Thought on gun laws

The media portrayal has nothing to do with violence. If anything the number of violent crimes per capita has gone down in my lifetime. It increased until I was in high school and then dropped: back down to levels not seen since "the summer of love". Did movies become less violent? Not at all. Did popular music? Nope. What about Video games? Nope. News Coverage? Nope. (Although we have more 24 hour news outlets now so it seems like it has).

What did increase? The assault weapons ban (eventually overturned), reporting of violent crimes, gun buy back programs, the availability of social programs in poor communities, gentrification, increased awareness about and punishment for hate crimes, legalization of certain controlled substances...

Your odds of being involved in a violent crime as a victim is about 1:200. That's all violent crimes. From rape, domestic abuse, murder, to bar fights. Drop that to 1:2000 for homicide. Drop that even further if you don't live in a high crime area or a "stand your ground" state. The states and cities with the strictest gun laws have the least homicide rates from firearms overall. So maybe the laws are working...

The reason we think there is a rise in gun violence is that the horror of each new attack is no longer a geographically local issue. What we consider "our" community has broadened. It's no longer our block, our town, or our city. I'm in contact every day with people from NY to Australia and I'm no longer an exception.

The 20,000 gun laws is kind of misleading, even if accurate (which is doubtful as nobody that quotes it has ever been able to tell me where it came from.) Divide that number by the number of governments we have in the country. It ends up being about 2 laws per city. We probably have that many laws on the books about pets.

Yes, having a gun might protect you during an armed robbery. But if and only if you can get off your shot before the assailant even sees that you have a weapon. Fighting back is the single fastest way to make the assailant panic and pull their trigger. Plus, in your panic you are less likely to hit your target. In general: give them what they want, call the police with a good description and turn in your insurance claim. Your odds of survival just skyrocketed.

Increased sentencing? If you're desperate enough prison sounds pretty good. Work to eliminate the desperate nature of poverty and increase economic mobility and suddenly jail is actually a threat.

So yeah. keep the guns for hunting and sportsmanship. But for personal defense? You're kidding yourself if you think it will help. Chances are you don't have the training, can't handle the stress, and won't have the opportunity. It sounds good. It makes you feel good, but realistically you or a loved one are now more likely to use the gun as a criminal than to successfully defend yourself.

Criminals might not care about gun laws: But pretty much every gun used by a criminal was purchased legally at some point. Some are "lost" some are stolen, but they entered the society legally. Guns are used in crimes because they are easily concealed, and are extremely lethal even in unskilled hands. Of course other weapons are used as well, but with much lower mortality rates.