]

Like in Somalia? Plenty of guns there...

[PublicAnimalNo9]

Official figures from the FBI: 12,996 murders in the US in 2010 which represented a 4% decrease in the national average from 2009. There were 2.84 firearm homicides per 100,000 people.
Official figures from StatsCan: 554 murders in Canada in 2010 compared to 610 in 2009. There were 0.53 firearm homicides per 100,000 people. Homicide by any means is less than 2 per 100,000

Compare population sizes, do the math and come to your own conclusions.

P.S. It's not like we're not allowed to possess firearms up here, they just want to restrict how far some people like to push things. Unfortunately some weapons get caught up in the push because some cosmetic yet functional options that do nothing to increase it's firepower in any way, make it look scary.

[Peeves]

PublicAnimalNo9 wrote:

Official figures from the FBI: 12,996 murders in the US in 2010 which represented a 4% decrease in the national average from 2009. There were 2.84 firearm homicides per 100,000 people.
Official figures from StatsCan: 554 murders in Canada in 2010 compared to 610 in 2009. There were 0.53 firearm homicides per 100,000 people. Homicide by any means is less than 2 per 100,000

Compare population sizes, do the math and come to your own conclusions.

P.S. It's not like we're not allowed to possess firearms up here, they just want to restrict how far some people like to push things. Unfortunately some weapons get caught up in the push because some cosmetic yet functional options that do nothing to increase it's firepower in any way, make it look scary.

Compare 'our' countries histories, ethnic make up, (perhaps recent) immigration and illegal immigrants then compare with your own conclusions.


Look at the ethnic make up of those predominately incarcerated in Canada and the USA.

It suggests gangs and certain communities are perhaps more inclined to criminal activity, violence and gun use.

[BartSimpson]

Scape wrote:

Like in Somalia? Plenty of guns there...

Actually, no, there aren't. The militias have guns but they make sure that the common people are kept disarmed.

I've been in that neighborhood a few times and one of the things I'm very happy with the Kenyans about is that they train and arm the animist and Christian tribes in southeastern Somalia. Those folks then act as a buffer of sorts to Kenya from the mililtias and in return they're better able to defend themselves from the radical Islamic douchebags.

[Thanos]

Guns are fucking cool. I wish that I had one of those Beretta 92's that Andrea was using to waste zombies on last week's The Walking Dead.