Gun Control Is Having As Many Law-Abiding People With Guns As Possible

In the wake of the Tucson shooting, liberals sought to blame conservatives, libertarians, and the Tea Party for the violence in Arizona.  Sheriff Dupnik, conjuring Clinton after the Oklahoma city bombings, blamed talk radio.  Democrats blamed Sarah Palin who had put crosshairs on a map to signify "target districts."  It was later discovered that the DLC had used bullseyes on their own map.  Although Democrats tried, inanely and unsuccessfully, to explain there was a difference between bullseyes and crosshairs, they eventually pulled down their own map. 

When Obama spoke in Arizona he said the blame was solely on the shooter and that making political hay out of a massacre was not acceptable.  While it did silence the critics on the left it did open the door for the old political saw that we can always still blame the gun.  David Axelrod and other WH insiders have said that the President will soon be tackling the issue of gun control.  In response to this leaked information, gun sales have risen and extended clips are on backorder at every major retailer.  While the gun sales data is public record, I know from personal experience how difficult it was to find an extended clip: 

Extended clips are likely to be a major target of any new legislation but extended clips aren't any more dangerous than any other type of clip.  For one, they make guns harder to conceal.  They also change the weight of the gun significantly so the recoil is vastly different from when the gun is fired without an extended clip.  They also tend to jam more often than conventional clips.

As Reason.com reports, a person can still buy a used extended clip that was grandfathered in and sold before the ban.  If this still wasn't possible, someone could buy multiple guns like the VT shooter did, a tactic that is far more common in mass murders.  If guns were all outlawed and every single person's gun was taken away, someone could ram the crowd with his car.  If cars were banned, a mass murder could go on a stabbing spree.

Study after study shows that gun control actually causes handgun murders to rise.  Utah has the most permissive gun laws in the nation and has one of the lowest murder rates, California has one of the strictest and their murder rate is above the national average.  Murder rates in D.C skyrocketed after the handgun ban but fell 25% after the law was overturned.   For the 17 years after Chicago banned handguns, during only 2 years was the murder rate as low as the pre-ban levels while murders in major cities without such laws declined steadily. 

So the old cliche is true.  When guns are outlawed, only outlaws will have guns.  In which state would you rather rob a 7-11 in, New Jersey or Texas?  In New Jersey, guns are regulated to the point where they are nearly impossible to get through legal means.  In Texas, many people carry guns legally.  Criminals think twice about robbing, killing or raping when they think their victim might be armed.  Gun control should be an issue every feminist should be against but they're liberals and maintain their typical illiberal attitude towards firearms.

Despite the occasional nut who uses a gun who commit an atrocity, guns actually have a deterrent effect on crime and making laws after such atrocities will only create more victims.

From libertarian to Libertarian

Note:  This is a post from my previous blog site.  I've chosen it because it helps to illustrate my conversion from a more down-the-line conservative to a libertarian.  I'm quite proud of it but if you've already read it, no need to read it again.

Since about 2005, I've considered myself a libertarian.  The lower case "l" designates that ideologically I am in the camp but not necessarily a member of the Libertarian party.  Since I could vote, I have always been a registered Republican.  It's not that I was hedging my bet or being indecisive or using the libertarian title as a way to be a conservative without being written off as a Republican during the Bush years, it was simply that as a registered Republican I could vote in their primary whereas the Libertarians had no primary.

Recently I moved to Delaware and had the pleasure of going to the DMV to get my license, registration, title, and inspection transferred over.  As I walked through the doors of the dingy government building, a emotionless bureaucrat mumbled "3 hour wait" as he handed me a number.  I got back into my car and drove around the previously unexplored area for an hour, picked up lunch, cleaned out my car, and even thumbed through my car manual a few dozen times.  As I returned to the lobby and watched the numbers tick away (still 100+ from my own), I couldn't help thinking about how some states had allowed the private sector to compete for government contracts to provide services.  I couldn't think of any time in my life where a restaurant had told me they had a 3 hour wait but somehow when government gets involved, it's not only accepted but expected.

Finally my number is called and I approach the stall.  "What do you need today?" the bureaucrat asks.

"Everything," I reply, "just moved from New Jersey and I need my  license, registration, title, and inspection transferred over."

The bureaucrat smiles as if he knows I might try to reach over the stall and throttle him in the next few seconds, "I can help you with your license," he starts, "I would normally give you another number to start in the title line but it's 4:45 and we close at 4:30.  I'm not allowed to issue any more numbers after closing time."

Incredulously I reply, "But I've been here since 1 PM."

The bureaucrat's smile became more strained, "I'm really sorry but you'll have to come back.  Let's take care of your license though.  Please look into the camera but don't smile"

"No risk of that," I deadpanned.

"Would you like to become an organ donor or register to vote?"  He meekly asked.

"Yes to both," I curtly responded.

"Party affiliation?"  He inquired.

"Libertarian," I said with no hesitation.  I hadn't planned to change from Republican but as I looked around the DMV and wondered why the hell anyone would trust government to register vehicles, or even more surprisingly run a national health care system or write tax law or run the school system or run the park system or do any damn thing, it was clear I had moved beyond the bounds of the Republican Party.  

I collected my license, left the DMV cursing and got into my still unregistered-in-Delaware car and drove home.  A few days later I received a voting card in the mail:

I couldn't hardly believe it except that I should have expected it, they misspelled "Libertarian."  I guess I am a "Libertarin" at least until my license expires in 5 years.  Yeah, I truly believe government cannot do anything right.  That's why I went from a libertarian to to a Libertarian...or a Libertarin depending on who you ask.