Rob's Rants Episode 1

Rob's Rant. Rob talks about the recent "anti-gun" legislation that was signed by

Governor Jerry Brown and how it affects you if you live in California. Rob’s rants are

short opinions of Rob Charny and are designed to make you think. You don’t have to

agree with Rob but you should consider his opinion and
just maybe reconsider yours.

Comments

[Joanie Fignetti]

I think that this is kind of a tricky topic. Maybe in your small towns, guns are OK; but when you live in a large city, that has gang members, and other types of delinquents, then gun laws should be strict. Guns kill, people who use guns kill, people who lose their tempers and have a gun kill. I live in Orange County, Calif, a couple miles from the 10-12-2011 Seal Beach Massacre. That man had guns, and he was mad, and he KILLED with his GUNS NINE INNOCENT PEOPLE!! Why do we need them? What does it accomplish? So if someone there happened to have his gun showing without bullets, would that of helped? Or if someone had a concealed loaded gun, and pulled it out, and started shooting, what would of happened? More killings? The gunman had on a vest, so even if someone had a gun, the gunman would of been ok, however, he might of gotten angrier, and killed more. Please educate me on this.

[Rob]

It’s a matter of convenience the tool that will kill.

If you compare gun deaths in the USA to knife deaths in the United Kingdom you are 3 times more likely to be knifed to death in the UK that you are shot in the USA.

The crime rate in the UK is higher in every category but murder and rape. Yes the US has a higher murder rate however that rate has been declining in the US while the rate in the UK has been rapidly increasing. If gun ownership is the correlation to murder rates the opposite should be happening, guess what… it’s not!

Most robberies in the UK take place while somebody is in the house while in the US that is relatively rare. Why, because the bad guys never know if the homeowner is armed of not.

Mostly stolen or lost firearms are used in homicides. Again most murders that take place are with 'illegal' firearms. All the gun laws in the world have not stopped these homicides.

Washington DC has the strictest gun control in the nation; it also has the most crime with gun usage. Now how does that work with it being virtually illegal for private citizens to own a gun? That's easy the criminals don't turn in their guns. They don't give a damn if the gun is legal or not.

So if we look at the numbers for homicides that numbers are approximately 10,000 per year.

To put this number in perspective, there are about 200,000,000 firearm owners in America with a total of
300,000,000 people. An estimated 500,000 people are killed by medical mistakes each year 300,000 people die from cancer and 35,000 people are killed by automobiles each year

Self-protection

Between 1987 and 1990, researchers found that guns were used in defense during a crime incident 64,615 times annually. This equates to two times out of 1,000 incidents (0.2%) that occurred in this time frame. For violent crimes (assault, robbery, and rape), guns were used 0.83% of the time in self-defense. Of the times that guns were used in self-defense, 71% of the crimes were committed by strangers, with the rest of the incidents evenly divided between offenders that were acquaintances or persons well-known to the victim. Of all incidents where a gun was used for self-defense, victims shot at the offender 28% of the time. In 20% of the self-defense incidents, the guns were used by police officers. During this same time period, 1987 and 1990, there were 46,319 gun homicides, and the National Crime Victimization Survey estimates that 2,628,532 nonfatal crimes involving guns occurred.

The 1993 study finds that as many as 2.45 million crimes are thwarted each year in the United States, and in most cases, the potential victim never fires a shot in these cases where firearms are used constructively for self-protection. The results of these studies have been cited many times in scholarly and popular media.
A study of gun use in the 1990s, by the Harvard Injury Control Research Center, found that criminal use of guns is far more common than self-defense use of guns and we already know that criminals do not purchase guns legally so adding more anti-gun laws accomplishes nothing other than making it more difficult for honest, legal citizens to purchase and keep their firearms.

Just a little bit of history and gun control.

In 1929, the Soviet Union established gun control. From 1929 to 1953, approximately 20 million dissidents, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated.

In 1911, Turkey established gun control. From 1915 to 1917, 1.5 million Armenians, unable to defend themselves,
were rounded up and exterminated.

In 1928, Germany established gun control. From 1939 to 1945, 13 million Jews, gypsies, homosexuals, the mentally ill, and others, who were unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated.

In 1935, China established gun control. From 1948 to 1952, 20 million political dissidents were unable to defend
themselves and were rounded up and exterminated.

In 1964, Guatemala established gun control. From 1964 to 1981, 100,000 Mayan Indians, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated.

In 1970, Uganda established gun control. From 1971 to 1979, 300,000 Christians, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated.

In 1956, Cambodia established gun control. From 1975 to1977, one million "educated" people, unable to defend
themselves, were rounded up and exterminated.

That places total victims who lost their lives -- because they were unable to defend their liberty -- at approximately 56 million in the 20th century.
And lastly my opinion, without the second amendment there wouldn’t be a first!

[JD]

Gun control laws only restricts ownership by law abiding citizens. Criminals, by definition, break socital laws by committing criminal acts, so restricting gun ownership is no deterrent to them. IMO, gun control laws do nothing but embolden thugs who might otherwise at least think twice about victimizing someone who they think might be armed.
In reference to Ms. Fignetti's comment about the gunman wearing a bullet resistant vest; a vest can be easily penetrated by rifle ammunition which is carried by a lot of law enforcement officers today. And really, if a person has decided to kill, I would much rather be able to defend myself instead of hoping the offender gets tired or changes his mind.
I know alot of folks will say that it is the responsibility of law enforcement to defend and protect them. The problem with this is that there is not a cop sitting on every street simply waiting for you to call 911. This I can give expert commentary on, I've been a Police Officer/Deputy Sheriff for the last 26 years. I know how long some of the response times are even when someone is immediately available to respond. I would certainly hate to know that I was on my own with an armed offender until the Police arrive. But that's just my opinion.