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<p>And my pencil erases too.</p>
<p>So tell me, how often do you hear of a gun store being robbed? Or mass-murders occurring there?</p>
<p>Wow; you find an article on a gun shop owner getting killed and it must be an epidemic. There are so many naive, uninformed, euphoric, and down right ignorant people in the country when it comes to guns. </p>
<p>There are many states where gun laws are very liberal and aren’t restrictive for law abiding citizens. These states also happen to have some of the lowest crime rates in the country. As far as a law like the Original post; it makes such good sense. There are plenty of people who are authorized to carry guns; concealed and open. However, if the person goes to work or another place of business, and isn’t allowed to have a gun inside their vehicle, then they pretty much can’t carry the gun. There is always a chance that you would be on some private business property. If they don’t allow a gun on the premises, then you couldn’t carry a gun in the car ever. Thus, defeating the whole purpose of carrying a gun in a car.</p>
<p>Of course, the ignorants will tell you that the owners of the guns will take them out of the car and bring them into work. Sorry; but you are dealing with a law. A law implies that there are “LAW ABIDING CITIZENS”. Law abiding citizens imply that they aren’t going to intentionally break the law. But of course, we are all so weak and subject to temptation. Sorry, but if a person is unstable or criminal enough to take a gun to work, then they are already probably keeping a gun illegally in their car. The reason for laws is so that law abiding people aren’t caught in legal B.S. because of a stupid law.</p>
<p>Guns are not evil, the only propel projectiles at high velocity. Whether they are used to hunt, poke holes in pieces of paper, murder people, or defend people is ENTIRELY up to the user. They are tools. Nothing more, nothing less.</p>
<p>Gun crimes: about 600,000 per year, in the US
Defensive Gun Uses: between 700,000 to 2,500,000 per year, in the US. (sources: FBI, DOJ, and 13 studies)
So, there you have it, guns are used more often to protect than to attack. Either way, it doesn’t matter. We have the right to protect ourselves, and we have the right to keep and bear arms. To restrict people from peaceably carrying weapons is to presume they are guilty until proven innocent. That is not the principle our nation was founded on.</p>
<p>NSM-
Stupidity must have floated North. Here, one state above you, our <em>brilliant</em> legislators voted to allow people with concealed weapons licenses to carry their guns on the subway and in restaurants. This is to equal the playing field with some criminal who is eating in a nice restaurant with a gun in his pocket? Puleeze. Countries with tighter gun laws have less shootings. Maybe we should take a few lessons.</p>
<p>Countries with more lenient gun laws also have fewer shootings. This is because gun laws and crime are not closely linked. The National Academy of Sciences, after extensive research, found that none of the current US gun laws could be shown to reduce crime (note there are over 22,000 gun laws in the US).</p>
<p>So, raimus, how can we reduce the number of shootings in the US? Do we really have a higher poverty level than other countries? I dont’ think so. What willit take to get the number of shootings and killings down?</p>
<p>The simplest answer I can offer is a cultural shift. Frankly, that could go either way. Personally, I think changes in the judicial system might help. Most violent crime is commited by past offenders. 80% of guns used in crimes were acquired illegally. I think (but can’t necessarily prove) that “getting tough” on crime may help. </p>
<p>My point is, restrictive gun laws do not reduce crime. Giving people the option to defend themselves may help reduce crime…it is a change that has been shown NOT to make things worse. So, if gun-rights don’t hurt, why do so many people want to restrict them?</p>
<p>
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<p>England with .12 deaths/100,000 attributed to gun violence.</p>
<p>The United States is about 2.97/100,000. </p>
<p>I wonder which country has more restrictive laws …:)</p>
<p>[Gun</a> violence - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gun_violence]Gun”>Gun violence - Wikipedia)</p>
<p>I doubt I’m the only Florida-area crack dealer who’s breathing a lot easier now that this legislation has passed.</p>
<p>Yes saransay, I’m sure once guns are banned everybody will just give them up…from compton to harlem.</p>
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<p>Yes, all those florida area crack dealers that didn’t carry a gun because the law stated they couldn’t now can. Oh the horror! Looks like they’ll be able to keep a gun in their car when they go to their 9 to 5 on monday morning.</p>
<p>Sorry, are Compton and Harlem in Florida now? Damn…</p>
<p>From Saransay</p>
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<p>I’m sorry 1of42, are you reading the whole thread or just the 3rd page?</p>
