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Gun-control advocates have decried the Supreme Court’s 2022 decision in NYSRPA v. Bruen, which held that the Constitution requires states to issue concealed-carry permits to law-abiding adults as a matter of right. States may still require training and the like, but they may not force applicants to demonstrate a special “need” to carry a gun. Even before the decision came down, left-leaning writers were denouncing it as a contributor to any future crime spikes. But decades of experimentation with giving law-abiding citizens a “right to carry” concealed weapons has had effects on crime that are, at best, subtle and extremely difficult to measure. As those laws loosened through the 1990s and 2000s, crime fell nationwide.

At any rate, marginal gun-control laws (such as background checks on private sales or bans on certain tactical features) are hard to enact, and a drastic reduction in Americans’ access to guns is politically, constitutionally, and practically off the table. America contains more guns than people, and nowhere near enough political support exists for the broad restrictions that would require a constitutional amendment. The guns aren’t going anywhere. As a recent New Republic headline dejectedly put it, “The War on Guns Is Lost.”

Perhaps those who don’t see gun ownership as an important constitutional guarantee of armed self-defense (we do) should think about it in similar terms as alcohol, which the Centers for Disease Control blames for 140,000 deaths per year, close to triple the number of firearm deaths, including suicides—as an ineradicable part of our culture, whatever its downsides, with regulators able to curb the worst aspects but not much beyond that.

We won’t tell gun-control advocates to stop fighting, and they wouldn’t listen if we did. But gun control cannot be the prime focus of our immediate efforts to stop the bloodshed in our cities.

It’s possible to reduce violence in a country with strong gun rights. We know this because the U.S. gun murder rate was at a near-50-year low as recently as 2014—and because the nation saw it fall dramatically in the 1990s and early 2000s as the number of guns in circulation rose. The precise mix of causes of the “great crime decline” are hotly debated, of course. But some clearly effective strategies included improved policing and the incarceration of the most dangerous offenders.

Why these approaches work is no great mystery. While gun ownership is widely distributed—increasingly so, with rises among women and racial minorities in recent years—gun violence is intensely concentrated, not just in particular regions and cities (as noted above), but among specific social networks, at specific “hot spots” within neighborhoods, and among individuals with previous criminal records.

Turning away from well-targeted policing and incapacitation while pointing fingers at conservatives’ gun laws is counterproductive. It’s also disingenuous, neglecting the role that enforcement plays in giving effect to any new restrictions added to the statute books should the Democrats suddenly get their way on gun policy. After all, what good are additional (presumably criminal) gun laws when police are actively discouraged from proactively seeking out violators? When “progressive” prosecutors offer large shares of violators diversion or plea deals, resulting in sentences of probation? When decarceration advocates work to make meaningful terms of imprisonment increasingly rare? 

— Rafael A. Mangual and Robert VerBruggen in Gun Violence in Red and Blue

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR

90 COMMENTS

        • It should be obvious by now trying to “explain things” to democRats is a complete and total waste of time. That is the reason why you grab the bull by the horns and say, “Hey you dumb sacks of demoCrap! The agenda you are stuck on is Rooted in Racism and Genocide. And that makes you kkk racists and nazis.”

          Well the aforementioned might go against the grain of the Dorito eating 2A courtroom drama crowd. But that’s too bad because the problems began decades ago when democRats took their race card off and hung it around the neck of The Party of Lincoln. Shell shocked wimpy Republicans froze and have remained frozen since. It’s fear of what media stormtroopers might say should wimpy Republicans step out of line. Congressional Republicans can just go so far so not to upset their sensitive democRat slave masters. Well pee on Republican wimps and the bigots on this forum…Racism and its baggage belongs back around the neck of the democRat Party…History Confirms the democRat Party owns it.

          Even though a few Republicans show some backbone fear guides the Republican Party in congress today and it shows with the compromises they make with the devil. No doubt it’s how fearless marxist democRats get away with filing numerous ready made concocted bogus charges made against a former President. And what has the Republican Party done? String people along with excuses so time will wash the left unchecked documented crimes of the democRat Party away. So much so a certain Saturday radio talk show host wants to drop to his knees and “move on” to a Trump like candidate but he’ll vote for Trump if he is the nominee…Like I said, Wimpy.

        • Are you going to be nice to the fine people in TTAG for the next week?

