Why do we only hear bad things about guns in the media?

I would like registration at the very least to be a national law. It does exactly nothing to obstruct legitimate gun users and can help prevent gun crime.

Click to expand...

Registration leads to confiscation, and gun registries are not much help solving crime.

And let's look at the car example, registration there has meant taxation and fees.

Also, guns pretty much are registered, at least to the last person who bought it from or through an FFL. They are required to keep form 4473's for 10 years (IIRC) and if you think the NICS check data is deleted when it's supposed to be, I've got a bridge in Brooklyn you might be interested in.

People being shot is a pretty big deal I can understand why it make news. It's one of the few things involving a gun that would be newsworthy. No one is really interested to hear that person x cleaned their rifle today or went target shooting for example. When people suffer attacks or are involved in a robbery it catches more attention.

acropolis said:

Yeah this is not the most forward-thinking of states. But that's what happens when you make your career a higher priority than location. On the plus side, though, the BBQ is amazing here.

I would like registration at the very least to be a national law. It does exactly nothing to obstruct legitimate gun users and can help prevent gun crime.

Click to expand...

Which state is that? Sounds like Austin, TX...but when I'm down there once a year, it seems to be more a hippy crowd.

Registration doesn't do any good...background checks, yes...but the only purpose a registration can serve is as a list of guns to collect in the case of a ban and possibly for payment records to make sure the gun dealer paid the ATF/FBI their cut for processing the background check.

Since most guns that are used in crimes are either a) stolen or b) aquired illegally and also considering the fact that the assailant usually doesn't leave the gun at the crime scene before they flee the crime scene, a registration is going to do very little in terms of helping the police solve cases.

Blackguard_ said:

Registration leads to confiscation, and gun registries are not much help solving crime.

And let's look at the car example, registration there has meant taxation and fees.

Click to expand...

Confiscation isn't always bad, as in the case of felons. Registries are enough of a help in preventing and solving crime that they should be required for firearms. It won't do anything to legitimate gun owners besides lead them to take more precautions in securing their weapons.

If it were totally up to me I'd probably serialize ammunition as well.

acropolis said:

Confiscation isn't always bad, as in the case of felons. Registries are enough of a help in preventing and solving crime that they should be required for firearms. It won't do anything to legitimate gun owners besides lead them to take more precautions in securing their weapons.

If it were totally up to me I'd probably serialize ammunition as well.

Click to expand...

If someone is a felon, they can't own one anyway. If someone owns one then commits a felony, their background check info can be cross-referenced and their home will more than likely be searched.

miniverchivi said:

Which state is that? Sounds like Austin, TX...but when I'm down there once a year, it seems to be more a hippy crowd.

Registration doesn't do any good...background checks, yes...but the only purpose a registration can serve is as a list of guns to collect in the case of a ban and possibly for payment records to make sure the gun dealer paid the ATF/FBI their cut for processing the background check.

Since most guns that are used in crimes are either a) stolen or b) aquired illegally and also considering the fact that the assailant usually doesn't leave the gun at the crime scene before they flee the crime scene, a registration is going to do very little in terms of helping the police solve cases.

Click to expand...

I'd rather not say my state, I've shared too much personal info here as it is...

Registries can help with stolen weapons by linking a particular gun with a particular theft. It's not much, but it's enough to be worth it. If the government really wants your guns it's just going to take them registry or no registry.

I would prefer if all receivers were serialized in a way that couldn't be removed without disabling them.

Confiscation isn't always bad, as in the case of felons

Click to expand...

Felons would have any guns confiscated whether registered or not.

Registries are enough of a help in preventing and solving crime that they should be required for firearms.

Click to expand...

Anything to back up the notion registries are much help in solving crime? I get how people think it might be, but it doesn't seem to be that way in real life.

Canada for example ended their long gun registry.

It won't do anything to legitimate gun owners besides lead them to take more precautions in securing their weapons.

Click to expand...

