TresSugar

Nothing Goes Together Better Than Guns and Alcohol

TresSugar — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 06:00:00 -0700

As of yesterday, patrons of alcohol serving establishments in Arizona and Tennessee can exercise their second amendment rights while downing a cold one. How . . . American.

The new laws allowing registered gun owners to carry concealed guns into bars and restaurants that serve alcohol are part of a trend of loosened gun control laws. Ironically, right after the election last November, gun shop owners reported record sales, suspecting that customers feared that a Democratic federal government could curtail the right to bear arms.

Complaints by Arizona and Tennessee's business owners that the new law would hurt business went unaddressed. (Hurt how you ask? You know, when "1 or 2% of would-be Dirty Harrys," as one restaurant owner plaintiff put it, decided to mete out vigilante justice.) As for critics who point to recent public shootings, proponents of the new laws say that the violence shows the need for private citizens to protect themselves with firearms.

500 Guns Swapped For Cash in Harlem: Are Buybacks Good?

CitizenSugar — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 09:00:42 -0700

In tough economic times, people are trying to make money any way they can - and one surprising example sneaks in community service too. In Harlem this weekend, five churches offered cash for weapons – no questions asked. Rifles, handguns, and shotguns were brought to the churches on Saturday and in return the unarmed were given a $200 bank card.

This program, sponsored by the NYPD and Manhattan DA’s office, was created over a dozen years ago in an effort to get guns off the streets and has been met with great success. So far about 5,000 have been removed from New York and over 500 of those in this last buyback. Two weeks ago Brooklyn churches purchased over 400 firearms.

Critics and proponents are at odds over the efficacy of gun buyback programs. Skeptics say, "It's like trying to drain the Pacific with a bucket. More guns are going to flow in." Though Oakland held a popular buyback this Spring where more than 1,000 guns were swapped for $170,000. Is cash an effective way to drain dangerous weapons from the streets?

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Shot Through the Heart! Spy Gives Gun Control a Bad Name

LibertySugar — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 09:00:02 -0700

Get this: a gun-control activist, who sat on the board of two anti-violence groups, might have been a spy for the NRA all along! Mary Lou McFate (or Mary Lou Sapone) has worked for gun control for over a decade, but her organizations have just kicked her out so they can start checking her offices for bugs. Using her maiden name "McFare," Mary allegedly posed as a gun-control activist at the behest of the National Rifle Association. As an alleged mole for the NRA, McFate met with members of Congress, attended rallies, and participated in strategy sessions on behalf of gun control.

This isn't the first time McFate has acted as a freelance spy. During the 1980s she infiltrated an animal-rights group for US Surgical, a company accused of using dogs for research and training. She has also worked as a flight attendant and a sex therapist.

Even though McFate had access to every major legislative strategy of the gun-control lobby, some say they have nothing to hide from the NRA. In fact, a few gun-control activists feel flattered that the gun lobby sees them as a threat.

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Shot in the Dark? The Relationship Between Guns and Crime

LibertySugar — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 00:00:35 -0700

Sunday's New York Times examined the relationship between gun laws and crime. The survey of research (cited in the Supreme Court opinions regarding Washington DC's ban on handguns) pondered the question: Do guns kill people, or do gun control laws kill people?

Here are some of the findings I found to be the most interesting:

A before-and-after study found that although Baltimore did not have a similar law, its crime rate mimicked Washington’s.
Reduction in suicides and gun accidents are cited by proponents of the DC law as positive effects that go unnoticed or underestimated.

To see how the US compares to Europe, read more.

In Europe, seven nations with the most guns per capita had 1.2 murders annually for every 100,000 people. In the nine nations with the fewest guns the rate was 4.4. The US rate is 5.7.
Legal scholars have found that denying guns to people who might use them in self-defense tends to increase crime rates. Also evidence suggests that the possibility that a victim has a gun can deter criminals.
Background checks at the state level have been paired with lower homicide rates.

The mixed bag of research brought the US justices to diverging conclusions - the dissent felt it gave legislatures an opening to assess community needs with ban laws, while the majority insisted the constitution already answered the debate, and overturned DC's overreaching ban. How does the conflicting evidence regarding the usefulness of gun laws leave you feeling? Do you think gun laws are the cause or effect of crime?

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Seattle's Schizophrenic Shooter Had Valid Gun Permit

LibertySugar — Thu, 29 May 2008 06:00:19 -0700

A mentally ill man who shot three people at a music festival in the Pacific Northwest last week had obtained his weapon with a valid concealed weapon permit. A bullet from his Glock 19 handgun hit three victims last Saturday while Grainger was fighting another man. The bullet passed through a man's nose, another's wrist, finally ending up in a woman's leg.

22-year-old Clinton C. Grainger suffers from anxiety and schizophrenia and has been receiving treatment for a meth addiction since he was 18. Grainger's issues did show up as disqualifying conditions when he applied for a gun permit in January 2007. A mental illness diagnosis alone is not enough to restrict a citizen's right to bear arms under Washington state and US federal law.

To find out what federal law is regarding mental illness and gun permits, read more.

Federal law requires that an individual be involuntarily committed to a mental institution, found not guilty by insanity, or deemed by a judge as a "mental defective" and a danger to himself or others, before second amendment rights are restricted. Nevertheless, it appears that if background checks were more sophisticated, at least Grainger's narcotic addiction would have prevented him from obtaining the permit. Yet, as with the shooting tragedy at Virginia Tech, crucial disqualifying information located in different systems were not properly shared.