<p>Oh I read the whole thing, but only saw one thing to respond to that wouldn’t entangle me in a long debate, given how I need to go sleep. :)</p>
<p>
Thats great idea-- but how does one implement a cultural shift?</p>
<p>By the way, now I know what to buy my crack dealer fro Christmas.</p>
<p>I’ll have to look it up, but I believe it is either Sweden or Switzerland that has a 100% gun ownership rate among males over the age of 21. Required BY LAW. And they have very minimal gun crime.</p>
<p>So you found me 3 or 4 articles about shootings at gun shops. Would you remind me how many school shootings we’ve had in the LAST YEAR?</p>
<p>Gun Death Rates per state–gee, which are the ones with the lenient gun laws? (I’ll grant you DC as a big exception, but I’m guessing that is because of the fact it’s more like a city than a state. Beyond that, the trend is very, very consistent.)</p>
<p>I definitely feel safer living in NJ!</p>
<p>Rank States Amount (top to bottom) </p>
<h1>1 District of Columbia: 31.2</h1>
<h1>2 Alaska: 20</h1>
<h1>3 Louisiana: 19.5</h1>
<h1>4 Wyoming: 18.8</h1>
<h1>5 Arizona: 18</h1>
<h1>6 Mississippi: 17.3</h1>
<h1>7 Nevada: 17.3</h1>
<h1>8 New Mexico: 16.6</h1>
<h1>9 Arkansas: 16.3</h1>
<h1>10 Alabama: 16.2</h1>
<h1>11 Tennessee: 15.4</h1>
<h1>12 West Virginia: 14.7</h1>
<h1>13 Montana: 14.5</h1>
<h1>14 South Carolina: 13.8</h1>
<h1>15 North Carolina: 13.6</h1>
<h1>16 Georgia: 13.4</h1>
<h1>17 Oklahoma: 13.1</h1>
<h1>18 Kentucky: 13.1</h1>
<h1>19 Idaho: 12.3</h1>
<h1>20 Missouri: 12.3</h1>
<h1>21 Indiana: 11.7</h1>
<h1>22 Maryland: 11.5</h1>
<h1>23 Colorado: 11.5</h1>
<h1>24 Virginia: 11.1</h1>
<h1>25 Florida: 11.1</h1>
<h1>26 Texas: 11</h1>
<h1>27 Michigan: 10.9</h1>
<h1>28 Oregon: 10.5</h1>
<h1>29 Pennsylvania: 9.9</h1>
<h1>30 California: 9.8</h1>
<h1>31 Utah: 9.7</h1>
<h1>32 Kansas: 9.7</h1>
<h1>33 Illinois: 9.7</h1>
<h1>34 Vermont: 9.6</h1>
<h1>35 Washington: 9.3</h1>
<h1>36 Ohio: 9.3</h1>
<h1>37 North Dakota: 9.1</h1>
<h1>38 Delaware: 9.1</h1>
<h1>39 Nebraska: 8.1</h1>
<h1>40 Wisconsin: 8.1</h1>
<h1>41 South Dakota: 7.9</h1>
<h1>42 Iowa: 6.7</h1>
<h1>43 Maine: 6.5</h1>
<h1>44 Minnesota: 6</h1>
<h1>45 New Hampshire: 5.8</h1>
<h1>46 New York: 5.1</h1>
<h1>47 Rhode Island: 5.1</h1>
<h1>48 New Jersey: 4.9</h1>
<h1>49 Connecticut: 4.3</h1>
<h1>50 Massachusetts: 3.1</h1>
<h1>51 Hawaii: 2.8</h1>
<p>Weighted average: 11.5<br>
[StateMaster</a> - Firearms Death Rate per 100,000 (most recent) by state](<a href=“http://www.statemaster.com/graph/cri_mur_wit_fir-death-rate-per-100-000]StateMaster”>http://www.statemaster.com/graph/cri_mur_wit_fir-death-rate-per-100-000)</p>
<p>I would like to think that there would be significantly less, but I realize that probably is not the case.</p>
<p>I do believe, however, that there would be fewer deaths because the shooter would (hopefully) be taken out sooner. Right now, if a shooter walks into a lecture hall (s)he has control because the shooter is the only one with a firearm. Therefore, more damage can be done by the shooter. If there were more firearms in the lecture hall, it is likely the shooter would be hit before he or she could kill multiple people.</p>
<p>^^ Somehow, the thought that there could be many people in a large lecture hall with guns, in a situation in which people are frightened and possibly running for cover, isn’t reassuring. My fear is that many people could get hit accidentally by people trying to be helpful and shoot the shooter. The whole scenario is scary, but to me, the thought of many guns in the room is equally scary.</p>
<p>What a few of you don’t realize here is that gun laws won’t curb gun crime because criminals don’t tend to follow the laws anyways (hence their moniker “criminals”). At the most reducing gun ownership among law abiding Americans would mean that the only people that would be armed in today’s society are cops and criminals.</p>
<p>Remember the attempted mass shooting at a shopping mall in Utah a couple of years ago? A gunman walked into the mall and went postal, killing several people, but was killed by a citizen who legally had a pistol under a concealed carry permit. No telling how many lives were saved.</p>
<p>Or even more recently, at a megachurch in Colorado(?). Another nutter tried to go on a killing spree and managed to gun down a couple of people before a bystander armed with a CCW permit killed the gunman. Once again, lives saved.</p>
<p>Even on the local level, I can recall a case this past year in my hometown in which a man walked out of a pizza place only to witness a thug attempting to rob and stab his wife. The man was legally armed with a concealed carry permit, fired two warning shots into the air, and the thug took off running. Problem solved. Unfortunately, our hero then proceeded to chase down said thug and run him over with his SUV 3 times and is now facing first degree murder charges, but those stemmed from his irrational use of a large vehicle rather than a firearm.</p>
<p>Bottom line is that more law-abiding citizens with concealed weapons on the streets (provided that they have gone through the necessary training and background screenings) is better for all of us.</p>