What reasonable gun control looks like

[Paraphrased notes: Starting Point with Soledad O'Brien on Gun Control after Newtown, CT Pt. 1 John Lott Blog] "There's one common feature across the board with these attacks from 1950 at least on with only one exception--all the multiple victim public shootings have occurred...where guns are banned. We try to make an area safe by banning guns but what happens is it's the law abiding good citizens that obey and not the criminals...

Criminals go to gun free zones. Take the Aurora, Colorado movie shootings. There were seven movie theaters within a 20 minute car ride of the killer's apartment. There's only one that banned guns. He didn't got the movie theater that was closes to his home. He didn't go to the movie theater that was largest. The movie theater that he went to was the only one that banned guns...

...Look at these mall shootings. Most of the malls in the area aren't posted as gun free zones and yet the only ones they pick are the ones that [ban].

Take the Columbine case. Dylan Klebold lobbied against the conceal hand carry bill that was before the state legislature. He was writing his state legislators. He was strongly against it. He was particularly upset about the part of the law that would allow concealed hand guns on school property and do you know--the day that the Columbine attack occurred? I occurred on the day of final passage of the state concealed hand gun law..."Vid: Starting Point with Soledad O'Brien on Gun Control after Newtown, CT Pt. 1

"The good needs to outnumber the bad (Prager, 17 Dec 2012 on murder of 20 school children and 7 adults)."

Recommended Reading:

More Guns Less Crime by John Lott

Response to comment [from a Christian]: "Yeah, because criminals are all for making concessions."

They'll still get guns. This murderer stole his mom's guns. We need to defend ourselves and our children (Lk 22:36).

[Edited notes: Starting Point with Soledad O'Brien on Gun Control after Newtown, CT Pt. 2 John Lott Blog] "...Germany had 3 of the 5 worst school shootings in the world. They have stricter gun laws. You can't get semi-automatic weapons. It takes a year to get a bolt action long rifle there and yet they've had a worse record in terms of multiple victims shootings in schools than we've had in the United States--even with this attack.

[Gun laws] ...They serve as a magnet for these attacks. These criminals seek out these places.

...These guns are just like any hunting rifle. The inside guts--they fire one bullet. In fact, the Bushmaster gun there would be the equivalent of a rifle that would be used for hunting very small game like squirrels. It looks different on the outside because some people like to have guns that look like military weapons but it's not. It's like any hunting rifle.

...Semi-automatic guns are the most common gun in the United States. They're beneficial for self defense. If you have two criminals coming at you, you are not going to want to have a gun that only fires one shot. What are you going to do? You can't fire a warning shot. If you miss the first shot and you don't have a semi-automatic gun, what you going to do for self-defense? You're going to be completely vulnerable..." Vid: Starting Point with Soledad O'Brien on Gun Control after Newtown, CT Pt. 2

Recommended Reading:

More Guns Less Crime by John Lott

Response to comment [from a Christian]: "...How about this verse, then?  Matthew 26:52..."

Then said Jesus unto him, Put up again thy sword into his place: for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword.

Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to my Father, and he shall presently give me more than twelve legions of angels? [Matt. 26:52–53].

"In other words, “I don’t need your little sword, Peter. I haven’t come to put up a battle against the religious rulers. I have come to die for the sins of the world.” McGee, J. V. (1991). Vol. 35: Thru the Bible commentary: The Gospels (Matthew 14-28) (electronic ed.) (171–172). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.

"Mt 26:52 perish by the sword. Peter’s action was vigilantism. No matter how unjust the arrest of Jesus, Peter had no right to take the law into his own hands in order to stop it. Jesus’ reply was a restatement of the Gen. 9:6 principle: “Whoever sheds man’s blood, by man his blood shall be shed,” an affirmation that capital punishment is an appropriate penalty for murder." The MacArthur Study Bible. 1997 (J. MacArthur, Jr., Ed.) (electronic ed.) (Mt 26:52). Nashville, TN: Word Pub.

Then said he unto them, But now, he that hath a purse, let him take it, and likewise his scrip; and he that hath no sword, let him sell his garment, and buy one [Luke 22:36].

