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Old April 17, 2009, 09:02 PM   #6
HarrySchell
Senior Member
 
Join Date: March 30, 2007
Location: South CA
Posts: 566
Klrangl,
You are right, my comment doesn't apply to your observation, which is dead nuts on. And I expect it would occur...gangs here need auto and semi-auto weapons, maybe the market would open up to smugglers more if Bama and Holder get their dream done.

I figure that relatively few gun dealers consciously sell weapons to felons, much less AW's. So, if my thought is accurate, the supply of AW's in criminal hands is either pretty small and already involves some nature of illegal activity, though I suspect it is unlikely people are smuggling semiauto AR's INTO the US.

I suspect the supply is pretty small, because the use of AW's in crime, I believe, is very small, though any use...think Oakland (which involved an SKS legal in CA if not in the hands of a felon)...gets lots of media attention. And CA has effectively an AWB, since 1994. CA DOJ does everything they can do to eliminate AW's. If you have one (registered, of course) and die in CA, they take the weapon and destroy it. Relatives? Last will and testament? Say what? We gotta get that evil rifle before it kills someone.

But you are right, to the extent criminals want the weapons, the cartels will meet the need and make money from it. Same for cigarettes, with the new fed taxes on them. As the British will not admit, guns are freely available in London if you know the right people. And Britain is an island, with all semi-close coastlines belonging to states which have "stronger" gun controls than the US. Um, it don't work, this lovely idea we all will get along just for the heck of it. Evil is. Guns are for killing (as well as sport) but killing bad guys also happens. It is not always that guns are used for crime and mayhem. Brady et. al. only see one side of the issue. That is the best way to embarrass them.

The irony is bittersweet, for the misery created by general "who cares" attitude about law, truth, etc. The overall social compact of trusting another person degrades as more people look with amusement at the efforts of lawmakers to control the world and bend it to their tiny minds.

The descent of our daily mores is pretty clear, and the efforts of mindless politicians to lie their way out of tight spots (Chris Dodd and Barney Frank come to mind as the most recent, but the best one was the guy who redefined "is", and got away with it) only emphasizes the advantages of a slickly presented but amoral outlook on life. No wonder the trial bar makes a four page agreement from 1990 into 24 pages today.

The rebuild of Ground Zero in NYC is decades away because there are 93 (?) different "stakeholders" (people who must be pleased but who have nothing except their own satisfaction at risk) trying to make themselves happy.

To bring this semi-rant back onto point, Obama today repeated the "90% of cartel guns come from the US" crap, after it has been decisively disproved so that his own AG won't repeat it. When POTUS either is delusional, uninformed or a damn liar, what responsibility devolves to the rest of us to get our facts straight and think rather than emote?

A fish rots from the head down, say the Chinese. I think they are right.

Ironic indeed that the dunce Obama would enrich the cartels with weapon sales in the US.

Forgive me for bringing a lot of other issues into this. I think we have a general problem, the role of law and government. It touches everything, not just our right as humans to effective self-defense. I expect I am off-point for what is intended for this forum, but IMO we cannot look at the right of self-defense (as opposed to "gun rights"...see the difference?) in isolation to the general political trends in this republic with regard to the role of government(s) and citizens.
__________________
Loyalty to petrified opinions never yet broke a chain or freed a human soul in this world — and never will.
— Mark Twain

Last edited by HarrySchell; April 17, 2009 at 09:24 PM.
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