Throughout my life, I was told that it's near impossible to get a license for a gun, and a CCW (carry license), is impossible unless you are a cop. Yet growing up on the gritty city streets, many of my friends had obtained guns, all illegally. One friend would carry a Tec-9 (a type of machine gun) disassembled in his hipsack. Another sold guns illegally, and had brought with him to work on occasion a 45 semi, .380, and a Tec-22 (similar to the Tec-9 but shooting 22 caliber - smaller and quieter). I've been around people shooting 25 caliber semis in the basements of apartment buildings for target practice, and I've even been shot at once in Bushwick Brooklyn (thankfully they missed).
I could have bought my guns illegally via one of the many channels that are readily available to anyone so inclined. However, I am an upstanding citizen, and I want to abide by the laws. But when it comes to gun laws, I really have to start wondering who the target of those laws are?
In any given state at this moment, there are attempts to limit the number of guns that you can buy or to classify more guns as assault weapons, or to reduce the bullet capacity of magazines even further. Interestingly, none of the friends from my old neighborhood care about the enactment of any such laws, nor will they be affected by them.
My guns came with spent shell casings, which are on file with the government. Should my gun ever be used in a crime, the police can pretty quickly identify where the bullet came from. My fingerprints are on file, as is my picture, address, etc. I keep my guns locked up and safe, and when I take them out, I follow all of the safety rules, NRA, range rules, etc. Many of my gun toting friends from the old hood slept with guns under their pillow. Ask them about NRA Rules and they might ask back, "What are those?"
Does it help the average citizen to face such impediments to owning a gun, even though criminals have absolutely no problem obtaining one for themselves? Did the teens who murdered those four students in Newark, NJ earlier this summer go through the process of obtaining a license for the murder weapons they used? And might those NJ teens still be alive if just one of them happened to have a gun?
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - Al Barger
Obnoxious American - I am Deeply Offended by this article. Your concern for mere reason and the US Constitution are obviously proof that you don't care about The Children. We have to ban guns, because children sometimes get killed with them. But you don't care about that, do you? Shame on you!
2 - Dr Dreadful
So where is everybody?
I imagine they're all still savaging one another on the other gun thread (Mark Schannon's).
Don't worry, they'll be by shortly.
:-)
3 - Dave Nalle
Nice job personalizing the issue. I wonder if the gun-grabbers will actually be able to say much in response to this.
Dave
4 - bliffle
I just wonder why anyone wants a pistol made out of Stainless Steel. US grade SS, 18/8, is so defined for the benefit of milking equipment by the USDA and is generally a poor material for all but some specialty uses. In particular it's poor for razor blades, knives and deck screws. Hard to machine and form, doesn't hold an edge, ruptures precipitously, hard to weld, but it is good for some high temperature applications and corrosion resistance. Better, I would think, is the European "inoxidable" metal which is non-corrosive, easier to machine and with a satin finish rather than the gleam of 18/8.
5 - Clavos
18/8 can be had with any finish, it doesn't need to be shiny.
18/8 is just one of many grades of stainless. From Wikipedia:
"Stainless steel's resistance to corrosion and staining, low maintenance, relative inexpense, and familiar luster make it an ideal base material for a host of commercial applications. There are over 150 grades of stainless steel, of which fifteen are most common. The alloy is milled into sheets, plates, bars, wire, and tubing to be used in cookware, cutlery, hardware, surgical instruments, major appliances, industrial equipment, a structural alloy in automotive and aerospace assembly and building material in skyscrapers and other large buildings.
Stainless steel is also used for jewelry and watches. The most common stainless steel alloy used for jewelry is 316L. It can be re-finished by any jeweler and unlike silver will not oxidize and turn black.
Stainless steel is 100% recyclable. In fact, an average stainless steel object is composed of about 60% recycled material, 25% originating from end-of-life products and 35% coming from manufacturing processes."
The European "inox" (short form) is also stainless, and is often 18/8 (particularly in tableware) also.
One group with which I am familiar that buys stainless weapons almost exclusively is boat owners, for obvious reasons.
6 - The Spin
Al Barger's post was most likely meant as sarcasm. But I am serious. It takes A Village to raise The Children. We are and must be The World. All those guns unnecessarily being used at gun ranges are contributing to Global Warming. And what about the Polar Bears ?? Some Crazy Gun Nuts are saying that the answer to the government having such overwhelming superiority is that Citizens should have the right to even more powerful weapons, that when organized into militias they should have automatic weapons, grenade launchers, stinger missiles, armored vehicles, etc depending on the size of the militia. WHAAAAA!!!???
