Diana Fassino originally wrote supporting an "assault" weapons ban. After several writers demonstrated with facts that such a ban was folly, she now shifts position and is opposed to all guns. No surprise.
I don't really care what the gun crime stats in England are; I don't live there. But I'll play your game. How many deaths were attributed to other weapons, or no weapons at all? Here in the U.S. guns are used in 8 percent of violent crime. Knives are used in 6 percent of violent crime, and they're even more readily available than guns. In 68 percent of violent crime, no weapon is used at all. Wouldn't it make more sense to go after this category—the criminal—where you have the best chance of affecting the crime rate?
Anyone who has taken the time to research the statistics has learned that gun laws and crime simply do not correlate. Japan has strict gun laws and a very low violent crime rate. FBI statistics showed that Japanese living in the U.S. (where guns are readily available) had an even lower violent crime rate. How about a country with a high violent crime rate—Mexico? In Mexico, there are very strict gun-control laws, yet Mexico City itself has the highest violent crime rate in the world, including with guns. Switzerland? Low violent crime rate, but guns are readily available.
In summary, we have countries with low crime rates and gun control, countries with high crime rates and gun control, and countries with low crime rates and no gun control. Must be something other than the gun laws, like culture, right?
It's simple, Diana. Criminals will get their weapons, and crime is going to happen, and it can't all be regulated away to make you safe, so stop going after the unachievable. Criminals really don't care about laws. More restrictions affect only the law abiding and make some politicians feel good about themselves.
You aren't required to own a gun, so you don't have to do anything at all. But I and many others believe in the Second Amendment (the right to keep and bear arms), but people like you want to take that choice away from us, based on your irrational fear of inanimate objects. Fortunately, changing our Constitution is very difficult.
You did see the Supreme Court's decision on the D.C. gun ban, didn't you?
Shawn W. Crea
Bellevue
