California and gun control

Inaccuracies Aplenty in CA Politicians’ Press Conference Announcing Gun Ban Agenda

On February 7th, 2013, several California politicians held a press conference to promote a package of new gun control law proposals.

TIME MARK	STATEMENT	FACTS
00:23	2800 gun and auto death in 2011	Cal Department of Public Health has only posted data through 2010. Where did he get unpublished numbers and how can they be validated?
00:40	Argument about registering and licensing gun owners like auto drivers “to reduce gun violence”	Assume Cal is like the rest of the nation and nearly 1/2 of homes have at least one gun. With 12,433,172 households, that means over six million with guns. 2800 gun deaths (minus the 56% that are suicides and thus uncontrollable with any legislation) means that are subjecting 99.98% of gun owners to regulations in order to control 0.02% of the gun misusers … and this gives them a lot of leeway because we know from recidivism rates and repeat violent offender profiles that most gun violence is caused by a small number of people.
00:54	Claims California has some of the toughest gun laws in the country	Then why does Cal rank #21 for homicides, slightly above the national average? If these tough gun laws are so effective, why does everyone from Arkansas to Minnesota have lower homicide rates?
01:05	600,000 legal gun sales	Best case (for Steinberg) is that 0.2% of legal gun sales resulted in non-suicide gun deaths (using the same math as used for 00:40).
02:12	Curbing the proliferation of “rapid fire” weapons … by getting guns out of the hands of people who should not have them	Logical disconnect. We know statistically that repeat violent offenders are largely career criminals who (a) tend not to obey laws and (b) are not required to register their guns (According to the Supreme Court, criminals do not have to obtain licenses or register their weapons, as that would be an act of self-incrimination – Haynes vs. U.S. 390 U.S. 85, 1968) More to the point, street thugs (primarily the source of firearm homicides) prefer highly concealable handguns, and lean towards .38 revolvers and 9mm pistols. None of these are “rapid fire”, no more so that your nightstand piece.
02:35	We respect the Second Amendment	Good Lord, where to begin. Better not even go there. Not enough electrons flowing through the Internet to document how they don’t.
05:19	Seek to ban the manufacture of rifles with detachable magazines, period!	There’s the tell! They seek to ban manufacture of firearms. Since banning ownership might be problematic under the Heller decision, their only alternative is to attempt to choke off the source. What is created in California by the LCAV will be exported.
11:10	“These were legally purchased guns”	He cited public massacres by lunatics as justification for halting all legal firearm transactions of specific firearms types. Logical disconnect. The disease is mental illness, which is not the 99.98% of people the legislation affects. Gun misuse is just one symptom of psychotic rage. Cure the disease, don’t treat the symptom.
11:47	Get the 19,000 household holding 40,000 prohibited guns	If the government has known for so long which criminal households have guns: Why has this not been a priority in the past? Should this have been de facto law enforcement priority? Has the state’s inactivity be contributory to gun deaths? Is he admitting that the legislature has failed in the most basic mission of crime control?
15:50	Villaraigosa – claims each homicide costs $1M	He cites no sources and even says “I can’t be exact on that”. Exceedingly farfetched even if you include the absurd angle (often take by the gun control industry) that includes lost lifetime earnings. Evidentially being a gang banger is profitable.
16:15	Villaraigosa – claims the NRA has prevented states from enforcinggun laws	That would be a slander suit were it not a public official.
19:50	Loni Hancock – “There will be a period of time for them to be turned and disposed of”	Outlawing of currently legal magazines, meaning you will have to turn them in and they will be destroyed. No grandfathering, no exception. Repeating above: Street thugs (primarily the source of firearm homicides) prefer highly concealable handguns, and lean towards .38 revolvers and 9mm pistols. They tend not to use high capacity clips because they make concealment more difficult.
21:01	Loni Hancock – The USA has 15 times the gun violence rate of other wealth countries	Yet the USA ranks near the bottom (#13) of 17 industrialized nations in terms of violent contact crimes. Hancock ignores the crime prevention aspect of firearms. Hence, if she has her way, violence rates will rise. Source: Criminal Victimization in Seventeen Industrialized Countries, Dutch Ministry of Justice.

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