        • Shocking coincidence – Sears and Roebuck started selling pump shotguns mail order to all comers. The frequency and popularity of lynching peaked shortly thereafter.

        • XZX, So you think because you came up with a dumbarse statistic that there is a correlation. Please expound on this drivel?

        • xzx…I’ll humor you…Along with anything and everything Jim Crow kkk Gun Control democRats purchased their ropes, sheets, sewing machines and torch supplies via mail order…now gfy you pathetic History illiterate twit.

        • Debbie One-Note,

          Rather than blast you (as I feel like doing), I am going to swallow my pride, and make ONE MORE effort to actually get through to you.

          YES, gun control IN AMERICA was historically based in, and a tool of, slavery and systemic racism (back when there actually was such a thing). Today in America, gun control is based FAR MORE in Leftism/fascism/authoritarianism. Leftist/fascists don’t want to ban guns for blackpipo, OR whipipo – they want to ban guns for ALL non-governmental actors/people. As it has been around the world, for centuries. Japan banned swords and armor for peasants – they were ALL Japanese, but only the elite could ‘bear arms’.

          Germany banned guns for Jews, yes (NOT, by the way, a ‘race’, or even an ethnicity – there are black Jews, sephardic Jews, Arab Jews, Ashkenazi Jews), but also for communists, gypsys, etc. England banned bows, for years, to peasants, and swords as well.

          Gun control is a tool of CONTROL and authoritarianism, and always has been. Yes, it has been used to support racism, and not only here in the US. It has also been used, and is being used today, as a tool to support Leftist fascism, without regard to race. Trust me, Leftist/fascists are equally as appalled with whipipo owning guns as blackpipo owning guns.

          It’s not that “gun control in American is rooted in slavery and racism” is INCORRECT, it just that . . . you’re fighting a battle that was largely won back in 1865, and the follow-on guerilla war was largely won in 1964-64, and pretty much totally over by the late 60s.

          How about you wake up and start fighting the CURRENT fight, and not hysterically lecture the rest of us about . . . 150 years ago. And ignoring the very REAL problems of modern Leftist/fascism, which are the REAL motivating force of today’s gun control movement.

          Or don’t, and continue to be an hysterical, one-note crackpot, with historical tunnel-vision and a bad temper. ‘Sall good. You be you, Debbie One-Note, but if you continue to be the strident, obnoxious harridan you have become, don’t be surprised if we treat you with all the ‘respect’ you have earned. Just sayin’.

        • xzx…All you had or have is zero, nothing, nada. BTW democRat…I forgot to include mail order whips, what’s a Racist democRat without one?

        • dw seems to missed the point – the mailorder process that allowed certain folks to bypass de facto race-based gun control at white-owned hardware stores.

          Lynching is about fun and profit, and lynching a man holding a 12ga pump just ain’t much fun.

        • lampblubhead…First off you pompous preaching prissy twit I am no more one-note than the History I cite is one-note. Or are my posts regarding firearms. I do Gunsmith stuff not off a kitchen table but in my shop using machines wired 3 Phase. I Do Not need a History lesson regarding Gun Control from you much less for you to tell me Jews are not a race. Now go swallow your pride.

          Since 1865? Get off your pompous behind and go ask 10 people to Define Gun Control by its History. When you come back and honestly report the answers that show average people are remotely close to being aware Gun Control is an Agenda Rooted on Racism and Genocide then and only then do you and your ilk have something to bark at. You want to argue with me but what you cannot argue with is the History I cite…That’s Chiseled.

          Do not reply to me until you have asked 10 people to Define Gun Control by its History. And if you are going cite what I say on this forum do it verbatim. Surely a twit like who calls me one-note would know how to do that without being told…You have 10 people to ask…Hop To It.

        • xzx…You are in quicksand trying to spin your way out…Must really suck to be pathetic like you…You can always do what oldshtheadgeoff and others do…come back under a new name…don’t use “dumbazz” because I would know right away it’s you.

        • XZX, so you are full of donkey dust? You have no way to back up your fake stat.
          So you think because you came up with a dumbarse statistic that there is a correlation. Please expound on this drivel?

        • XZX, Again with the Leftist control freak nonsense? You have apparently forgotten how it is you Leftists who all but invented racism. Do you recall a guy by the name of Woodrow Wilson? How about the founder of Planned Parenthood, Margret Sanger? You Leftists made lynching an “art form”.

