Opinion: Guns are not the problem
By Tom McClintock
In its editorial (“Why Does Anyone Need a 100-Round Rifle Clip,” Aug. 5), the Sacramento Bee notes that I “failed to respond” to its inquiries. The editorial amply demonstrates the reason: the Bee is notorious for stating one-sided political manifestos, listing its heroes and villains, and offering no opportunity for a balanced debate.
In the event I am mistaken and the Bee actually welcomes a differing viewpoint, here is mine.
Tom McClintock
The inherent fallacy of all gun bans is that only law-abiding citizens obey them. Violent predators already operate in an extensive underground economy and such laws merely incentivize and reward an additional criminal class to traffic in the contraband.
Gun bans might make it more difficult for lunatics to obtain them, but they make it impossible for the law-abiding. The Bee notes that guns make it easier for a criminal to commit a crime, but forgets that guns also make it easier for the law-abiding citizens to defend themselves, as thousands do every year.
Indeed, the theater in Aurora that banned firearms on its premises became a tragic microcosm of the world the Bee’s policy would produce: a defenseless civil society in which the gunman is king.
The Bee lost this argument long ago and is now reduced to chipping away at ancillary issues like limiting ammunition clips. After all, no legitimate target shooter or hunter can justify a gun with more than ten rounds. The Bee wonders why any decent citizen would want more?
I certainly wouldn’t.
Unless, perhaps, I worked the night shift at a convenience store; or I owned a theater where such an attack could happen again; or I owned a ranch or home near the border where drug cartels often operate; or if I were planning to take a sailboat into international waters; or one of countless other reasons the law simply cannot anticipate.
The Bee asserts that gun related deaths have dropped faster in California than the rest of the nation and credits its strict gun laws. True, according to the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reports, between 1994 and 2010 violent crime in California declined 56.5 percent while falling 43.4 percent nationally – a 13-point difference. But the Bee somehow missed the other half of this statistic: non-violent crime in California (unaffected by its gun laws) dropped by a nearly identical spread, (48.9 percent compared to 36.7 percent nationally).
What would account for an equal decline in violent and non-violent serious crimes in California since 1994 relative to the rest of the nation? Perhaps harsher sentencing laws in the 1980s, culminating with California’s “Three Strikes” law of 1994 that locks up repeat offenders for violent and non-violent serious crimes explain the statistics far better.
Of course, the Bee opposed the “Three Strikes” law when voters enacted it. The editorial was ironically entitled, “Shooting Ourselves in the Foot.”
Tom McClintock represents the California side of the Lake Tahoe Basin in the House of Representatives.
Guns are pretty hard to get in Mexico for an average law abiding citizen, hmmmmmm………
I like the way he opens the article pointing out how biased the Bee is.
The bias of media needs to be brought out and held up for the propaganda it is.
The Bee is one of the most biased so called news sources.
AMERICA, STOP LISTENING TO THE NRA PROPOGANDA!
GUN CONTROL NOW!!!!
And Biz, are you actually insinuating that NO media outlets are right leaning? GET REAL! Stop blaming the media for your fellow conservatives shortcomings!
Strictly on a statistical basis, gun violence is a social disease. That said I do not see how gun regulation will change things. As Michael Moore showed in his movie, Canada has more guns per capita and doesn’t have the violence we have. To treat the tool and not the cause is pointless.
I believe the cause is not the ownership of guns but the notion that using a gun to solve ones problems is somehow acceptable. No idea how to solve this but removing guns is a band aide at best.
My two cents
-Local Yokle
America was founded on certain principles and experiences of the Founding Fathers.
The founders new that governments become tyrannical and must be kept in check.
Efforts to control guns is an effort to control you, the people.
Ignore the naive people that don’t understand that fundamental principle. Trust the founding fathers.
Tell the leftists that if they must talk, then “talk to the hand”.
I love the politician who thinks we are the only country on earth. Love the ethnocentric view that somehow we can only compare statistics between states and compare stats only within the good ‘ole USA. The world is a big place and Tom ought to look around.
Tom, this country has a problem. We are now witnessing a weekly rampage by nutjobs who are shooting innocent people in public places. This is now commonplace and becoming part of our culture.
IS THIS HAPPENING ANYWHERE ELSE IN THE WORLD?
No, it is not. Wanna take a guess why Tom? You figure it out. Take the blinders off, travel a little to Europe or Australia or Asia. No nation on earth is trending into this abyss like we are.
There are more guns than people in the U.S. You can get huge ammo stockpiles on the internet, mega-clips, body armor.
This isn’t about understanding the problem Tom. This is, once again, taking the easy way out. Get re-elected, please your base, get some stuff and retire comfortably. Don’t bother with fixing the problem or taking a REAL look at the facts.
Outrageous that the best these guys have is to say the same crap over and over, that we all need to arm ourselves in order to stop this BS. I think he actually might believe that. At this point, it may be our only option.
Is this the country we want to live in? Where citizens have to pack ‘heat’ everywhere simply because cowardly career politicians won’t get REAL about basic common sense measures?
And by the way, save the 2nd Amendment crap, nobody is saying you can’t have a gun, just not a bazooka-
Biz, your hand seems to be much to busy doing something else, making it unable to listen!
And P.S. Didn’t the framers write the constitution in a way to enable future generations to mold it to the tasks at hand, and to move forward with the changes that time AND progress creates?
