cross posted from Mikeb302000 blog:
The NRA is fond of promoting the insanity and poor critical thinking of the phrase "guns don't kill people, people kill people." Lots of guns, especially in the wrong hands, kill lots of people, and/or ruin the lives of lots of people. We have lots of guns, and we are adding more all the time. I would argue that the more we do so, the less we rely on being a civil society under rule of law.
A more factually correct statement summing up the causal and correlational relationship between firearms and people killing people is that people using guns kill people. Sometimes the people they kill are other people, sometimes the people they kill are themselves, and sometimes they only wound, trheaten, harass or intimidate people. While people use other implements, and even bare hands to do these things as well, it is true that few of those things are as inherently lethal or as capable of doing as much harm with as little effort, or are used as often.
The NRA tries to pretend that firearms are not lethal weapons; that is inherently dishonest. The NRA makes money for gun manufacturers by promoting a violent gun culture, one which advocates for gun violence in order to sell more guns for the gun manufacturers they represent. They promote laws which make it easier, not more difficult, for guns to be sold that go directly and indirectly into the hands of criminals and terrorists, because their goal is to sell more guns.
That they are not primarily focused on legal gun use, but rather on maiximizing gun sales is evident in the NRA having someone on their board like Ted Nugent, a chronic advocate for violence against individuals with whom he disagrees, and a serial violator of laws. That they intend to promote a violent gun culture where people take the law into their own hands is evident in the material and positions they take, as evidenced by their spokespeople and their statements and their advocacy for lax gun laws that make it legal to traffic in guns to people for illegal purposes.
Police should know what the quality is of the guns they purchase in these buybacks. The situation should be corrected so that an appropriate minimum and maximum are established depending on the state and quality of the firearm in these purchases to prevent this kind of abuse. But it is also a statement of their lack of character that this group would act this way; it is an indication of the contempt for the boundaries between legal and illegal firearms that this group would undermine an effort by the police to get illegal guns off the streets.
From MSNBC.com :
Chicago’s firearm buyback program, titled “Don’t kill a dream, save a life,” aims to get dangerous weapons off the street. But a pro-gun rights group gleefully says it used the program to turn in “non-firing junk” to raise money for a National Rifle Association youth shooting camp.
Guns Save Life, based in Champaign, Ill., three hours south of Chicago, turned in dozens of guns and BB guns it had collected – “rusty scrap metal,” the group called the load – taking home $6,240.
Of the 5,500 guns turned in on June 23, 60 came from Guns Save Life.
The Chicago Police Department program pays $100 for every gun and $10 every BB gun, air gun or replica, no questions asked. The money is given in the form of a Visa debit card.
“We are redirecting funds from people who would work against the private ownership of firearms to help introduce the next generation to shooting safely and responsibly,” John Boch, head of Guns Save Life, told the Chicago Sun-Times.
Boch said the money will go toward paying for ammunition for the youth camp.
Police spokeswoman Melissa Stratton was not amused, according to the Sun-Times.
“It’s unfortunate that this group is abusing a program intended to increase the safety of our communities,” Stratton said.
The NRA is fond of promoting the insanity and poor critical thinking of the phrase "guns don't kill people, people kill people." Lots of guns, especially in the wrong hands, kill lots of people, and/or ruin the lives of lots of people. We have lots of guns, and we are adding more all the time. I would argue that the more we do so, the less we rely on being a civil society under rule of law.
A more factually correct statement summing up the causal and correlational relationship between firearms and people killing people is that people using guns kill people. Sometimes the people they kill are other people, sometimes the people they kill are themselves, and sometimes they only wound, trheaten, harass or intimidate people. While people use other implements, and even bare hands to do these things as well, it is true that few of those things are as inherently lethal or as capable of doing as much harm with as little effort, or are used as often.
The NRA tries to pretend that firearms are not lethal weapons; that is inherently dishonest. The NRA makes money for gun manufacturers by promoting a violent gun culture, one which advocates for gun violence in order to sell more guns for the gun manufacturers they represent. They promote laws which make it easier, not more difficult, for guns to be sold that go directly and indirectly into the hands of criminals and terrorists, because their goal is to sell more guns.
That they are not primarily focused on legal gun use, but rather on maiximizing gun sales is evident in the NRA having someone on their board like Ted Nugent, a chronic advocate for violence against individuals with whom he disagrees, and a serial violator of laws. That they intend to promote a violent gun culture where people take the law into their own hands is evident in the material and positions they take, as evidenced by their spokespeople and their statements and their advocacy for lax gun laws that make it legal to traffic in guns to people for illegal purposes.
Police should know what the quality is of the guns they purchase in these buybacks. The situation should be corrected so that an appropriate minimum and maximum are established depending on the state and quality of the firearm in these purchases to prevent this kind of abuse. But it is also a statement of their lack of character that this group would act this way; it is an indication of the contempt for the boundaries between legal and illegal firearms that this group would undermine an effort by the police to get illegal guns off the streets.
From MSNBC.com :
Chicago gun buyback unknowingly raises money for NRA kids' gun camp
Guns Save Life, based in Champaign, Ill., three hours south of Chicago, turned in dozens of guns and BB guns it had collected – “rusty scrap metal,” the group called the load – taking home $6,240.
Of the 5,500 guns turned in on June 23, 60 came from Guns Save Life.
The Chicago Police Department program pays $100 for every gun and $10 every BB gun, air gun or replica, no questions asked. The money is given in the form of a Visa debit card.
“We are redirecting funds from people who would work against the private ownership of firearms to help introduce the next generation to shooting safely and responsibly,” John Boch, head of Guns Save Life, told the Chicago Sun-Times.
Boch said the money will go toward paying for ammunition for the youth camp.
Police spokeswoman Melissa Stratton was not amused, according to the Sun-Times.
“It’s unfortunate that this group is abusing a program intended to increase the safety of our communities,” Stratton said.
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