Stephen King weighs in on gun control

[squealpiggy]

A few months ago you were saying that the Founders went to war over a 1% tax. Now you're saying it was over the right to own slaves (back at a time when Britain still owned them.) Which is it?

It was a combination of factors including a prohibition on encroaching on French and Indian lands, an objection to taxation and on import taxes and concern from slave owners about the growing abolition movement. In 1763 a court decision declared "Once a slave sets foot in Britain he is free". This declaration followed a number of abolitionist decrees from the courts in the 18th century.

Outrageous rentals at a secure location aside, it is extremely difficult for the average American to own a fully automatic weapon in any state.

So now you've climbed down from your claim that "ordinary citizens" cannot fire fully automatic weapons in Nevada?

"I ask, sir, what is the militia? It is the whole people, except for a few public officials." - George Mason coauthor of the 2nd Amendment.

Then he should have lobbied for the wording of the Amendment to be changed to reflect that belief.

Claiming that the only people with a legitimate claim on self defense are the people who killed someone is beyond absurd.

As I already explained, justifiable homicide is the only reliable metric.

100 thousand women are raped in the US every year. I believe that number would be far lower if more women carried a gun in their purse.

The FBI statistic differentiates between rape and forcible rape. One would not expect a handgun to be much use when the victim has been drugged or coerced into sex with economic threats. There were ~83,000 such rapes as recorded by the FBI in 2011. But these rapes include crimes in which the attacker was known to or even related to the victim.

Unfortunately the FBI stats don't make the differentiation between cases where the attacker was known and cases where the attacker was a stranger. There are however studies which suggest that less that 20% of rape victims were attacked by a stranger. So the problem you think you are solving by arming all women is a lot smaller than you are claiming it to be.

More sheer, utter nonsense.
Followed by further rambling nonsense.

You are not ever going to use a gun in self defense. Ever.

Regurgitating this little stat makes you look like an idiot.

So it should be easy for you to explain why.

The US Department of Justice estimated about 1.5 million times per year guns are used in personal defense. But you're running with this 200 figure because that's how many people were killed. Well done.

From the findings of the DoJ study:

"o Evidence suggests that this survey and others
like it overestimate the frequency with which
firearms were used by private citizens to defend
against criminal attack. "

You read the study, right? Nope. You saw a number on Wikipedia and ran with it.

Second internet meme. Well done.

[squealpiggy]

So what's the answer? The problem in the US isn't guns, it's gun culture. It's gun culture. There are as many guns per capita in Canada without even a quarter of the level of gun crime. What's different? In Canada guns are licensed for use as hobby items, tools for hunting and in rare cases (law enforcement, certain security services, wildlife agents in remote areas) as weapons for self defense. In America guns are considered a totem from freedom and rugged individualism. They represent the American Dream!

Nowhere else in the world do people manipulate emergency call response statistics to make themselves feel more helpless in dangerous situations, only to hold up a houseload of guns as their saviour. Nowhere else in the civilised world is there a critical mass of people who are so afraid of their government they're stocking up on military munitions for when "they" come to get them.

Americans have an unrealistic view on firearms. How to fix it?

First there needs to be a nationwide systematic gathering of gun statistics. It needs to be made clear that using a gun for self defense will not be recorded if the attempted crime is not reported. Your story of facing down a mugger with your trusty .38 will be only story officially unless the police know there was a mugger to begin with.

There also needs to be a category created to track prevalence: The much feared violent home invasion. As it stands now such a crime is only tracked according to the most serious offence carried out in the commission. A violent home invasion/murder? That's a murder. A violent home invasion robbery? That's a robbery.

Americans are afraid of violent home invasions perhaps more than any other crime. It needs to have its own metric to differentiate from non-violent burglaries (of which there are nearly twice as many than there are of all violent crime combined) so that we can see just how much of a problem it really is.

That's the easy part. Now the more radical of my suggestions.

A full, federal, licensing scheme for firearms. If you wish to own firearms legally you must be licensed. To be licensed you must:

Pass a test of your physical ability with firearms - can you hit the target and handle your weapon safely?

Pass a written test demonstrating your knowledge of firearm use, firearm handling and most importantly, of the laws and restrictions governing self defense and its limitations.

You must register guns you own.

There would be a fee for the testing and registration of the guns. Any additional costs to government would be paid for with a small tax on guns and ammunition.

These requirements haven't come from nowhere. These are exactly the requirements for owning and operating a motor vehicle. Redefining the American "right" to own guns to be equivalent to the "privilege" of driving will go a long way to countering American gun culture.