Mission statement:

Armed and Safe is a gun rights advocacy blog, with the mission of debunking the "logic" of the enemies of the Constitutionally guaranteed, fundamental human right of the individual to keep and bear arms.

I can be reached at 45superman@gmail.com.You can follow me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/45superman.

Monday, February 04, 2008

'Sensible Gun Laws' not saving lives

Friday night, a 15-year-old mini-thug in Baltimore, Maryland, shot and murdered his parents and two younger brothers.

A 15-year-old boy fatally shot his parents and two younger brothers as they slept, then spent more than 12 hours with friends before returning home and calling 911 to report that his father was dead, police said Sunday.
On Saturday, five women were shot and murdered in a Chicago-area shopping mall, in what police believe was a robbery attempt.
A gunman fatally shot five women in a robbery at a store in a suburban Chicago strip mall before fleeing Saturday, prompting police to sweep through neighboring shops as terrified customers watched. The victims, including at least one employee, were killed at a Lane Bryant clothing store at the Brookside Marketplace, police Chief Mike O'Connell said.
The citizen disarmament advocates will undoubtedly put on their blood-dancing shoes and point to these atrocities as "justification" to disarm Americans. What they probably will not care to talk about is the fact that on the Brady Bunch's newly released "score cards," ranking the states on the degree to which citizens are disarmed, Illinois scored quite "well," and Maryland scored even "better."

Illinois, for example, was ranked ninth among the fifty states (meaning Illinois' gun laws are the ninth most restrictive in the country). That would put IL in the 82nd percentile. One area in which Illinois scored particularly "well" is concealed carry legislation:
States can earn up to 10 points by making it harder to carry “Guns In Public Places” (except for trained law enforcement and security) and by allowing localities to “Preserve Local Control” over municipal gun laws. This includes keeping guns out of workplaces and college campuses, not forcing law enforcement to issue concealed handgun permits on demand, not permitting
“shoot first” expansions in self-defense laws, and not preventing municipalities from passing their own gun laws. Illinois scored all 10 points in this category.
The reason, of course, that "Illinois scored all 10 points in this category" (that emphasis was the Brady Bunch's, by the way) is that not only does Illinois "not forc[e] law enforcement to issue concealed handgun permits on demand," Illinois bans outright the carrying, either openly or concealed, of firearms in public. In other words, Illinois achieves a high state-mandated defenselessness score. I certainly hope the families of the victims appreciate that.

Maryland, by the way, makes it to the Bradys' top three in restrictive gun laws, putting it in the 94th percentile.

Kentucky and Oklahoma, tied for "last" in the Brady Bunch ranking, are sounding better, and safer, all the time.

6 comments:

Don said...

The mistake the Lane Bryant women made was in leaving the warm, safe cocoon of security that is Chicago and daring to enter the suburbs. Suburbs are swirling cesspools of violence that infect Chicago; just ask Jesse Jackson and Snuffy Pfleger.

The real problem is that we in Illinois are not unarmed enough.

Michael Hawkins said...

Typical ...

Do mind that there is no real correlation between violent crime and gun legislation either way. Some very free states are very safe (Alaska) Some aren't, some very restrictive states are pretty safe (Hawai) Some aren't (California, DC, ...)

i.e.: gun laws don't affect criminals

Anonymous said...

I posted the following question on a national gun-oriented site: Can anyone point to a single case of a Virginia Tech wannabe going to a place where they had reasonable expectation of return fire?

Other than possibly the recent attack at a church in CO, nobody could point to such an event...anytime...

It would seem "gun laws" save no one from crazies or thugs, and a high Brady rating in your state might be cause for extra caution as you travel about.

Kurt '45superman' Hofmann said...

Can anyone point to a single case of a Virginia Tech wannabe going to a place where they had reasonable expectation of return fire?

There was a thuggish lunatic who attacked a police station in Virginia, in 2006, but that's about the only recent exception I can think of.

opaww said...

I am glad I live in Kentucky and will wair the tie for last place with honor

Unknown said...

Oh how I hate Maryland more and more and so cannot wait to leave!!