We’re still waiting for a plan from Democrats that will actually reduce gun violence. Let’s start off with Nicholas Kristoff, who thinks he has a new way to tackle gun deaths
What we need is an evidence-based public health approach — the same model we use to reduce deaths from other potentially dangerous things around us, from swimming pools to cigarettes. We’re not going to eliminate guns in America, so we need to figure out how to coexist with them.
Um, OK? He compares them to cars, and making them safer, before diving into
In Great Britain, people used to kill themselves by putting their heads in the oven and asphyxiating themselves with coal gas. This accounted for almost half of British suicides in the late 1950s, but Britain then began switching from coal gas to natural gas, which is much less lethal. Sticking one’s head in the oven was no longer a reliable way to kill oneself — and there was surprisingly little substitution of other methods. Suicide rates dropped, and they stayed at a lower level.
The British didn’t ban ovens, but they made them safer. We need to do the same with guns.
First, it wasn’t the ovens, it was what the ovens used for. Second, how does one make a gun “safer”? Most guns are extremely simple things. Complicate them!
We should also be investing in “smart gun†technology, such as weapons that fire only with a PIN or fingerprint. We should adopt microstamping that allows a bullet casing to be traced back to a particular gun. We can require liability insurance for guns, as we do for cars.
Criminals do not care about microstamping. Those who are killing each other in the streets of major Democratic Party run cities typically did not obtain their guns legally. Smart gun tech has it’s pros and cons. Criminals will not purchase liability insurance. That’s simply something that will harm the legal owners primarily, and you know that the cost will be so exorbitant that people will say “forget it” and not buy the gun. That’s his real point, finding a way to stop people from purchasing.
Let’s move on to something else from the NY Times, an article which explains how 14 killers in mass shootings obtained their guns. In every single instance, they obtained them legally via a federally licensed firearms dealer. Aaron Alexis, the Navy yard shooter, was the only one who was stopped, failing the background check to purchase a rifle, and, instead, legally purchased a shotgun. Two points here. First, for all the caterwauling about the “gun show loophole”, none of these people obtained them from a gun show. In fact, most dealers at gun shows are federally licensed dealers, and must perform background checks. Dana Loesch schooled Senator Cory Booker on the subject.
Second, this seems to be thinly-veiled method of blaming the gun stores, so, of course, this gives people the idea of banning gun stores. Which has worked really, really well in Chicago, right? (six more were shot since Saturday morning)
Let’s remember that Mr. Obama stated
“We know that other countries, in response to one mass shooting, have been able to craft laws that almost eliminate mass shootings. Friends of ours, allies of ours — Great Britain, Australia, countries like ours. So we know there are ways to prevent it,â€Â said Obama.
George Soros funded Think Progress goes the same route, in telling us that Australians are disgusted or something
In 1996, a gunman opened fire at a popular tourist destination on the Australian island of Tasmania. Using a semiautomatic rifle, he killed 35 people.
Australia responded by reforming their gun laws. High powered rifles and shotguns were banned and uniform gun licensing requirements were imposed for the guns that remained legal. The country also implemented a buyback program which resulted in the destruction of more than a million firearms.
In the last 19 years, there have been no mass shootings in Australia, defined as five or more people being shot.
In other words, this whole thing, which follows up with stories in Aussie papers that are “disgusted” is about pushing the Aussie solution, namely, banning most private ownership of guns, doing buybacks/government confiscation.
NY Magazine likewise pimps the Aussie solution, and then wonders if it would work
Still, gun-control advocate Rebecca Peters, who campaigned to tighten Australia’s gun laws, argues that the U.S. could take some cues from other countries’ successful efforts to combat gun violence — such as banning assault weapons, expanding background checks, and increasing waiting periods — without implementing gun-control laws as strict as Australia’s. “When you’re talking about reducing motor vehicle accidents, you don’t only rely on seat belts, you don’t only on speed limits, you don’t only rely on highway design, you don’t only rely on motor vehicle standards, but you have a set of them,” Peters told ABC News. “Similarly, they’re a set of measures that together constitute regulation to prevent gun violence.”
