Since it appears SCOTUS will rule on the 2nd Amendment and the Dems seem hellbent on repeating every mistake they have ever made, I thought I would post some comments on guns so perhaps this time the lies won't be as thick as last time.
I know "lies" is a pretty tough word, but what the gun control fanatics (don't you just love it when someone calls you a fanatic, us "gun nuts" don't like it either) do is not a mild distortion of the facts, they do the same thing that Bush did to prewar intelligence, they twist the facts and if there is nothing to twist, they just make things up out of whole cloth.
Below the fold is enough stuff to piss both sides off so if you love a fiery debate, fire your best shot...!
To win a debate you need to convince the other side that you are honest and "play fair" and then you need to find common ground. Those who support gun control on a national level, I am speaking of Schumer and Feinstein primarity here, do a MASSIVE disservice to the party by the LIES they use to discuss gun control.
I will discuss the lies shortly but I want to state my goal for this thread. Develop a discussion on how to curb gun violence (a subject many gun aficionados DO support) that is based on facts, not myths, logic, not emotion. Nobody who supports guns and the 2nd Amendment trust Democrats (edited to add "on the gun issue"), we need to change that and NOTHING would help that process than to have an actual grasp of some basic facts.
Assault weapons are LESS lethal and LESS accurate than your average hunting weapon. Military firearms have become LESS powerful since WW I and radically so after WWII. Why you ask? Because wounding someone requires your enemy to tie up large multiples of troops and material to take care of their wounded. In fact, the M16 the army uses isn't even powerful enough in some states to hunt deer, let alone anything serious like Elk. I know, this is counter intuitive but a fact, go to a gunstore and ask to see various cartridges, the truth will shock you.
Assault weapons are RARELY used in violent crimes, they are too big and bulky. Its hard to conceal a three foot long 8 pound gizmo in your sweat pants. They do get picked up SOMETIMES as part of a search and that is where the few that show up in statistics come from.
Banning handguns is a shame. Why? Because any idiot can "make" a handgun out of almost ANY shotguns or hunting rifle with a hacksaw. In fact, sawed of Mossberg 500 shotguns and .22 rifles are some of the most common firearms used in the commission of violent crimes. Another shocker is that assault weapons and in fact most semiautomatic rifles CAN'T be cut down to make concealable handguns.
Remember the whole uproar over "cop killer bullets"? Another line of bullshit sold by Schumer and Feinstein (sorry this one REALLY pissed me off!). LOTS of standard handgun rounds would punch right through a standard ballistic vests. There were guns made before 1900 that would do it. I am IN the gun trade and I deal in military and police weapons and have done things like shake hands with Mikhail Kalashnikov, designer of the Russian AK, and I think I saw 2-4 boxes of that Teflon ammo. Guess what, lots of factory 9mm and .357 ammo will ALSO go right through a vest. So what "we" saw wasn't a ban on a narrow group of bullets unused by most "responsible" gun people but a wide attack on ammunition availability.
Lastly, every state that has adopted laws to require issuing concealed carry permits to law abiding and trained civilians has seen a significant drop in violent crime. The CDC, a bastion of anti-gun crazies (just a "gun nut" poking fun) couldn't find any evidence gun control prevented crime.
If banning something worked, why not just ban drugs, they are the cause of all the gun violence anyway, right? I mean it couldn't be anything like poverty or anything, could it?
I think we all want a Democrat in the White House in '08 and I think we all want to see us have a controlling majority in both houses as well. This issue has the potential to derail much of that, especially if it is based on lies and deception. There ARE legitimate issues about guns that we could ALL find common ground on, lets focus on those!