yep, Al Capone made his money selling illegal hooch. it was all about drug(alchohol) turf. nice one, but i was speaking about crimes of passion. people usually murder someone with whatever's available in those cases, it's going to be gruesome regardless, gun, knive, bottle, rake, fist, baseball bat, automobile, regardless.
there are a few catagories of murder.
most murder is between gangsters trying to control a money source of enslaved people. guns make this easier, but they murder with knives when guns aren't around. a gun ban won't help here because the only people who will be disarmed are the good citizens who do all the work and take care of their families and behave responsibly.
next there are "crimes of passion". these are people caught cheating on spouses, or getting mad at their friends, mothers, fathers brothers sisters, etc. much of this type of murder is genuine mental illness, the rest is split between extremes in drugs, alchohol, or stupidity. this is one area that would probably be impacted by a ban, but maybe not... which leads to
freak accidents....well...
then there is random violence and victimization. here is another area where the ban will only adversly affect the potential victim. the attacker is not lawful. he has manufactured weapons(it's not secret how to make guns, bullets, whatever), stolen weapons or even seeded weapons. he has what he always has, stand and deliver!
as i keep saying. i see a lot of emotion in this thread, but not much reasoning...
still, a gun ban wouldn't have kept Capone from having guns to shoot things up, either. he had the kind of guns only the police had, but what do you expect from mafioso? they have connections, if you know what i mean. with a gun ban, the government has guns, gangsters have guns, and you and me are in the middle. that's murder in any language.
if anyone has no need for a weapon, i say, "good on you!". it's no fun to always be looking for a fight, i hope i never have to live that way. i don't expect to ever have to use a weapon. i've got a funny story about the time i was held up at gunpoint with a loaded .44 by two guys who wanted beer after hours on christmas eve. they didn't get any beer because they were stupid. instead they robbed the store for a measly $15
, but i've never even come close to needing to shoot someone, thank god. shooting people is messy, messy, messy...now, i've almost had to club a few guys, and there was that time i beat up a little gang of hoodlums by stripping off my clothes and throwing each item at the brats while foaming at the mouth and cursing them(they ran
).....and then there was that time that the gang members who wanted to sit on my porch whenever they wanted to, reacted to my atempt to control the porch with a "it sure would be a shame for this porch to burn down". i just got a can of gasoline, poured it out in front of them and lit it, trapping them between the wall and the flames. no one burns my porch but me. after i put out the fire and said "sorry" while looking confused, they agreed to stay off the porch unless we were visiting.
none of those situations required guns. guns are serious. they are for killing when hunting and for killing people...and shooting at paper tagets or shooting varmints.....there's nothing wrong with shooting 50 caliber rifles at tin cans. there's nothing wrong with shooting a .38 at paper. or a burglar(except the mess). i'd rather have one than not in that moment. it'd likely be sheer luck if i did. that's no reason to ban them though.