No, registration leads to confiscation. Don't pretend like it can't happen. It already has happened in places like Australia and the UK.

If it were totally up to me I'd probably serialize ammunition as well.

Click to expand...

Which is nonsensical when you consider how much ammo and their casings are out there as well as reloaders, not to mention the mountains of paperwork required to keep track of that.

Registries can help with stolen weapons by linking a particular gun with a particular theft.

Click to expand...

As could recording the make/model/serial # yourself and including that info when you report the gun stolen.

If the government really wants your guns it's just going to take them registry or no registry.

Click to expand...

Truish, but a lot of water has to go under the bridge before door-to-door searches. It's much easier to simply announce an amnesty turn in period of registered guns as they have in places that had registries and then subsquent restrictions, before going after anyone else.

To be honest I don't care very much about a registry one way or another, though I would prefer to have one.

It seems to me that fussing about with gun rights may make small changes in certain crimes, might save or kill a few people, but the real problems are elsewhere. The root cause of crime is not addressed by either banning or deregulating guns. Whether or not the government makes the transition to a police state will have more to do with the opinions of voters than with personal firearms. By the time people considered literally taking up arms and risking death in order to fight in a civil war the problem will have already progressed too far to be remedied by personal ownership of guns.

(Thinking about how to serialize ammo gave me an idea for how to serialize almost anything in such a way that it's impossible to modify without completely destroying the object. You'd need an SEM to read the code, however. Might be marketable for expensive items likely to be forged. Gotta start another patent search see if anyone else is doing it already...)

miniverchivi said:

Which state is that? Sounds like Austin, TX...but when I'm down there once a year, it seems to be more a hippy crowd.

Click to expand...

Yeah right, Texas is filled with hippies.

stamperben said:

Yeah right, Texas is filled with hippies.

Click to expand...

Austin certainly is.

acropolis said:

Austin certainly is.

Click to expand...

Yes, I thought I was reborn and back in Berkeley when I visited there.

miniverchivi said:

They'd have a better chance than an unarmed cop walking the streets of south central LA

Click to expand...

Hogwash! American cops don't stand a chance against seasoned well armed Taliban. Even the Army is having a hard time fighting them.

mzungu said:

Hogwash! American cops don't stand a chance against seasoned well armed Taliban. Even the Army is having a hard time fighting them.

Click to expand...

Are you talking swat team or regular cops?

The reason our army is having a hard time with them is because they're playing by different rules. If we played by the same rules they did (shoot first ask questions later, disregard civilians), it would've been over already.

I guess it also depends on what you consider "hard time", from the estimates I've read, we're taking them out at a ratio of 10:1

stamperben said:

Yeah right, Texas is filled with hippies.

Click to expand...

Ah, so you're just saying things about Austin without having been there...kind of what I'd expect. You must be one of those guys like one of the DBA's where I work..."They'll probably shoot you for speeding in that state"

I'm guessing when you went there, you just drove through it an never got off the freeway.

It's a huge center for art & music festivals and they have a slogan/campaign called "keep Austin weird" since they even acknowledge that they're vastly different than any other major city in the state of TX.

miniverchivi said:

Ah, so you're just saying things about Austin without having been there...kind of what I'd expect. You must be one of those guys like one of the DBA's where I work..."They'll probably shoot you for speeding in that state"

I'm guessing when you went there, you just drove through it an never got off the freeway.

It's a huge center for art & music festivals and they have a slogan/campaign called "keep Austin weird" since they even acknowledge that they're vastly different than any other major city in the state of TX.

Click to expand...

Excuse me. I live outside Houston. I drive west on 290 quite a bit. It's true, I have driven through Austin and have also stopped there and I do know a bit about the state I live in and the cities in it. Yes, Austin is the culture capital of Texas. There's a reason why the show Austin City Limits comes from there. Austin is a vibrant city with much diversity. But it isn't totally representative of the state of Texas. This is what you said that started this:

Which state is that? Sounds like Austin, TX...but when I'm down there once a year, it seems to be more a hippy crowd.