        • Now I am a Leftist? Are you drunk? Do you also think Babe Ruth played basketball,, and Oral Roberts was a great scientist?

          Haha, Walt, you are fact-free. Hilariously so…

        • XZX, Sure seems like you are a Leftist. At best you are an anarchist. When you parrot Leftist control freak nonsense, that is what you look like.
          Don’t blame me, Blame you!

        • i’m thinkin’ lots of those long packages going to that part of town didn’t make it for quite a while.
          and fembots gonna fembot hahaha hands out marching orders and homework with ultimatums.
          probably has a three phase hitachi magic wand in that shop. and lathe turned steely dans.

        • Debbie Dimwit,

          First off, YOU do not get to define conditions on my comments on this blog, so just f*ck right off with that bulls**t.

          Second, I speak/correspond DAILY with dozens of actual gun owners, and I KNOW what they think about gun control. So, f**k right off, again.

          Now, stop ranting for a second, and answer my question – EVERYONE on the island nation of Japan was ethnic/racial Japanese (sure, the rulers/shoguns treated some, particularly the islanders, as “other”, but the average Japanese peasant was EVERY BIT as “Japanese” as the ruler was (many peasants were elevated to, or obtained, high rank). So, ‘spain to us, Loosey, how was their arms control (there was “gun control” before there were guns, Debbie Dimwit) was “racist” and “genocidal”. Perhaps, since you seem to know some words, you should actually learn some definitions, you pathetic, ignorant cow.

  2. Lead poisoning and lower IQ’s have been replaced by entitlement, acceptance of social hostility and glorification and rewarding of thug culture.

    This ships too big to just turn around. It’s going to take a generation at least. Or an incredibly tumultuous event.

    • A generation in the demographic of interest is about 15yr. So going to take many generations.

      • It took several generations (60 years) for society to devolve to it’s present state and unless the ideology’s of Liberalism and Progressiveism are eliminated from existence. It will never return to what it was. Because they are no different than cancer. They can’t be negotiated away or bred away. They must be destroyed.

    • “Lead poisoning and lower IQ’s have been replaced by entitlement, acceptance of social hostility and glorification and rewarding of thug culture.”

      Funny thing about lead poisoning and lower IQs leading to violent behavior –

      Lead toxicity is cumulative, meaning, it isn’t going away. Once you have it, you keep it. So that glut of poisoned people should have kept moving on and are getting elderly today, yet the gun violence is one-half today what it was in 1990…

      • ……..like they aged out and no longer commit crimes? It isn’t the primary theory to the observed reduction in violence over the last 50 years but it is a theoretical contributing factor. With that said it may prove to be a minor issue compared to what may be possible if we get a real competitor to the dollar and cheap energy ends.

      • OT, sort of – “woman has accidental discharge in Brandon mall.”

        Gun in purse goes bang as owner is reaching for money to post for burger. l wonder what make, model and holster…

        No thumb safety, I batcha.

  3. It’s about control. The Fascist Big-Goverment, Tyrany & Control party always wants more laws, controls, and more state power over The People.

  4. “States may still require training” – sorry I missed this in the Constitution (and Bruen).

    WTF is “Rafael A. Mangual and Robert VerBruggen” – anyone that links to failed CNN as a source is an idiot to be ignored.

  5. “But decades of experimentation with giving law-abiding citizens a “right to carry” concealed weapons …”

    ????

    • concealed carry became a thing in the sixties…at least for me…didn’t know anyone who had one [permit] prior to that….

      • “concealed carry became a thing in the sixties…”

        Think you might have skimmed over my observation. Take another look, starting with, “giving… citizens a right…”

      • Prior to 1912, people carried pocket pistols without a permit or even second thought. Even in 1912, the Sullivan Law was only in NY. The other mob-dominated areas (Chicago, etc,) quickly followed, though. By the 60s, concealed weapon laws were near country wide.

  6. “After all, what good are additional (presumably criminal) gun laws when police are actively discouraged from proactively seeking out violators?”

    This is all anyone needs to know, in a nut shell.

    Well-stated, guys.

    • 40 cal, I have news for this town. They can’t ban gun sales or any other things that are legal. It is a violation of the Interstate Commerce section of the Constitution.

