dagblog - Comments for "What You Can Do About Gun Control TODAY"

Thank you, Dr. Cleveland. I

Veronica — Tue, 18 Dec 2012 11:37:33 +0000

In reply to What You Can Do About Gun Control TODAY

Thank you, Dr. Cleveland. I wrote my congressmen this morning and encouraged them to restore the ban on assault weapons.

See this story I just posted

artappraiser — Sun, 16 Dec 2012 00:07:11 +0000

In reply to What You Can Do About Gun Control TODAY

See this story I just posted on a news thread I started; it's about Obama Justice Dept. measures that were studied after the Giffords shooting but not enacted, several that he could enact by executive order even if Congress failed to take any new actions.

I am not trying to argue.

Tom — Sat, 15 Dec 2012 23:46:01 +0000

In reply to Has it never occurred to you

I am not trying to argue. Why are you? I was up front when I stated I did not have the answer. I am simply stating facts. This country is full of Tea Baggers who will create the demand. Do you think the demand for guns in Great Britain is equal to the USA?

I am not trying to be dishonest. Where there is great demand someone will be there to fill it. That is just reality. I simply present facts and pose questions and all you want to do is run me down and argue. You can pass all the laws you want but that will not make the guns disappear. Not in this country. If you think they will you are living a fantasy.

This is a serious problem to which I do not have the answer, and neither do you. That is why all issues concerning this must be discussed and debated without starting an argument.

Has it never occurred to you

Doctor Cleveland — Sat, 15 Dec 2012 22:46:21 +0000

In reply to Yes, guns and magazines can

Has it never occurred to you that many nations that have not been able to ban drugs with any real success HAVE managed to ban various kinds of guns very successfully?

If not, why has this never occurred to you? It should have.

No country manages to the eliminate the drug trade. Nearly every civilized country manages to regulate guns effectively. This is not a hypothetical question. It is a question with an answer.

Are you not thinking straight? Are you being dishonest with yourself? Or are you simply being dishonest with me?

In any case, why should I take a question like yours in good faith? Am I supposed to pretend not to know basic facts about the universe because they are inconvenient to you?

Are you entirely unaware of the existence of a nation known as "Great Britain?" Did you expect me to be unaware of it? How?

What should I make of someone who proposes such a deeply unserious argument, when the policy questions here are matters of life and death?

Jeez, Trope. The doctor isn't

acanuck — Sat, 15 Dec 2012 19:29:35 +0000

In reply to And if people say that, good.

Jeez, Trope. The doctor isn't suggesting we can stop ALL senseless violence, which has indeed been with us for tens of thousands of years. We can stop THIS!

Every senseless violent death is a tragedy, of course. But 27 victims -- mostly babies not yet in fourth grade -- is a national disgrace. Not something you can just throw your hands up about.

Start by re-banning automatic assault weapons and massacre clips. Then take a look at Canadian gun laws. We have roughly one-tenth your number of gun homicides per capita. It's not that we have banned all guns; it's pretty easy to buy a rifle or shotgun. Handguns -- not so much. There are also background, checks, mandatory training, restrictions on muzzle length, clip size, rules for storage and transport, etc.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gun_politics_in_Canada

In a pinch, Canada could probably put together a well-regulated militia. Why do Second Amendment fanatics always leave out those two words?

Yes, guns and magazines can

Tom — Sat, 15 Dec 2012 19:21:49 +0000

In reply to Thanks for commenting, Tom.

Yes, guns and magazines can be made in a home machine shop. All the specs are available. Very expensive machines can be purchased cheap on the used market. High capacity magazines can also be produced. But my points are that there is already hundreds of thousands of these guns here already. How are you going to make them just go away? And how are we going to stop the import of guns and magazines? My point is we cannot stop the import or manufacture of drugs and it stands to reason you will not stop the guns as long as demand is high and there is money to be made.

Thanks for commenting, Tom.

Doctor Cleveland — Sat, 15 Dec 2012 18:20:00 +0000

In reply to Some of the hottest selling

Thanks for commenting, Tom. But banning military-grade or near-military-grade guns and banning drugs are two different things.

Drugs can be produced by individuals with relatively cheap and simple layouts. Meth labs are fairly easy to set up. Marijuana grows in dirt. Evenm cocaine and heroin, which usually need to be imported, are created from plants using a simple process, and it is too easy to set up the growing fields and processing facilities.

An AR-15 requires a highly specialized and very expensive industrial process: in short, it requires a modern factory.

No one can make an AR-15 or AK-47 in his basement. The screwup from your high school who couldn't get through geometry class can cook meth.

Some of the hottest selling

Tom — Sat, 15 Dec 2012 18:12:34 +0000

In reply to What You Can Do About Gun Control TODAY

Some of the hottest selling guns are AR-15's, AK-47's. Dealers cannot keep them on the shelves. Manufacturers can hardly keep up with the demand. We can ban them but without some form of police state action these guns will not disappear. Owners will not just give them up. A buy back program will not work unless we are willing to pay an outrageous price.

Try and just outlaw the magazines and we will simply create a black market. We have had for years, a war on drugs, which has not been able to keep the drugs out of our hands (my hands are clean). We outlawed alcohol to no avail also. Someone will always step in to fill the demand. The simple addition of a high capacity magazine can turn a simple 22 caliber rifle into an assault weapon.

I do not know the answer. But I do know society has changed. In the 60's if I went to a school dance the greatest fear would be that someone, of group, may want to start a fight. Nowadays they may simply stab or shoot you, without a second thought.

Very good Doc, and done. I

tmccarthy0 — Sat, 15 Dec 2012 14:33:10 +0000

In reply to What You Can Do About Gun Control TODAY

Very good Doc, and done. I have my letter ready to go every single week until we do something.

20 babies killed, for what? It's horrendous. We have to do something, there are too many guns in America, too many.

Your opinion is noted,

Doctor Cleveland — Sat, 15 Dec 2012 14:22:00 +0000

In reply to You live in the same

Your opinion is noted, Chris.

You feel I am living in a delusional fantasy because I propose concrete steps that can be taken in the physical world rather than making a hazy blanket statement about the need to change our culture in some profound and unspecified way.

Sure.