Click to expand...

YOU were the one who insinuated the hippies there represented the whole of Texas, and here when I try to correct you you jump down my throat!

So now the ball's in your court. Show us the hippie culture in Amarillo, Fort Stockton, Lubbock or Wichita Falls.

stamperben said:

Excuse me. I live outside Houston. I drive west on 290 quite a bit. It's true, I have driven through Austin and have also stopped there and I do know a bit about the state I live in and the cities in it. Yes, Austin is the culture capital of Texas. There's a reason why the show Austin City Limits comes from there. Austin is a vibrant city with much diversity. But it isn't totally representative of the state of Texas. This is what you said that started this: YOU were the one who insinuated the hippies there represented the whole of Texas, and here when I try to correct you you jump down my throat!

So now the ball's in your court. Show us the hippie culture in Amarillo, Fort Stockton, Lubbock or Wichita Falls.

Click to expand...

I never said anything about those other cities, I was referring to one place...did you not see part where I specified Austin? I didn't say anywhere that texas was an entirely filled with hippies (although I think I know one in Texas for sure now)

Let me provide the content of my prior post just to clear up the confusion...

Which state is that? Sounds like Austin, TX...but when I'm down there once a year, it seems to be more a hippy crowd.


If you wonder why people jump down your throat, it's because you show up at random points in threads, quote things out of context and then use nothing but circular logic, strawmen, and unfounded claims to try to support your position. (You've been the topic of offline discussions with other posters and I'm not the only one who gets this vibe)

You know darn well I was specifying Austin in my post because when another poster (who's actually on your side of the debate) replied back to your first post with "Austin certainly is", you replied back with a sarcastic "Yeah, when I was there I felt like I was in Berkelely"

"Why do we only hear bad things about guns in the media?"

bad things make more exciting stories -- tragedy gets ratings.

miniverchivi said:

I never said anything about those other cities, I was referring to one place...did you not see part where I specified Austin? I didn't say anywhere that texas was an entirely filled with hippies (although I think I know one in Texas for sure now)

Let me provide the content of my prior post just to clear up the confusion...

Which state is that? Sounds like Austin, TX...but when I'm down there once a year, it seems to be more a hippy crowd.


If you wonder why people jump down your throat, it's because you show up at random points in threads, quote things out of context and then use nothing but circular logic, strawmen, and unfounded claims to try to support your position. (You've been the topic of offline discussions with other posters and I'm not the only one who gets this vibe)

You know darn well I was specifying Austin in my post because when another poster (who's actually on your side of the debate) replied back to your first post with "Austin certainly is", you replied back with a sarcastic "Yeah, when I was there I felt like I was in Berkelely"

Click to expand...

Dude, of course I knew you were talking about Austin. You mentioned the hippies there. Yet you were asking the other poster what STATE he was in. That is why i posted that the hippies in Austin DO NOT represent the rest of the state of TEXAS and their views on guns probably do not reflect the rest of the state.

And I wasn't in the least sarcastic about the Berkeley connection, it is one of the reasons why I'd LOVE to retire to the area in a few years.

Oooo, you mean y'all are PMing offline about me? Cool... Must be having an impact then. If you don't like what I have to say then by all means use the ignore function of this site.

Until then, I remain a stick in your craw.

stamperben said:

Dude, of course I knew you were talking about Austin. You mentioned the hippies there. Yet you were asking the other poster what STATE he was in. That is why i posted that the hippies in Austin DO NOT represent the rest of the state of TEXAS and their views on guns probably do not reflect the rest of the state.

Click to expand...

Did you know I was talking about Austin? This is what you said to me...

YOU were the one who insinuated the hippies there represented the whole of Texas

Click to expand...

So as it turns out, I didn't say that represented the "whole of Texas", but it looks like you realize that you were incorrect in your prior post, glad we're on the same page now

You guys just misunderstood each other, it happens.