Gun Control vs. D.W.I.

Gun Control vs. D.W.I.

A colleague of mine wrote an op-ed peice a few years back in regards to gun control, I thought I'd share it with you.
At the present time there are approximately 20,000 gun laws on the books nationwide. Seventy million Americans LEGALLY own approximately 200 million guns. Over 99.8% of these LEGALLY owned guns will NOT be involved in criminal activity in any given year.
Every year, D.W.I. incidents result in over 17,000 deaths, over 1,000,000 injuries and property damage exceeding $50,000,000,000. It is far easier for a kid to get drunk at home and take his parents car for a ride than it is for him to get a gun and start shooting people. Keep in mind owning a gun is a right while driving is a privalege. The average American, including law enforcement personnel, is at a greater risk of losing life or limb from a drunk driver than he/she is of being shot negligently from a legally owned gun.
It is time for the talking heads in Washington to take D.W.I. seriously. Instead of looking for ways to deny law abiding citizens of their rights under the constitution, they should take away non guaranteed privaleges. I propose that those convicted of D.W.I. the first time, lose ALL driving privlages for 5 years in addition to mandatory jail time. If convicted of D.W.I. with an accident and injury involved, he/she would lose ALL driving privlages permanently in addition to mandatory jail time. Finally, those conviced of D.W.I., who are THEN caught D.W.I. w/o a licence (which was revoked after the 1st conviction) be sentnced to a mandatory minimum 5 year jail term. This is the only way to keep these repeat offenders from getting behind the wheel of a vehicle. The message will be loud and clear to all who think about driving while intoxicated.
Criminals will ALWAYS find ways to get guns, law or no law.
Also, It is not the guns that kill people, it's the people pulling the trigger. The pro-gun control crowd loves to say "Guns have killed XYZ number of people". WRONG, a gun cannot do anything, let alone fire itself off, without a PERSON pulling the trigger.
Ask yourself this simple question. If community "A" has a ban on guns and community "B" allows gun ownership, which one would the criminals choose? As the slogan goes "When guns are outlawed, only outlaws will have guns".
Best,
Paul

 

The notion that gun control will do anything to combat crime is a foolish one. It will only leave law abiding citizens at risk from attack from armed criminals. It amazes me that some people believe that gun control keeps criminals from getting guns. It only makes illegal arms dealers rich and leaves the common man defenseless. Washington D.C. has some of the strictest anti-gun laws anywhere and it still is one of the most dangerous cities in America.

 

The stats prove that gun control does not work, but it's not supposed to work, as it has NOTHING to do with stopping gun violence and everything to do with disarming the public. A public that is defenseless poses no real threat to its controllers.

 

What's um... D.W.I.?

(I'm terrible with acronyms)

Is that like, a DUI?

 

DWI = Driving While Intoxicated

 

You hit it right on my friend. Throughout history, the 1st thing totalitarian regimes do is take away the people's arms. Hitler, Mao, Stalin, all imposed the most draconian gun laws to prevent the people from rebelling.
Thomas Jefferson: "No free man shall ever be de-barred the use
of arms. The strongest reason for the people to retain their right to
keep and bear arms is as a last resort to protect themselves against
tyranny in government."

 

James Madison, Gun quote: "Americans need never fear their government
because of the advantage of being armed, which the Americans
possess over the people of almost every other nation"

 

Charlton Heston, Gun Quote: "Here's my credo: There are no good guns, There
are no bad guns. A gun in the hands of a bad man is a bad thing. Any gun in
the hands of a good man is no threat to anyone, except bad people"

 

And HERE is the real agenda of those who wish to take away our 2nd amenment RIGHT

Janet Reno, Gun quote: "Waiting periods are only a step. Registration is only a
step. The prohibition of private firearms is the goal"

 

Here are some more quotes which illustrate the entire issue with crystal clarity.


‘‘Laws that forbid the carrying of arms... disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes... Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants; they serve rather to encourage than to prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed man.’’
— Jefferson's "Commonplace Book," 1774-1776

‘‘I ask, sir, what is the militia? It is the whole people, except for a few public officials.’’
‘‘To disarm the people is the best and most effectual way to enslave them.’’
— George Mason

‘‘The world is filled with violence. Because criminals carry guns, we decent law-abiding citizens should also have guns. Otherwise they will win and the decent people will lose.’’
— James Earl Jones, Actor

‘‘Among the many misdeeds of the British rule in India, history will look upon the act of depriving a whole nation of arms, as the blackest.’’
— Mahatma Ghandi, "Gandhi, An Autobiography", page 446

‘‘Germans who wish to use firearms should join the SS or the SA - ordinary citizens don't need guns, as their having guns doesn't serve the State.’’
— Heinrich Himmler

‘‘We cannot be so fixated on our desire to preserve the rights of ordinary Americans.’’
— B.J.Clinton, USA Today, 3/11/93 page 2A

‘‘Four out of five politicians surveyed prefer unarmed, ignorant peasants.’’
— Unknown

 

And HERE is the real agenda of those who wish to take away our 2nd amenment RIGHT

The Second Amendment is so inapplicable these days that I think it's a mistake to point to that particular amendment for support of the right to own weapons for protection of home and property. I prefer the Ninth, myself.

