Wednesday, April 26, 2006

Navigating the Minefield; or, An Argument Gunnies Need to Avoid

Looking at the Sitemeter a couple of days ago, I saw that someone was directed here by searching on Comcast.net's search engine for "fully auto Ruger P89." So, just for grins I clicked on over to those search results to see what came up...and I came upon this discussion from freerepublic.com: "IL: Gun Violence Victims Rally Around Governor's Proposal [Re: Ban Assault Weapons]." It was just more HCI bullshit, of course, about supporting Rod Blagojevich's and Dick Daley's "assault weapons" ban for Illinois. Never mind all the arguments -- we've seen them all put forth in the media, time after time -- but, I did find one thing interesting. One poster put up a list of the guns most used in crime, to show that the weapons the ban covered were never used in crimes:


Guns Used In Crimes (Before The Federal "Assault Weapon" Ban):
10 Most Frequently Traced Guns Used In Crimes In 1994:
1) Lorcin P25 (pistol)
2) Davis Ind. P380 (pistol)
3) Raven Arms MP25 (pistol)
4) Lorcin L25 (pistol)
5) Mossberg 500 (shotgun)
6) Phoenix Arms Raven (pistol)
7) Jennings J22 (pistol)
8) Ruger P89 (pistol)
9) Glock 17 (pistol)
10) Bryco 38 (pistol)
...

Guns Used In Crimes (Six Years AFTER The Federal "Assault Weapon" Ban:
10 Most Frequently Traced Guns Used in Crimes In 2000:
1. Smith and Wesson .38 (revolver)
2. Ruger 9 mm semiautomatic (pistol)
3. Lorcin Engineering .380 semiautomatic (pistol)
4. Raven Arms .25 semiautomatic (pistol)
5. Mossberg 12 gauge (shotgun)
6. Smith and Wesson 9mm semiautomatic (pistol)
7. Smith and Wesson .357 (revolver)
8. Bryco Arms 9mm semiautomatic (pistol)
9. Bryco Arms .380 semiautomatic (pistol)
10. Davis Industries .380 semiautomatic (pistol)


Advancing this line of argument, in my mind, is extremely dangerous, and here's why. I know this is perfectly obvious to many, but it needs to be stated again: the anti-gunners know that the weapons they want to ban are not widely used in crimes, and they don't care. So it's absolutely useless to talk about what kinds of guns are used in crimes, and it could indeed be dangerous -- because they could very well use that list to, you guessed it, call for a ban once again on defensive sidearms, and on top of that, ban certain calibers as well, even if they are used in rifles. Look at all the common, highly-used calibers here: .380ACP, .357 Magnum, .38 Special, 9mm. We all know what could come of this: calls for special taxes on these calibers, ID & registration to buy them (for both the ammunition and the arms), restricted sales and all those other schemes these bastards like to tout as "common-sense gun control" measures. They will stop at nothing to strip us of our right of self-defense, and we must fight then, every step of the way -- and be careful we do not fall into the traps they set, whether those traps are intentional or not.