Reply #11: And your point is? Make straw purchases illegal? OK. Make using guns to commit crimes illegal?

[jmg257]

OK. Make committing crimes illegal? OK. We ALL agree 100%.

You do agree it happens anyway, despite all these existing laws. And WHO says it doesn't count? Count for what?...there are alot of criminals who get & use guns illegally - despite 1000s of laws in place to prevent it? Well, NO kidding! THEY ARE CRIMINALS!...by their very definition they break the law!

You REALLY aren't convincing me that I should give up my right to arms for defense - in fact just the opposite.


"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878


From the article: "The men pleaded guilty to conspiracy to deal in firearms without a license and were sentenced last summer to about two years in prison."

What do you think - is that enough of a penalty to serve as a deterent?

Did they happen to find out who was buying the guns? If S. Florida is anything like New Haven, they probaly found results similiar to these:


"In the Summer of 1999, the New Haven Gun Project implemented several new strategies to attack violent gun crime in the City of New Haven.
The selection of strategies relied in significant part on extensive research into the specific nature and dimensions of incidents of murder, assault with a firearm, armed robbery, the unlawful firing of firearms and unlawful firearm possession. ...

Some of the data presented included:
*A large percentage of offenders and victims were 15-21 years of age.
*Most offenders had serious criminal histories.
*One fifth of offenders had been arrested for a prior gun offense, and three-fifths had a history of drug charges.
*Over one third of the offenders were on probation at the time of the new gun-related offense.
*Approximately one-third of offenders or victims associated with murders and armed assaults were members of neighborhood "groups" believed to be involved in other illegal activities."


Seems maybe guns aren't the problem.