The Washington Post Commenters' Poll - Handgun Regulations

[mikeb302000]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-user-polls/post/the-nations-gun-laws-your-take/2011/12/08/gIQA7FRkfO_blog.html">The Washington Post commenters' poll
"your take on handgun regulation and its effects in the United States."

I didn't count them, but right away there were the usual pro-gun thoughtless knee-jerk remarks. For example:

I am a professor, and was on another university campus when I heard of yesterday's VT incident. I immediately felt quite vulnerable. Had that happened on my campus, I would very much have wanted to be in possession of gun that I could use to defend myself, my colleagues, and my students.

and the classic:

We will never know how concealed carry could have stopped Cho, but we are absolutely certain of the results of no concealed carry.

My idea about guns on campus is like my belief about concealed carry in general and even guns in the home, http://mikeb302000.blogspot.com/2011/12/my-recent-post-on-statistics-for-deaths.html">they do more harm than good. The pro-gun crowd loves to overlook that armed people in the vicinity of an berserk killer rarely can stop the shooting in time, and sometimes, as in the most recent case, lose their own lives.

Cho is often hailed as an example of the failure of gun control systems because he bought his guns legally. But, the problem in that case was too lax laws as far as the mental health reporting goes. Same with Loughner. And he provided a shining example of Arizona's most bizarre policy of "Constitutional Carry."

I believe certain voices in the gun-rights community take their cue from the NRA and the gun manufacturers in purposely highlighting incidents which justify their fear-driven choice to be armed. Although these incidents are anecdotal and even rare, they are dramatic and convince other weak, insecure and fearful people that having a gun is the right idea. Common sense goes out the window and we have an ever-increasing spiral of people justifying their own behavior by convincing others.

The end result is The United States is the laughing stock of the entire developed world. Jokes are made about us and lots of people are dying.

The other fallacy of the pro-gun argument is the distinction between law-abiding gun owners and criminal gun owners. Of course they're different in certain respects, no one denies that, but the thing that ties them together like fraternal twins is the gun. All of those guns start out the legal property of somebody and due to http://mikeb302000.blogspot.com/2011/11/busting-myth-gun-control-laws-dont.html">the shabby mish-mash of so-called gun control laws in the country they flow unabated from the law-abiding twin to the criminal twin. Naturally the good twin raises up his hands in feigned innocence and proclaims no responsibility for this.

What's your opinion? Please leave a comment.
http://mikeb302000.blogspot.com/">(cross posted at Mikeb302000)