Gun Control

There is a firearms blog of which I read regularly and it just so happens that they have a fantastic write up on the process of purchasing a gun in Germany *1. If you have not read in depth into the actual process of buying a firearm, I highly recommend it (as well as the blog in general). Some facts regarding German gun laws: The number of illicit firearms in Germany is 2.5 times the number of registered firearms *2. To possess a firearm, an individual must provide the state with a reason why they want to buy, own and shoot a particular gun. To receive a hunting license you must pass a government exam which costs approximately 2,000 Euros *1 ($2,650) despite a 60-70% failure rate. Politicians at a state level are automaticly allowed a CC permit while regular citizens have a requirement to establish an elevated risk of being killed. "Being shot more than one time is considered adequate proof that you qualify." ZERO criminal record allowed. None of the above would hold up to the American legal system. Germany has 2.44 gun owners per 100 people. So naturally, their rights are irrelevant. I would like to bring two other countries into the fold. Iceland and Mexico. Iceland is a small country with a population of 325,000 people. Currently there are approximately 100,000 guns in the country that are owned by civilians. Needless to say, that is a fairly high rate of firearm ownership. They're ranked 15 in the world for number of firearms owned per 100 people. But the truly fascinating thing about Iceland is their homicide rate. How many homicides occurred in 2011? Three (3)*3. Homicides involving a firearm since the mid-nineties? Lets just say I can count them on my fingers. Mexico has insanely strict gun control laws *4. In fact, they have just one (1) gun store and the largest handgun caliber you can purchase is a .38. The one and only store is on a military base and sells on average, 6,490 guns per year. So how do you buy a gun in Mexico? "To buy a gun, clients must submit references and prove that their income is honestly earned, that their record is free of criminal charges and that their military obligations, if any, have been fulfilled with honor. They are fingerprinted and photographed. Finally, if judged worthy of owning a small-caliber weapon to protect home and hearth, they are allowed to buy just one. And a box of bullets." So if gun control directly equates to safety, Mexico must be a really safe place to go... right? Now then, on to your contention that I can walk into a gun store and purchase an AK-47 and sometimes even a "rocket launcher." First of all, while the AK's you see in the movies are fully automatic; you would be hard pressed to find a fully automatic AK-47 in the United States as you may only own a machine gun that was manufactured and registered with the BATF before May 19, 1986. Also it's gonna run you $20,000-$30,000. As for a rocket launcher, good luck finding one that's not inert. I just tried. Couldn't find one using all of the internet let alone a random gun store in the US. The average gun store simply doesn't sell class 3 weapons. Even if they did, they are too expensive for anyone who is making less than a few hundred thousand per year. Background checks: check. It's called a NICS check. It occurs with every single sale from a gun store or on the internet. Limited ammunition: irrelevant. Even if limitations were placed on how much could be purchased at one time, it would simply be stockpiled over time. That is also ignoring the fact that your spent brass can be cleaned and re-loaded and utilized repeatedly until the casing loses its structural integrity. Production regulation: Decrease the supply while maintaining a steady level of demand and the price will skyrocket faster than .22 ammo. Increasing the price to a degree where the majority of the population would have their second amendment rights infringed due to an inability to afford the average gun. In other words, it would be found unconstitutional and would be repealed. This would also be damaging to the economy as a large number of manufacturing jobs would be lost. Using legislation to keep guns out of a criminals hands will be just as effective as the war on drugs was at stopping a junkie from getting high. To think that stopping a criminal with yet another law for them to break reminds of Albert Einstein's definition of insanity: "doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." "Gun homicides are overwhelmingly tied to gang violence. In fact, a staggering 80% of gun homicides are gang-related. According to the Center for Disease Control (CDC), gang homicides accounted for roughly 8,900 of 11,100 gun murders in both 2010 and 2011. That means that there were just 2,200 non gang-related firearm murders in both years in a country of over 300 million people and 250 million guns." *5 *1http://www.thetruthaboutguns.com... *2 http://www.gunpolicy.org... *3 http://www.gunpolicy.org... *4 http://www.washingtonpost.com... *5 http://usconservatives.about.com...