Where we hear New York Governor Cuomo discuss what to do about “assault weapons,” and suggest that confiscation is an option. With a new AWB, existing guns and magazines would not be grandfathered in… if you owned one, the State could compel you to turn it in to them.
Well, ok, hardly a surprise. However, keep in mind that the great majority of gun murders are carried out not with long guns, but with pistols. So it seems safe to say that a grab of handguns will also be considered. You know, “for the children.”
So what would an American stripped of legally owned firearms look like? Many people try to suggest comparisons to Europe, where they don’t murder each other at the same rate we do (until they fire up the long-range bombers and the death camps). But that’s not a good comparison… American ain’t Europe. Our cultures are quite different. A far better comparison would be to… America itself. There are places in the US where such bans on legal firearms have been in place for a long while. Take, for example, the shining gun-free city on the hill that is Chicago. Where we find:
446 school-age children shot so far this year – 62 actually murdered
As of Dec. 20, 518 homicides in Chicago
With a population of about 2.7 million, that’s a murder rate of 19.2 per 100,000. Now, extend that to the whole US, with a population of 310,000,000. The new national murder total would be 59,474. Compare that with the current score of 16,799.
You can expect the murder rate in the US to go up by a factor of about three and a half. An extra 42,675 murdered folk thanks to a drive to have *fewer* murdered folk.
This is not entirely a silly little math exercise. If a nationwide gun-grab occurs, who will be disarmed? The law abiding, obviously. The criminals will not of course turn their guns in. Indeed, this would only embolden them… they still have their guns, while the citizenry victims do not. Now, the gun-grabbers might argue that over time, the guns would be removed from the criminals hands; and this is true; every time a gun breaks or is captured, it’s out of service, probably forever. But consider:
1) The border patrol cannot stop *bales* of weed from sneaking across the border. And weed, unlike guns & ammo, has a distinctive chemical trace that dogs & such can pick up on.
2) People can make guns in home shops now.
3) People will soon be able to simply *print* guns at home.
OK, the next claim will be that ammo will be just as strictly controlled, and will quickly run out. Well, sure… but see #1 above. And then there’s…
4) As technology advances the gun of tomorrow might not need ammo as it has been known. Gauss guns today are a bit of a joke; but they are improving. Hand-held lasers today are a bit of a joke; but they’re improving. And it’s certainly conceivable that the rapid prototypers of the year 2020 would be able to stamp out every single component needed for such weapons.
And of course, even without ranged weapons, criminals would have the upper hand over much of society. Have you seen them? Most of them are hardly reed-thin stick figures, barely capable of taking on Justin Bieber. No, a good fraction of them can break you in half. And when they do get caught and thrown in the pokey, what do we do with them? Give them exercise equipment, assuring that when they get out they’ll be even *worse.*
So, cast your eyes to Chicago if you want to see the future.