  8. In reality it is the Republicans who refuse to do anything about gun violence while still maintaining the right to own a gun.

    Republican strategy is to do “nothing” in order to appease the radial far right who want to rescind all gun control laws.

    All of the following “do not” prevent the “purchase” of firearms for law abiding citizens.

    Registration

    Universal Background Checks

    Mental tests before purchase of a gun

    Law Enforcement Interviews with relatives and co-workers who will testify as to your sanity and prior behavior before being able to purchase a firearm.

    Waiting periods (cooling off periods)

    Safe Storage Laws

    Red Flag Laws (If you want to keep your guns, do not threaten to kill your wife or children or assault them. If you are falsely accused you can get your guns back, but the old adage “better safe than sorry” is the sane way to handle these situations. There can be zero argument that Red Flag laws do not save the lives of women and children and a lot of them.

    • There is no refusal. It just simply is that “gun violence” does not exist.

      We are seeing Republicans doing all kinds of things to stop violence in general. That is why more than half the country now has permitless carry.

    • “All of the following “do not” prevent the “purchase” of firearms for law abiding citizens.”

      We never said they did. What we did say is those things are unconstitutional you knuckle dragging mouth breathing douchebag.

      Democrats don’t want to fix violence with guns. They want more deaths of children in order to dance in their blood while shrieking “We must do something!” It gets their idiot base all riled up. That’s you dacian dumfuc.

      Responsible gun owners want children protected at all times by “Responsible Gun Owners”

      • Mucky

        quote————-Responsible gun owners want children protected at all times by “Responsible Gun Owners”———-quote

        You live in a right wing fantasy world. There is no way in hell your fantasies will come true, be practical or even work. I already laid out the reasons for this. Please have your wife read my post to you and explain it to you.

        • Bears, bees, ants, wolves and fish protect their children.

          I guess city folk are too advanced for all that.

        • And you live in the l3ftist fantasy land of making those “other people” disappear into mass graves.

        • “There is no way in hell your fantasies will come true”

          its not a fantasy… even now all across the nation its starting to happen, people are fed up with your liberal communist BS… .and one day dacian your child molestation that you think is your liberal right is going to bring it to your door step.

        • dacian, the DUNDERHEAD. Seems that it’s you living in a fantasy world. Real people, the ones Leftists never interact with, want to be protected as well as their children. The best protector of your child, is YOU! The so called “reasons” you laid out are pure unadulterated BULL SHI*.

        • 40 cal the people on the “VIEW” are so full of donkey dust to think that the economy is booming? ROFLMAOBT!

        • MT, no kidding. And in every country in the world. It seems here in the US we have a class of people who want what the rest of us have, without earning it the old fashioned way. But as long as you Leftists keep giving them something for nothing, they will continue in their ways.

    • I know of no case where anyone, irregardless of veracity of the accuser, got their guns back, and I have been keeping my eyes peeled. Except for the hallucinating federal agent who shot his house full of holes. The judge decided he needed them for work…

    • dacian, the DUNDERHEAD, All that can realistically be done about “gun violence” has already been done. It’s called the Penal Law, which you Lefties refuse to enforce and hold criminals accountable. It’s not the Republicans who are doing this; it’s your Leftist masters and you gun control freaks. Can you tell me the first case where a gun was ever convicted of a crime? FACT, you can’t. The fact is that an armed society is a polite society. Funny how the states with Constitutional carry have the LOWEST crime rates in spite of what you Leftists claim.

      Again, gun registration is the first step you Lefties take in your gun confiscation schemes, aside from your “Red Flag Laws”. We have been over your “Universal Background Checks”, they don’t work. Any criminal who wants a gun can go to the corner, let it be known he wants a gun and presto changeo, another criminal comes and meets him to sell him his gun.
      As to the mentally ill, you Lefty’s refuse to do anything about the HIPPA law which forbids the disclosure of any mental history except in the case of “imminent danger.” And now you want lawn enforcement to interview people as to your “sanity”? Did any of these people go to medical school? You are NUTZ!

      If mental tests were made mandatory, you Leftists would never pass as Leftist ideology is a mental disease.