"You had better pack suitcase and get your traveler’s checks if you are going out for the Lord today and give out the gospel. You had better be prepared to protect yourself and your loved ones. We are living in difficult days. The Lord said, “He that hath no sword, let him sell his garment, and buy one.” Why? For self protection, of course. They were living in days that required a sword. We need to recognize that fact also. If we do not resist evil today, all kinds of evil will befall us. We could end up in the hospital or have some of our loved ones slain." McGee, J. V. (1997). Thru the Bible commentary (electronic ed.) (Lk 22:36). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.

[Edited notes: Interview with the Washington Post: Would more guns make America safer? John Lott]: "...I would like to see us finally get rid of these gun free zones that we have. We have sixty years of these cases. We've had a lot of multiple people public shootings. In all but one it's in places where guns are banned. You've gone past any possibility of randomness explaining this." Vid: Interview with the Washington Post: Would more guns make America safer?

Recommended Reading:

More Guns Less Crime by John Lott

Response to comment [from a "Christian"]:  [Buzzword quote: However, especially using his example of a semi-automatic which seems to be DESIGNED to look like an AK-47, it's almost impossible to determine the functionality of a weapon from a distance unless you can recognize make and model without actually holding/firing it.] "Do you need to?"

It's helpful to be able to quickly identify weapons.

Response to comment [from a Satanist]: "..."[A]ssault weapons" basically look scarier (or cooler, depending) than other equally-destructive firearms. A lot of this is about aesthetics."

[The great gun control fallacy: After Newtown's tragedy, the advocates are at it again. But there just is no correlation between gun ownership and murder rates by Thomas Sowell] "Must every tragic mass shooting bring out the shrill ignorance of "gun control" advocates?

The key fallacy of so-called gun control laws is that such laws do not in fact control guns. They simply disarm law-abiding citizens, while people bent on violence find firearms readily available.

If gun control zealots had any respect for facts, they would have discovered this long ago, because there have been too many factual studies over the years to leave any serious doubt about gun control laws being not merely futile but counterproductive.

Places and times with the strongest gun control laws have often been places and times with high murder rates. Washington, DC, is a classic example, but just one among many.

When it comes to the rate of gun ownership, that is higher in rural areas than in urban areas, but the murder rate is higher in urban areas. The rate of gun ownership is higher among whites than among blacks, but the murder rate is higher among blacks. For the country as a whole, handgun ownership doubled in the late 20th century, while the murder rate went down.

The few counter-examples offered by gun control zealots do not stand up under scrutiny. Perhaps their strongest talking point is that Britain has stronger gun control laws than the United States and lower murder rates.

But, if you look back through history, you will find that Britain has had a lower murder rate than the United States for more than two centuries – and, for most of that time, the British had no more stringent gun control laws than the United States. Indeed, neither country had stringent gun control for most of that time.

In the middle of the 20th century, you could buy a shotgun in London with no questions asked. New York, which at that time had had the stringent Sullivan Law restricting gun ownership since 1911, still had several times the gun murder rate of London, as well as several times the London murder rate with other weapons.

Neither guns nor gun control was not the reason for the difference in murder rates. People were the difference..." Full text: The great gun control fallacy

"Guns are not the problem. People are the problem (Sowell)."

Rick Perry wants to give teachers and students a fighting chance in the future.

[Let teachers carry concealed weapons, Texas Gov. Rick Perry tells Tarrant County tea party meeting by Mona Reeder] "North Richland Hills — Texas Gov. Rick Perry indicated Monday that he supported allowing teachers and administrators to carry concealed handguns in response to the Connecticut school massacre that left 20 children dead.

Local school districts should decide their own policies, Perry said. But if someone has obtained a concealed-handgun license, he said, “you should be able to carry your handgun anywhere in this state.” He clarified that private property owners should be allowed to impose their own restrictions..." Full text: Let teachers carry concealed weapons, Texas Gov. Rick Perry tells Tarrant County tea party meeting

"The administrators lunged at him to try to stop him from what he was going to do. Do you think they would have preferred having a gun?...You meet lethal force with lethal force." Mike Gallagher on his radio program, 18 Dec 12.

Response to comment [from a Christian]: "The whole of the UK is saddened to hear of the shootings at Newtown's Sandy Hook Elementary School.  Will the US gun lobby see the solution as more unlicensed guns so that teachers can protect their children?"