Janet Reno, Gun quote: "Waiting periods are only a step. Registration is only a
step. The prohibition of private firearms is the goal"

Wow. I will have to check to see if that quote is legit, as I've never in my entire life actually met someone in real life who believes in banning guns. Not once. EVER. I have met people who believed in banning concealable firearms, however, since they add little benefit for home security.

 

Hillary Clinton has stated before that she wishes to ban guns. ill have to find the quote. There are a lot of so called "neoliberals" who wish to completely disarm the public. Freedom is being attacked by both parties these days.

 

I'm curious.

Are there any statistics that actually demonstrate and reflect an increase in safety of persons by owning a gun?

I have yet to come across a decent statistic source that convinces me that guns are in fact 'safer', to support the less restrictions on gun control laws argument.

 

http://www.justfacts.com/guncontrol.asp

* Americans use firearms to defend themselves from criminals at least 764,000 times a year. This figure is the lowest among a group of 9 nationwide surveys done by organizations including Gallup and the Los Angeles Times. (16b)

* In 1982, a survey of imprisoned criminals found that 34% of them had been "scared off, shot at, wounded or captured by an armed victim." (16c)

* Washington D.C. enacted a virtual ban on handguns in 1976. Between 1976 and 1991, Washington D.C.'s homicide rate rose 200%, while the U.S. rate rose 12%.

* Right-to-carry laws require law enforcement agencies to issue handgun permits to all qualified applicants. Qualifications include criteria such as age, a clean criminal record, and completing a firearm safety course.

As of 1998, no permit holder has ever shot a police officer. There have been several cases in which a permit holder has protected an officer's life.

 

Hmmm... Those facts are at least 10+ years old.

Anything a little more recent??

 

Recent or not, I see nothing to show the contrary. The stats I quoted are as of 2002.

As we all know, history forgotten will be repeated. I urge all to take another look at the quotes I posted.

 

I'm still not able to verify that quote by Janet Reno, but then again, experts on Ben Franklin say that many of the most famous quotes attributed to him are in error. It's said to be from "a press conference" of December 10, 1993, but then again it's also said to be from a "Good Morning America" show. I'm at work and almost out of time during my break...

Most likely the intended word was "handguns" and not "firearms," because almost no one believes in total gun prohibition.

Update:
Yet another "source" says "I personaly heard, and saw Janet Reno say this before a Congressional Commitee on CSPAN." Of course, there's no mention of what committee or even what year. Yet another source just claims that 12/10/93 was just the date it was "reported." Still others cite "the AP." Other cite "January 1994 issue of National Educator" which doesn't exist (they even cite an invalid URL as evidence).

This appears to be another of those rightwing myths, like "Obama is Muslim," "chemtrails," and Saddam Hussein having nuclear weapons and an inter-continental delivery system.

 

I'm looking into the Reno quote as well. Here are a few examples of how the anti-gun crowd is trying to use taxation to circumvent the consitution:

"I want to make it as hard as possible. Gun owners would have to be evaluated by how they scored on written and firing tests, and have to pass the tests in order to own a gun. And I would tax the guns, bullets and the license itself very heavily."
-- Jocelyn Elders, U.S. Surgeon General, Mother Jones magazine, Jan/Feb '94

" ... we could tax them [firearms] out of existence."
-- Daniel Patrick Moynihan, U.S. Senator, Washington Post, 4 Nov 93

 

"Banning guns is an idea whose time has come."
--U.S. Sen. Joseph Biden Associated Press 11/18/93
Obviously Mr. Biden hasn't read the Constitution lately.

"Banning guns addresses a fundamental right of all Americans to feel safe."
--U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein Associated Press 11/18/93

"Until we can ban all of them we might as well ban none."
--U.S. Sen. Howard Metzenbaum Senate Hearings 1993

"We're here to tell the NRA their nightmare is true!." "We're going to hammer guns on the
anvil of relentless legislative strategy! We're going to beat guns into submission!"
--U.S. Rep. Charles Schumer NBC Nightly News 11/30/93
I think someone needs to remind Mr. Schumer that a gun is an inanimate object and as such cannot be beaten "into submission". This makes me wonder about Mr. Schumer's ability to recognize that a gun is a tool, like a hammer or saw, and is neither evil or good. It is only what a human being does with it that is evil or good.

"With a 10,000% tax we could tax them out of existence."
--U.S. Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan Washington Post 11/4/93
Someone call Senator Moynihan and remind him that excessive taxes are what sparked both the Boston Tea Party and the American Revolution!

 

After doing some intensive searching the consensus was that Reno made the quote on "Good Morning America" on 12/10/1993. Of course without a transcript it is impossibe to verify.