Finally, news from the other side.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(DocVijay @ Apr 22 2007, 05:35 PM) [snapback]428066[/snapback]</div>

The reason this one made the news is that she is 82 years old, and a former Miss America. Otherwise, you'd never hear about this. Preventing something from happening is very rarely newsworthy so the "up to 2 million" times a year that citizens prevent a crime or stop one in progress just don't get reported. Most of the time, the defensive use of the gun is just a "brandishing"; even gang members will back off if you have a gun handy.

There are some examples of anti-gun bias ... look at CNN's reporting of the famous Appalachian Law School shooting, where two students ran and go their guns and held the shooter at bay, forcing him to drop his weapon, and the "swarming" by students after that ... http://edition.cnn.com/2002/US/01/16/law.school.shooting/ ... CNN never mentions the two students that retrieved their guns and forced the end of the incident.

 

No doubt it worked.

However, had there been tougher regulations, would the assailant been able to acquire the gun in the first place?

..and if he didn't have access to a gun, would he have just used a (insert manual weapon here) instead?

I would argue the gun makes it EASIER, as with a knife or something, let's say you're being chased after the robbery, all you have to do is point the thing, and anyone will back down. Manual weapons makes it harder, a little more personal, hence, requiring a little more, well, to put it bluntly, balls, to pull it off.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Mystery Squid @ Apr 22 2007, 07:51 PM) [snapback]428109[/snapback]</div>

There are already 20,000-30,000 gun laws on the books how many more do you think we need to do the job?

Wildkow

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Wildkow @ Apr 22 2007, 11:51 PM) [snapback]428143[/snapback]</div>

MORE.

For starters:

Cannot have been on anti-depressants for at least 2 years (or any other drug/drugs that have some significant impact upon mental status)

No DUI's within the last 7 years

Must have high school diploma or GED

No incidents with police/the law within 5 years (excluding traffic violations), this means, if the cops showed up to your place for a domestic dispute (regardless of whether or not action was taken) or something, NO LICENSE, shoplifting, NO LICENSE, etc..

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Wildkow @ Apr 22 2007, 11:51 PM) [snapback]428143[/snapback]</div>

Source? And in Virginia, each locality has the ability to make laws on its own about guns, while remaining under Federal and State laws. No surprise there are that many, when you take that into consideration. There are 40 independent cities and 95 counties in VA. Let's say that each of those have just ten laws concerning gun control--that's over a thousand laws for just VA. Do the math with the other 50 states--it's just not that many. Throw in the very few federal regs, and it's still not that many.

Problem is, you can have three million laws, and if they are ineffective, then you've just wasted everyone's energy. The laws themselved need to be changed, not necessarily the number of laws increased.