7 - gonzo marx
"well regulated Militia"...there's the part to discuss
nuff said...
why all the sudden distraction from current real issues to this well beaten horse of a topic?
curiouser and curiouser...
Excelsior?
8 - Clavos
I think the first article (the theme of which which is somewhat of a perennial, no?) bred this one, as a response, gonzo.
9 - gonzo marx
i hear ya, Clovos..but ya know lil ole me..always suspicious
on topic...best kind of gun control is using two hands, IMO
Excelsior?
10 - Clavos
Gotcha, and roger that, gonzo....(4)
11 - Dave Nalle
gonzo, we only have the articles which we are given to comment on. If you want something else covered, write an article on it or at least suggest it to one of the more active writers.
Dave
12 - gonzo marx
@ #11 - since my system was just repaired and back online as of yesterday, after a two week hiatus you can well expect more of my weird keyboard peckings
and i wasn't talking about BC...but a more general overview of pundits from the GOP side of the aisle across a host of media...curious if there is some direction to the shift in the curve, is all..NOT hypothesizing, just mentioning
no need for the guilty conscience there, Vox..if i wanna yank your chain, you will most definitely know it without Question...as always
Excelsior?
13 - Dave Nalle
Well, the gun debate was brought up here not by anyone from the GOP, but by our resident lefty Mark Schannon. And as I pointed out on that thread, I don't think there's anything left to debate on the subject.
The question for you is what you think republican posters would be trying to distract from? What major issue are we neglecting?
Dave
14 - gonzo marx
/sigh
i know Mark wrote the first article, and as i have stated..it wasn't a BC phenomena i was referring to
just...doesn't...matter...
i'll put up what i think in the coming days/weeks
Excelsior?
15 - SonnyD
#10 Clavos, that sentence only needed one.
....Ducks and runs....
16 - Dr Dreadful
Looking forward to your thoughts, gonzo.
As I posted on the other thread but never got an impartial answer to, why is it this particular issue which brings the gun lobby descending like a pack of hyenas (and not just to BC, as you said)?
Why guns? Why not the anti-(or pro-)abortion lobby? Why not the "save marriage" crowd? Why not illegal immigration? These are all very emotive topics and we do get a lot of people expressing strong opinions about them, but just not in the same way/pattern.
17 - moonraven
That OS would have a gun is enough reason to ban all guns forever.
Incidentally, if you can demonstrate that you know what you are doing with a gun, you can get a permit to carry a concealed weapon.
I had one when I was an undergraduate--although I never took the .38 derringer out of the drawer of the bedside table.
When my daughter was born I got rid of my two pistols, a rifle and my husband's shotgun.
My brother didn't do that. He kept his guns and when his son was 14 an ll-year old neighbor got ahold of one of them and shot my nephew.
He survived, but he still has the bullet lodged in his spine.
18 - moonraven
Soory about the typo: OA.
19 - Clavos
Touché, Sonny.
(slinks away to lick wound)
20 - sr
Obnoxious well stated. Your Kimber Gold Match is finer then a beautiful women. Doc everybody went with MJ to Never Land. Clavos, are we now into metallurgy?
21 - Clavos
"Clavos, are we now into metallurgy?"
No, not at all, sr.
But I do know a little about stainless (in various grades, according to application), because it's used extensively on boats.
22 - Ms Gunner
How absurd! Your nephew got shot therefore 300 million Americans need to forfeit their constitutional rights. What a crock! Well my nice got killed by a car therefore we need to get rid of all cars. And my best friend’s son drowned in a swimming pool, and therefore we must get rid of all swimming pools. Those who put their emotions before their country’s constitution are doomed, and would prefer to doom their fellow Americans as well.
23 - Dave Nalle
It's not openly stated, but everything she posts and her hostility towards all men suggests that he eventually got his shit together and got his freedom. He's probably with a younger woman who has a more sensible attitude about guns now.
Dave
24 - REMF
^ Nalle's above comment reminds me of the typical gossipy old busy-body woman who doesn't have anything better to do than try and manipulate people against anyone she doesn't like.
25 - sr
REMF. Seems to me your trying to do the samething, however without much success.