Gang Violence and Gun Control

[RRC]

Interesting article on Gangs and Gun control.

http://www.americanthinker.com/2013/...n_control.html

The problem is the U.S government has these statistics...

Our commander and chief (notice lower case letters) and his cohorts in the senate really don't get it!

[donsnnk]

good read.
thanks for the post op.
this is something they never bring up. gang members don't care. we'll be sitting ducks if they take our guns

[OverUnderClays]

Good read, there's alot of truth behind the article. The most obvious one, criminals do not obey laws, even in the thousands. And law abiding citizens are just scapegoats for an ever constant threat/problem.

[basqueechmo82]

Excellent article. I have actually conducted extensive research on this subject for my master's thesis and potentially a book down the road. Consider this...since the year 2000, there have been 3,181 deaths of Americans or foreigners on American soil as a result of terrorism, domestic terrorism, and mass shootings combined. The bulk of that obviously comes from the September 11, 2001 attacks. In realilty, aside from those attacks, there hasn't been any major number of those killed. Wounded is another story. *Note* this number does not include those killed in support of OIF/OEF/OND.

Between 2006 and 2011, there were 87,325 homicides according to the FBI in the U.S (excluding the 9/11 attacks). As pointed out in the article, the NGIC estimates that roughly 48% of all violent crime is a result of gang activity, which using that number would more than 40,000 gang related deaths in America. 10 times the number of those killed in terrorist attacks in half the time. More than twice the number of those killed as a result of terrorist attacks AND soldiers killed in OIF/OEF/OND over the last 13 years in half the time.

Sadly, most mayors and law enforcement leaders are in complete denial. These studies often actually underscore the gang problem as many government and LE leaders are either in complete denial or don't understand what gang activity actually consists of. Even giving a ridiculously low percentage of 10% would still give us more than twice the number of terror related deaths in half the time.

Working gangs for the past 7 years, I have yet to come across a gangster in possession of a legally possessed firearm. Most of these guys are prohibited from purchasing a firearm before they are old enough to legally buy one as they generally enter the criminal system as young as 10 or 11 years old. They are violent felons long before they are adults. The closest they come to legit sales is through their girlfriends who, in today's gang world, are often sought out without a criminal record to help purchase firearms or stash illegal items. Still, they end up in illegal possession of the firearm as soon as they come in the vicinity of it. This was an excellent article, but sadly, politicians don't care about facts or protecting the people or government. They care about furthering their own agendas. Such is the fall of the Republic, as it did 1600 years ago. Just my $.02.

[Sunday]

They are not gangs they are clubs!!! I think the government is as scared of the gangs are they are scared of the Muslims. The muslims,,, if some one makes them unhappy they kill them. Gang members the same thing.

[Bill Carson]

That article almost got it. They only scratched the surface. Got to dig a little deeper.

[glock7]

good read, thanks OP. Big picture is that the govt does not want us to be armed. That's the bottom line. Criminals don't care about the law. Only law abiding citizens do. And there in lies our problem....

[readysetgo]

The article was OK. He got it right about the money portion, the money from drug sales is what expanded gangs population and power the most.

BUT... for starters all those statistics are from 10+ years ago. I don't have any scientific stats but can tell you almost certainly that gang activity/participation/intensity is down down down since the 90's and early 2000's. Is it still a major problem, sure but don't use old statistics showing some of the worst times in our country as your evidence.

Another thing, they say "Gangs are a huge problem Congress ignores" and mayors, police etc. The reality is that fixing these problems as they relate to homicide is not as easy or black and white as many would like to believe. It's mostly a societal problem but the solutions provided are almost always incarceration, penalties, prohibitions and general outcasting etc. AND the flip side of using those homicide statistics to our favor is most people don't give a crap about the deceased or the murderer to the extent that they're killing their own. Outrage only occurs in general when it's a "non-player" who's killed.

If the whole argument was "criminals don't follow the law in the first place" and these proposals are incorrectly directed at "us law abiding non gang members", then yeah I'll agree with that.



Oh and completly wrong forum for this thread!?!?!?!