The Manchurian Candidate Revealed.

Originally posted by erictcartman
reply to post by LadyGreenEyes

 

How do you determine someone should not have guns if they did not have any prior history of mental illness or a criminal background? I will agree that no one should be able to buy guns from a website, guns should be bought only at the factory in which they are made. But there are too many sane people buying weapons en masse and selling them on the black market. Hence, Fast and Furios. Ok, that was a White House market, but you get the point.

We have the right to bear arms, that is a fundamental right in our Constitution, but if you recall, Sirhan Sirhan was not American, he got a gun from somebody who got it from somebody. Now let me ask this, of all the gangbangers and thugs out there drive-by shooting and car-jacking, where did they get their guns.

Gun violence in this country is predominantly committed by gangs and thugs. Yes, it is tragic what happened in Aurora, but that is because a large number of people were killed. James Holmes only recently acquired his weaponry.

Six Facts About Guns

According to the Washington Post, gun ownership is at an all-time low since 1959.

“For all the attention given to America’s culture of guns, ownership of firearms is at or near all-time lows,” writes political scientist Patrick Egan. The decline is most evident on the General Social Survey, though it also shows up on polling from Gallup...

While the trends for gun ownership is dropping, the nation still has deaths by gun violence. In this article Gun Violence in the United States, which has information from 1996,

In 1996 (the most recent year for which data are available), 34,040 people died from gunfire in the United States. Of these deaths, approximately 54 percent resulted from suicide, 41 percent resulted from homicide, and 3 percent were unintentional

That was 34,000 gun related deaths and injuries.

The impact of gun violence is especially pronounced among juveniles and adolescents. The firearm homicide rate for children under 15 years of age is 16 times higher in the United States than in 25 other industrialized countries combined.

That means that those are under 15 years of age in the United States are more likely to commit gun violence. Why that age group? James Holmes was over 25 and never had a history of gun violence.

Young African-American males have the most elevated homicide victimization rate of any race or gender group. Homicides involving firearms have been the leading cause of death for African-American males ages 15 to 19 since 1969.

By your logic then, should we say that African Americans should not own guns? They are the highest victims and the highest perpetrators, so let's draw that line right there, shall we? Where and how do they buy guns? Where do 15-year old children get guns anyway?

Firearms are readily available on the illegal gun market, and those who are most likely to possess guns are drug sellers and gang members -- overwhelmingly young and male. More than two-thirds of the respondents in one study of urban arrestees stated that the primary reason for owning and carrying a weapon is self-protection -- a small number also reported using the weapon for drug trafficking or other illegal activities. Among arrestees overall, 23 percent of those who owned a gun said they had used one to commit a crime. Among JUVENILE drug sellers who owned a firearm, 42 percent reported using a gun in a crime; among gang members, 50 percent reported using a gun.

Who has the most guns? Redneck teabaggers or gangbangers? Take your pick on which one you should fear when walking down any street in this country. African Americans have the same right to keep and bear arms as any other people in this country, they have the right to defend themselves. But by politicizing gun control means that one group will have guns and another does not. They get them illegally and no amount of gun control laws will change that.