Are nominal and negligent background checks to blame for victims' injuries? Should we make it harder for those with a mental health diagnosis to obtain a gun? Considering that many Americans are treated for anxiety and depression, what mental illness should cause a citizen to lose the right to bear arms?

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US Has 25 Percent of World's Prisoners - Is It Safer?

LibertySugar — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 11:00:28 -0700

With less than 5 percent of the world's population, the US has 25 percent of the world's prisoners. The US incarceration rate, which remained stable for much of US history, increased by seven fold with the late 1970s movement to get tough on crime.

Today's New York Times highlights explanations offered by criminologists:

[H]igher levels of violent crime, harsher sentencing laws, a legacy of racial turmoil, a special fervor in combating illegal drugs, the American temperament, and the lack of a social safety net. Even democracy plays a role, as judges - many of whom are elected, another American anomaly - yield to populist demands for tough justice.

As a result of this combination, 2.3 million criminals are behind American bars. That means about one in 100 Americans are locked up. China, which has four times as many people, has 1.6 million criminal prisoners. San Marino, which has a population of 30,000, has one prisoner.

With tougher sentences, a drop in crime has followed. But causation is not clear. Ups and down in Canada's crime rate has mirrored the US's; however, there has not been a surge in Canada's imprisonment rate.

What is your reaction to this American anomaly, and the decision to not follow the rest of the West? Is tough sentencing the best way to make America safer?

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Court to Decide If Individuals Have Right to Bear Arms

LibertySugar — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 13:00:27 -0700

The groundbreaking lawsuit challenging Washington DC's strict gun-control laws will go before the US Supreme Court this week. District of Columbia v. Heller, funded by a rich libertarian lawyer, is a shot in the dark for Second Amendment activists. The Supreme Court will have the extremely rare opportunity to rule on a provision of the Constitution that never has gone directly before the Supreme Court - the Second Amendment.

DC has the nation's strictest gun-control law, and effectively bans the private possession of handguns. The law states that rifles and shotguns must be kept unloaded and disassembled, or trigger locked, at home. DC argues that the law is a logical decision to make in a dangerous city, although the other party maintains that crime and homicide rates have not been reduced. To see how the Bush administration is making a case for the restrictions, read more.

The Constitutional question is whether the Second Amendment provides an individual right, or whether it only extends to militias as a collective right. In fact the Bush Administration has helped the district, arguing that while the Second Amendment conveys an individual right, such a right is subject to reasonable government restrictions. The government's official position has infuriated gun activists, including Dick Cheney. Check out some exerpts from the briefs filed with the court by interested parties.

We'll have to wait a while to get the court's decision on one of the most important cases in American history. The opinion should be released this summer. And here's an extra twist - liberals who favor expansive interpretations of other amendments, like those protecting the rights of criminal defendants, logically should embrace a broad reading of the Second Amendment, a blow to liberal gun control.

Do you think gun rights belong to the individual? If so, when do restrictions stop being reasonable?

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What's the Cause of All the Recent Gun Violence?

CitizenSugar — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 12:00:54 -0800

With at least three violent shootings in the past four days - school shootings in both Tennessee and Louisiana, and the City Hall shooting in Missouri - lots of you have been commenting on this sad trend. I'm curious: Do you think increased instances of reports of violence are spurring copycat crimes? Or is the crime rate the same and we're just more attuned to tragedies, making it appear like a trend? Does it make you feel differently about gun-control laws? What do you think is behind the violence?

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The Democrats Are Coming! Boom in Gun Sales After Election

LibertySugar — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 10:00:01 -0800

Making sure to exercise their Second Amendment rights before it's too late, firearm fans have gone on a shopping spree. Gun shop owners report record sales since Tuesday, suspecting that customers fear a Democratic federal government could curtail the right to bear arms with new gun control laws. In fact in October, there were 15 percent more background checks issued for new purchases.

Barack Obama's stance on gun control shouldn't cause too much panic in the gun-carrying community. The president-elect has said that he "will protect the rights of hunters and other law-abiding Americans to purchase, own, transport, and use guns." He also believes the Second Amendment creates an individual right, just as the Supreme Court decided earlier this year. Even so, Obama does support national legislation against carrying concealed firearms, and he may reinstate the ban on semiautomatic assault weapons.

If you're a gun enthusiast, do you feel like your rights will come under fire from the new Democratic leadership, or are you comforted by the fact that a lot of other problems might push gun control to the bottom of the agenda?

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Eric Holder Says Assault Weapon Ban Is Back

CitizenSugar — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 10:30:10 -0800

Attorney General Eric Holder announced yesterday that the administration will reinstate a ban on assault weapons.

Before you get too worried that Obama is taking unprecedented steps to limit your right to bear arms, know that he just wants to reinstate the ban that expired in 2004. In 1994, Congress banned 19 types of semi-automatic military-style guns and ammunition clips with more than 10 rounds.

Holder's statements yesterday focused on the positive impact the ban will have . . . in Mexico! Drug traffickers south of the border often buy sophisticated weapons in the US, according to the Mexican government. And Mexico needs all the help it can get fighting the drug traffickers, since 6,000 people were killed last year due to drug violence.

Holder also explained how the ban fits into Obama's broader plan on guns:

As President Obama indicated during the campaign, there are just a few gun-related changes that we would like to make, and among them would be to reinstitute the ban on the sale of assault weapons.

Does this sound like good gun control policy?

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