This teacher is being laid to rest today.

She had only her own body to stop the murderer from killing her elementary school students. 

"...The UK has strong gun control and our average murder rate from guns is about 20 per year out of 60 million people (less than the toll in Newtown yesterday), compared to US rates of about 12000 per year with a population only five times larger..."

We have inner city problems as well as black on black and Hispanic on Hispanic crime for cultural reasons.  The Left will not discuss these important issues (Eccl 10:2). 

[Conscience, Not Guns by Dennis Prager] "From the moment Americans learned of the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre last Friday, the entire left -- editorialists, columnists, broadcasters, politicians -- used the occasion to promote one idea: gun control.

For the left, the primary reason for just about all American gun murders is the availability of guns.

I have no interest in debating gun control here. I only wish to ask the left one question: We have a massive system of drug control laws. Yet, the left is the first to argue that the war on drugs has been a failure. And whether or not one deems it a failure, the war on drugs surely hasn't prevented tens of millions of Americans, including teenagers, from obtaining drugs illegally. Why, then, does the left believe that a war on guns would be any more effective than the war on drugs?

That question aside, what matters most here is the left's preoccupation with guns as the root of the murder problem in America.

It explains a great deal about the left's worldview. The moral values and the conscience of nations as well as individuals seem to play almost no role in the left's understanding of human behavior.

That is why the left wants all nations, including the United States, to destroy their nuclear weapons. The problem for the left is not the moral values nations hold, it is the weapons nations hold. American nuclear weapons were just as troubling to the left as Soviet nuclear weapons during the Cold War and just as troubling as Iran having nuclear weapons today. So, too, the problem of gun violence in America is not the moral values of gun owners, it is gun ownership..." Full text: Conscience, Not Guns

House Dem: 'Turn in your guns' Eccl 10:2, Jn 10:10

Response to comment [from a Buddhist]: [kmoney quote: 1) Re-enact the assault weapons ban 2) Ban sale of guns at gun shows/only allow sales at official stores (similar to the sale of alcohol in PA) 3) All guns must be registered] "Looking at this from a pragmatic perspective. How would these three steps prevent someone from killing other human beings with guns? They may make us feel good that we are doing something "for the children", but they simply take away rights without the benefit of minimizing violence."

You're funny newbie. Leftists don't ask: Will this work? They ask: How does it feel? Eccl 10:2, Jn 10:10. If you disagree with them , you are unfeeling.

Be sure to stop by Satan, Inc. TOL Heretic's List.

Response to comment [from a Satanist]: [Gun free victim zones] "...If you can't see the problem with this situation you're genuinely ignorant or deliberately dense."

Classy --like Piers Morgan

When you disagree with the Left (Eccl 10:2, Jn 10:10), you're stupid and you don't care about dead children.

[We know how to stop school shootings by Ann Coulter] "In the wake of a monstrous crime like a madman’s mass murder of defenseless women and children at the Newtown, Conn., elementary school, the nation’s attention is riveted on what could have been done to prevent such a massacre.

Luckily, some years ago, two famed economists, William Landes at the University of Chicago and John Lott at Yale, conducted a massive study of multiple-victim public shootings in the United States between 1977 and 1995 to see how various legal changes affected their frequency and death toll.

Landes and Lott examined many of the very policies being proposed right now in response to the Connecticut massacre: waiting periods and background checks for guns, the death penalty and increased penalties for committing a crime with a gun.

None of these policies had any effect on the frequency of, or carnage from, multiple-victim shootings. (I note that they did not look at reforming our lax mental health laws, presumably because the ACLU is working to keep dangerous nuts on the street in all 50 states.)

Only one public policy has ever been shown to reduce the death rate from such crimes: concealed-carry laws.Only one public policy has ever been shown to reduce the death rate from such crimes: concealed-carry laws..." Full text: We know how to stop school shootings

Response to comment [from a Satanist]: [Oatmeal quote: Student: God, why did you let this happen in this school?  God: Why did you ban me from schools?] "This kind of thinking is completely twisted and borderline depraved."

The God-haters who insisted that any mention of God be removed from school were the same people on Twitter asking where he was during the murder of school children.  Eccl 10:2, Jn 10:10

What reasonable gun control looks like