Support for Gun Control in US at its Lowest Level in More than 50 Years

[PanzerJaeger]

Let me restate, I do not hold a particular stand for or against legalising guns. I also think there have been no definitive studies produced yet, studies capable of tipping the balance towards or against the NRA. Moreover, as a teen, I was taught to handle guns myself by an adult – nothing too serious, pistols, Romanian AKs, Benelli shotguns and such – thus I do not deem this type of education wrong per se. And yes, I expected the argument (i) and it is why my point was that black kids shooting each other over corners are the result of a mentality that was developed in people by the infrastructure over decades and not that they’re topping marksman charts themselves.

It is why I ask if there isn’t a genuine cultural problem (ii). Take Romania for example, not Western European countries. And we’ll leave aside that weapon-related criminality is simply a lot smaller. Now, 90% of the weapon-related crimes here belong to gypsy gangs, the vast majority of them using white arms: "ninja swords" (I kid you not, this is the weapon of choice, they buy real factory produced katana in bulk) baseball bats, hatchets or, at best, air pistols – and not because they’d be a sort of cavemen, most drive SUVs. Here you’re simply seen as stupid if you want to engage in gun crime, no one is willing to be caught with them; you want to settle inter-gang disputes or mug someone, you employ white arms (cool arms I believe you call them). Over the pond, your criminals do not seem to even view it as a possibility. Employing guns in any sort of violent assault is the norm. Take the second clip Shaka Khan linked above – why on earth weren’t those kids using baseball bats to get their point across. Illegal guns are just as readily available here as in the US. It is reasonable to speculate this problem was created through the deep imagology of a society intimately acquainted with firearms.

Well you are right that it is a cultural problem, but that problem is limited to a very specific subculture. The vast majority of gun crimes in the US are committed by poor, urban street thugs with illegally obtained weapons against other poor, urban street thugs. Second to those are the crimes committed by poor, urban thugs against non poor, urban people who are their targets. The rise of gun violence starting in the '70's and peaking in the early '90s can be directly correlated with the rise and relative decline of urban street gangs in America's cities. (The recent rise in gun crime in Britain over the last decade has been traced to the same problem.)

That is why lawful gun owners are so offended by broad brush, politically correct gun control measures and, in turn, why they have made the NRA so powerful. Studies have shown that those who have concealed carry licenses, ie, those who are law abiding gun owners, are far less likely to commit crime than the general population. And yet, they would be the only ones effected by gun bans and the like, as street thugs do not legally obtain and carry their weapons anyway. Most responsible gun owners support efforts like Project Exile, which actually target the inner city problem effectively instead of stripping law abiding citizens of their freedoms. However, there will always be a gun violence problem in the slums as long as there are slums. Remedying that issue goes far beyond gun control.