Gun Control & RKBA
In reply to the discussion: What should be the limit on ownership of guns? [View all]Matrosov
(1,098 posts)I didn't make the case for more citizens being armed. I made the case that when even here in the South - where people give each other shotguns and deer rifles for birthdays and Christmas, where firearm laws are much more lenient compared to places like CA and IL, and where concealed carry is much more culturally acceptable and advocated than elsewhere - so few people arm themselves on a regular basis that the "good guy with a gun" is almost never around. They have the freedom to arm themselves and yet they don't.
In other words, you'll never reach the number of armed citizens you'd need for them to make any appreciable impact on violent crime. Most gun owners are interested in shooting deer and paper, not criminals. On the other hand the criminals who are motivated enough to break the law in the first place are going to be the first who'll want to be armed. We already have plenty of gun laws that are meant to stop them but they don't, gun owners aren't going to stop them, and there isn't enough police around to stop them.
So the least we can do is to make their lives a little more difficult, and we accomplish that by removing guns from our society.
As for my 'elitism,' it's not elitist of me to expect gun owners to behave responsibly with their weapons. I'm sure some do, and I've also seen plenty blatantly ignore basic safety rules, like the time I went to a shooting range on an invite, so I could at least say I had some firearm experience myself, and people were sweeping their muzzles all over the place, were goofing around, and the range officer couldn't be bothered to toss them out or at least give them a warning.