GUN CONTROL IS HEATING UP

Make My Day Laws
Come Under Fire
By Victor M Adamus

JIM BRADY

No thinking American wants to live in a police state.  They also don’t want to live in a community where access to guns by people with mental problems, depression, anxiety, and day to day stress cause these people to take the law into their own hands and shoot unsuspecting citizens like what happened to Trayvon Martin or even worse the multiple deaths in Arizona which included gunning down a Congresswoman Gabby Gifford.  But Americans have never drawn the line on the 2nd Amendment.  They have tried with the Brady Law 1994, but still access to small arms and guns with extended clips holding up to 33 bullets is still available to the general public.  So is the assault rifle the AK-47.  The Brady Law, signed by President Bill Clinton establishes a background check from FBI files so guns are not sold to felons and people who have been restricted by the courts to own guns.

It does very little to weed out the person who has mental health problems.  Coupled with the sad fact that unchecked sales are now competing with drug cartels, illegal weapons being sold here in the U.S. to anyone who shows up at a gun show, and the limits on the 2nd Amendment become a big joke.  The primary argument against gun control is “that a 100 pound woman is on equal footing with a 220 pound mugger”.  The gun has leveled the playing field.  And in most cases a person carrying a gun has the advantage of force and doesn’t have to listen to reason.

Now we have the Castle doctrine and Stand Your Ground Laws in 25 states.  The doctrine was meant to protect people in their own homes from an intruder who would likely cause them bodily harm.  Known also as the “Make My Day” law from a Clint Eastwood movie some of these laws have been tested outside the home to include armed citizens carrying their licensed guns into the public square.  These laws have doubled the amount of deaths since becoming law in 2004 and beyond and statistic show that under simple protections offered by the States before these laws were passed, more people were convicted of a homicide then when these laws took effect. 

But after the law was passed in Florida the death rate increased and convictions of  homicides decreased:

The figure above shows that, on average, Florida experienced about 34 justifiable homicides per year for a total of 206 deaths in 6 years. In the after period, the annual death rate was about 85, which means that for the first four years, 333 justifiable killings were recorded  Even without using sophisticated analysis, there's a clear pattern that emerges from the raw data alone: there is an obvious increase in the number of deaths after 2005.

The laws were lobbied by the National Rifle Association (NRA) and Koch Brothers back American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), both groups who claim to advise corporations on legislation that would benefit them.  They have the control of Republican legislators and often write the bills the representatives introduce.  ALEC has been losing members since the death of Trayvon Martin due to the outcry of that senseless violence and the fact that the shooter wasn’t arrested on the night of the murder.  For a list of corporations who pulled out of ALEC go HERE.