      As to your “Red Flag laws”? they are UNCONSTDITUTDIONAL. you see the Red Flag laws deny a defendant the right to DUE PROCESS. In accord with the Constitution, such laws violate due process as government is FORBIDDEN from confiscating property without due process.

      As to “safe gun storage”, again you want to legislate common sense. Tell me, DUNDERHEAD would you lock up your gun unloaded if it were your self defense weapon in your home? Lock it up, OK, unloaded? That would be a death warrant.

      • You probably meant a mental health test. I am pretty sure MAGA cultists would fail that, miserably. The difference is that most leftists could pass a literacy test; you can’t even spell unconstitutional, it’s pathetic. Maybe you could pass the “I got played by a con man and a pathological liar” test instead.

        • He also got so emotional that “Lefties” suddenly became “Lefty’s.” I am having a blast reading all his posts, what an entertainer!

        • MT, what you are sure of seems to be your Leftist ideology. Most MAGA folks have something you Lefties don’t. Common Sense. No, I have to disagree. while the Leftists might be able to read, they have no ability to comprehend. Excuse the TYPO, nitwit. But it still remains. Red Flag laws are UNCONSTITUTIONAL. You do know what due process is and how the Constitution says it’s to be applied? Sorry to say, that you Leftists are the con men, not Trump nor we Conservatives.

    • So when democrat district attorney do not prosecut criminals who use firearms or use the laws on the books it’s the Republicans fault ??

      more failure from you wacko dacko

  11. “After all, what good are additional (presumably criminal) gun laws when police are actively discouraged from proactively seeking out violators?”

    The kind of “violators” the left is interested in are kitchen table FFLs and guys who sell a hunting buddy an old rifle. The kind they are not interested in is the kind that run in gangs, sell drugs, destabilize communities and murder each other and innocent bystanders.

    The kind of police they want to discourage are the kind that live and work in their own communities. The kind they wish to encourage are the nameless, faceless federal thugs who bring SWAT teams to people’s homes because of paperwork “crimes” and, occasionally, burn down a fringe religious group’s home because they might have a gun.

    • Makes me wonder how many of those applicants are now dead or have moved to another state to live. Then I’m sure some have made the decision to do things illegally.

  14. Wait. So rising crime rates are driving a renewed interested in gun rights? So WE want to fix the problems either? Slight bit of sarcasm there.

    The left does not have a monopoly on failing to address the root causes of violence in society. Neither party wants to actually work. I’m increasingly under the impression the role of elected officials (particularly at the federal level) is to satiate their ego, and secure a paycheck. Executive agencies have furthered that goal. Congress has effectively outsourced their jobs, without losing pay.

  15. There are also plenty of civilized nations that do not have an equivalent to the Second Amendment, yet violent crimes are extremely rare compared to most cities in the USA. I think we just failed as a nation, over the course of time.

    • “There are also plenty of civilized nations that do not have an equivalent to the Second Amendment, yet violent crimes are extremely rare compared to most cities in the USA. I think we just failed as a nation, over the course of time.”

      violent crimes are extremely rare in other countries?

      No, they aren’t. They just don’t have the same ‘reporting’ type and standards as we do in the U.S. plus their ‘media’ is more controlled by government and less likely to report. For example, in the U.K. they don’t investigate a rape unless the suspect is known where in the U.S. we investigate (mostly) all rapes if the suspect is known or not. This means in the U.K. an arrest is never made thus no conviction thus no stat for the rapes in which the suspect is unknown – but in the U.S. an investigation may reveal a suspect that gets arrested and convicted thus is gets into the stats. Another example, in all of Europe domestic violence is almost a ‘national sport’ in most of the countries yet very few, compared to the overall rate, domestic violent perpetrators ever get arrested and convicted. Another example, in Japan the overall violent assault rate is almost 10 times greater than that in the U.S. but less than 1% of it results in an arrest and conviction. Another example, the child and adult sexual human trafficking and exploitation rate in the U.K. results in almost 40% of these victims being murdered annually yet there is no investigation leading to arrest and conviction.

      It is not true that violent crimes are extremely rare in other countries compared to most cities in the USA. Things are much more, or just as, violent outside the U.S. in other countries.

    • MT, here is a hint for you. When a criminal can’t get a gun, he uses other instruments as a weapon, such as a knife, hammer, screwdriver, etc. Seems you Leftists don’t have any understanding of something we refer to as human nature.

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