Remember, the Navy yard shooter was denied an “assault rifle”, and used a shotgun. For the most part, this only limits legal owners who aren’t hell bent on violence. As for increased waiting periods? Well, if they are good enough for guns, why not for abortions?
Expanded background checks? To what? They are already expanded. Shall we included credit ratings? What, exactly, are we expanding them to cover? That part never gets covered.
Anyhow, many, many outlets are “discussing” the Aussie solution. I dare the anti-gunnites to attempt it. You know you want to. Stop pussyfooting around. Show your true colors.
Crossed at Right Wing News.
Just wait: pretty soon, the left will want to start using the computerized medical records mandated by the HITECH act to ban anyone who has ever visited a mental health professional from owning firearms.
hmmm Dana is that a personal fear of yours?
20+ vets kill themselves each day 90% with guns. Are you OK with that Dana and Teach ?
Your article express that there has been no mass shootings since Australia has banned firearms in 1996.
What always baffles me is that people think that firearms are the reason people kill others. This can be no further from the truth. People kill other people because they have a mental disease of some sort or another. Normal people don’t kill each other, even if they were armed with nuclear bombs to the teeth.
Since 1996, mass killings have not stopped in Australia. They just use fire and knives and hammers and whatever else is available to do what they were going to do anyways regardless of what is publicly available.
Childers Palace Fire – In June 2000, drifter and con-artist Robert Long started a fire at the Childers Palace backpackers hostel that killed 15 people.
Sef Gonzales – On July 10, 2001, Sef Gonzales bludgeoned to death his sister, mother and father with a baseball bat.
Monash University shooting – In October 2002, Huan Yun Xiang, a student, shot his classmates and teacher, killing two and injuring five.
Churchill Fire – 10 confirmed deaths due to a deliberately lit fire. The fire was lit on 7 February 2009.
Lin family murders – On July 2009, Lian Bin “Robert” Xie killed his sister, her husband and three members of their family (5 persons from the Lin family) with a hammer. The faces of the victims were so disfigured that forensics had to be used to identify them. The motivation for the family massacre were partly because Lin had criticised Xie for not having a job.
2011 Hectorville siege – A mass shooting that took place on Friday, April 29, 2011, in Hectorville, South Australia. It began after a 39-year-old male, Donato Anthony Corbo, went on a shooting rampage, killing three people and wounding a child and two police officers, before being arrested by Special Operations police after an eight-hour siege.
Quakers Hill Nursing Home Fire – 10 confirmed and as many as 21 people may have died as a result of a deliberately lit fire in a Quakers Hill nursing home. The fire was lit early on 18 November 2011.
Hunt family murders – Geoff Hunt killed his wife and three children before turning the gun on himself on September 9, 2014.
Cairns stabbings – A woman stabbed 8 children to death on Friday, 2014, December 19, 2014. 7 of them were her own.
The real question is…. Had these victims been armed, would they had a better chance at survival against insane people??? Maybe the families of the victims should sue the government for not providing a safe environment and an on duty armed officer at their side at all times to ensure their safety. I know I would sue. After all, it’s the government that pretends like it can save us all from evil.
john,
Why do you want to keep people from committing suicide? If life is so painful for them then why does the state interfere with there personal decisions. But then, you are a liberal, can’t think or reason, and don’t feel that people should control their own destinies or lives. The state should do that. Remember john that you are the reason that millions of people hurt every day due to the horrendous drug laws that we have. You make us have to go to a doctor to get much needed medications, even if the doctor is expensive and a danger to our health. What is wrong with America, go look in the mirror.
Now, as to the gas oven crap. Sticking your head in an oven powered by natural gas will kill you, it does not matter it the source is coal gas or not. So, if the author does not know this basic fact, then everything he has to say is bull. As to the great conditions in Australia, crime went out the roof when guns were outlawed.