January 2011 – Page 12 – Shall Not Be Questioned

One Gun McCarthy’s Magazine Ban Would Ban

To the amazed muzzleloader-armedÂ Confederates who had to face this deadly “sixteen shooter,” it was “that damned Yankee rifle that they load on Sunday and shoot all week!”

I for one am very happy that Carrie McCarthy and the gun control groups have such consideration for the lives of confederate soldiers by banning this deadly sixteen shooter.

UPDATE: The interesting thing about her bill is that, normally, a Henry rifle wouldn’t even be considered a firearm for legal purposes, having been made before 1898. It is an antique firearm under federal law, and normally unregulated. But the law bans the magazine on the gun, and thus the gun with it, since the magazine cannot be removed. Because her law chooses to exempt a particular type of attached, fixed magazine, it can be reasonably argued that other types of attached magazines are meant to be covered by the ban. Since the ban makes no distinction between modern and antique firearms, the Henry Rifle is covered by the ban.

Gary Kleck on Mass Shooting and Gun Control

Very good article in the Wall Street Journal by criminologist Gary Kleck, suggesting gun control is unlikely to do anything to control mass shootings. Kleck is always very useful in these debates because he’s not really one of us, as you can tell by his suggestion for how and where gun control may be effective, but he’s not out to advance a political agenda.

An Open Invitation

New Trajectory asks:

In your comment, please suggest an issue that YOU feel both sides canÂ agree (like that too many criminals get guns), andÂ what you would do to help that issue.Â Â As Obama said, keep it civil and honest.Â Â Links to positive articles are welcome.Â Â Please don’t write a book, and please keep it to one suggestion and solution, in the interest of space and simplifying the conversation.Â Â This should get us talking.

I agree too many criminals get guns, but the argument is over, at root, what can be done about it. I will say this categorically: there is no gun control I believe that works effectively at reducing criminal access to guns. At best, our existing laws have only a marginal effect.

Even if you assume a starting state of no guns, which is a fantasy, the only way you can reduce availability to criminals is to reduce availability to the law abiding. And note the word reduce. You will never eliminate criminal gun possession, even if your starting point is a society without guns.

But we’re not a society without guns, and therefore even total prohibition would still mean a very high availability of guns for criminals, with no concurrent availability to the law abiding for defense against those criminals. The end result will be that many otherwise law abiding people will keep guns illegally, which will continue to feed another violent black market, in the same manner that’s happened because of drug prohibition. Not to mention such laws would turn ordinary people into criminals themselves for no greater crime than wanting to protect themselves and their families.

So I don’t think there is common understanding, because you’re starting from the premise that gun control can be effective. I don’t think it can be. So it really comes down to, what set of useless laws am I willing to live with in order to make enough people who are wary of guns comfortable enough to not spend their time and money trying to pass more and more regulations. That’s the better question.

New Gun Control Blog

A New Trajectory. Looks to be a project of CeaseFire Oregon. We can see it starts out with some interesting statistics. Not sure what value you can draw by correlating generic death with gun ownership. Is it reasonable to even assume someone who died of cancer, stroke, or heart disease had any reasonable relationship to gun laws? It’s starting with a nonsensical premise. The next graph is at least based on a reasonable premise, but it’s very similar to the analysis I did here, here, and here, which showed absolutely no correlation to crime rates and gun control laws, and a very mild inverse correlation between gun ownership rates and violent crime. The correlation seen by New Trajectory appears because “gun deaths” include suicide by gun, which I speculated probably does, unsurprisingly, correlate with gun ownership, much like tall buildings likely correlates to jumping suicides.

But I applaud our New Trajectory blogger for trying to speak to the issue with more than just emotions.

Bloomberg: Large Magazines Save Lives

He’s speaking in the context of police officers, who everyone know have magical training, but he admits it, whether he cares to or not. That’s also an implicit admission that guns, including magazines that hold more than ten rounds, can contribute to public safety.

But, I suppose, only when they are in the hands of police, who have magical abilities the rest of us can’t possibly possess, if you ask our opponents. If your hands, they are only used for murdering as many people as fast as possible. Think for a minute about what you have to think about your fellow citizens to believe such nonsense.

Draft McCarthy Bill

Thanks to Jacob, we have found a draft copy of the bill McCarthy plans to introduce. Here’s the features.

10 round limit
Importation completely prohibited.
Transfer completely prohibited
Manufacture completely prohibited
Grandfathering for current owners only.
Exception for law enforcement because they need “to be able to shoot as many people as possible as quickly as possible,” apparently.
Ten year prison sentence for violation.

Needless to say the response to this bill isn’t “no.” It’s “Hell no!” Under this law, I could become a felon for giving a magazine to Bitter. There’s no exception to transfer except for law enforcement. Technically handing one to your friend would be a felony.

You can all take your ball and go home now, gun control folks, the answer is no. She’s introducing it Tuesday. I’d suggest calling shortly thereafter, to tell your critter you expect it to go nowhere. Don’t take anything for granted.

UPDATE: Some more features, looking more closely:

Would ban stripper clips that hold more than 10 rounds.
Would ban any gun with a fixed tubular magazine that was not a .22 that held more than 10 rounds.
Ban any gun with a fixed magazine capacity that is more than 10 rounds of any caliber, if magazine is not tubular.
Would ban all belted ammunition, or parts that could be use to make up a belt.
Would ban any repair parts for a magazine if the repair parts could be used to make a magazine.
Presumably retired law enforcement need to shoot as many people as fast as possible too, because they are also exempted.

UPDATE: Yes, looking over it, this will ban some guns folks. This isn’t just a magazine ban.

Glorious Day for Pennsylvania

Today is the last day of the Ed Rendell Administration.

Magazine Change

Two talk show hosts go through a shooting course, one with a gun that takes a 17 round magazine and another with a gun that takes 8 round magazines. The two times differed by less than two seconds.

David Kopel on Tucson in Philly from Colorado

Today, Dave Kopel was featured as a guest on the local NPR affiliate discussing gun control with John Donohue from Stanford. I didn’t see the heads up about the interview until after it started, and then I spent probably 10 minutes trying to figure out how to work our radio and trying to find the NPR station. When I finally noticed the live broadcast online, I did catch the last half of it.

The first bit I heard was from John Donohue essentially arguing the NRA is to blame for shootings, then he ended on some comment about Southerners being easy targets to steal guns from their homes. Offensive on so many levels. Anyway, I just downloaded the piece that end about an hour ago and uploaded it here. I haven’t even listened to the first half yet because I’m still not happy about the portion I heard. (Though, Dave is an amazing man with patience who can still firmly hold our position throughout an interview.) Also, I have bread to check on and lunch to grab. So, enjoy and add your own commentary until I decide to sit down for the whole thing.

Dave Kopel on Philly NPR

UPDATE (By Sebastian): I have to congratulate Dave for getting Donahue to make a long anecdotal argument, then say we shouldn’t make anecdotal arguments when he was confronted with facts.

UPDATE (By Sebastian): Donahue apparently blames Chris Cox for the financial crisis. A shame for him it’s not the same Chris Cox. He doesn’t even have basic facts right.*

The Rush to Buy

Even New Yorkers are buying more pistols. And as KOAT in, Albuquerque, NM notes, the shooting has generated renewed interest in gun ownership.Â Considering what prompted the rush, I’m not going to celebrate this. I’d rather have 5 people not be dead, and no one injured. But I would point out that all our opponents are accomplishing with their exploitation of this tragedy is to put more guns in homes, to convince more people to carry, and otherwise encourage an interest in shooting among the law abiding.