Geesh, I didn’t even see the NRA’s lips move as puppet McClintock gushed out his campaign funds justification spiel. I don’t know now if I want to go to 7-11 at night, knowing that the clerk feels like he must have an AK-47 under the counter.
I would rather live in a country where the citizens are well armed and protect themselves than live in a police state where the lefties are sheep and the police are jack-booted thugs.
So all the chatter from the leftist extremists in lala land is just chatter.
Leftists are a minority in this country and the way to change the constitution is through an Amendment.
Leftists can’t get near the votes to do that. They are a minority, loud and often vile but the represent a small number of Americans.
Remember – As Romney pointed out to Obama – AMERICANS ARE NOT STUPID They see what the left has done to the country and we are taking it back.
Hey Biz, classic and boring is your black and white position that it’s all or nothing. When is life perfectly black and white? Well, basically never.
This frothing you have is not based in reality. If you, a delusional lunatic right winger, gets shot in a theater, it’s still a tragedy.
No police state, no jack booted thugs……come on GET REAL, turn off the FAUX News and settle down. We all want the same thing, good jobs, safe neighborhood, and nobody wants to get shot in the 7-11.
The facts are clear. Too many guns equals too much violence. Can’t froth your way out of that-
STATS there were 32,885 auto deaths last year
there was 30,694 gun deaths
16,000 were suicides. most of the rest were done by criminals.
since a gun is an inanimate object and a auto is also looks like the auto should be banned.
Atomic,
You say the ‘facts are clear’ but you didn’t present any facts… What’s up with that?
What facts? Are we supposed to take your word for it? I don’t take liberals for their word on anything – they tend to be liars.
As for what I have seen from you here on these pages I wouldn’t trust you to walk my dog.
David, how you struggle…
Hey Biz, I am a liberal who consistently shoots 1.5″ groups (10 shots) @50 yards using iron sights. It is probably less than that, its a 2×2″ diamond steel target.
Does that change your worldview at all?
As soon as I get a day that isn’t really windy I’ll let you know what I do standing @ 50 and 100 yards.
Yet another politician sham, lets talk about guns, abortion or welfare, and distract the citizens from all the crooked stuff were doing.
Fight amongst yourselves…
thing fish
WHO CARES?
I agree with Careaboutthecommunity. Even though nobody is threatening to take guns away from any law abiding citizen, politicians like the terminally teabag idiot Tom McClintock feel the need to pander to their collection of paranoid gun nuts, islamaphobic x-tians and Chic-fil-A-holes that comprise their knuckle walker voting bloc.
Every 15 minutes some person is killed with a gun in the America. Worldwide America is ranked 12 in gun violence. This debate of 100 or 200 or 300 round clips and semi versus automatic weapons is just plan madness. Thanks to the NRA and it’s supporters, America is now in a street-gun arms race and the people that get killed are just collateral damage.
I am not from around Tahoe but have followed your news link for some time as I am planning on visiting there soon.
Your comments sections get spicy at times but what really make the whole thing uninteresting is when the teatotal person goes off with the name calling. They sounds like a bratty 10 year old on the playground.
It lowers the class of the publication.
If the shoe fits, wear it.
Hey folks, “bratty 10 year old on the playground” is a phrase used over and over again by the many personae of business is hurting, pubworksTv,joestirumup etc. He can dish it out but he can’t take it so he makes believe he’s somebody else. It’s really pretty pathetic.
Five years ago when I was living in Scotland for a few weeks and staying with a police officer, I learned that 95% of the UK officers do not carry guns. I was in shock. With strict gun control in the UK, there is so little gun violence (although you can still get a gun for a good reason, whatever that may be) that even their police officers don’t need guns. That’s pretty cool if you ask me. It’s really difficult to have a mass stabbing or a drive by stabbing, you know?!
WOW –
You mean others have also called teatotal a bratty little 10 year old too?
Well, I might have seen one of those posts before now that you mention it. But that does not change my opinion one bit.
The impact is negative, caustic makes the community look bad. Every town seems to have people like that, to bad. The person is a buffoon.
Did anyone call teatotal a buffoon before? I wouldn’t be surprised if they did. Maybe that is the persons goal. If so, it works.
That’s all I got to say about that.
Biz, you just foolishly lumped all liberals together. Someone who breaks that grouping should cause you to rethink your bias. Well it should anyway. Maybe you can drop the parroting of talking points and have a more clear view of the world.
Tom is wrong on so many issues I don’t understand how he gets elected. This argument that we need weapons to keep the government in check is laughable. Do you own a nuclear warhead? Tom Mac says that maybe things had turned out different in Aurora if more people had been armed. In the chaos that ensued does common sense tell us more weapons being discharged would have helped? I think not. Our forefathers could not have envisioned the weapons we have today. Yes, we need more gun control or how about we price bullets at $5000.00 each.
gun control is hitting what your aiming at
when the whip comes down and America goes into a Civil War
you might want to have a gun and a whole bunch of bullets
Why even argue about the gun control thing. There are two sides and two sides only. This idea has gone on for years. Yes i am a responsible gun owner. Just like a car a gun is a dangerous thing if put in the control of the wrong person. Not looking to argue just speaking my two cents.
For those that keep using the gun/auto analogy
Definition of gun:
A weapon consisting of a metal tube from which a projectile is fired at high velocity into a relatively flat trajectory.
Definition of an automobile:
A self-propelled passenger vehicle that usually has four wheels and an internal-combustion engine, used for land transport. Also called motorcar.
Notice the second word in the definition of gun? Notice the lack of that word in the definition of auto?