Board Thread:Current Events/@comment-867021-20121212152305/@comment-1895174-20121213020633

99spidey99 wrote: I'm a gun owner here in Florida and I really think the problem is there's not enough LEGAL gun owners out there. Look at where the stricktest guns laws are (Detroit, Chicage, NYC) and that's where the crime rates are the highest also. Now, in Texas, where everybody carries a gun, crime in low. I mean, you're not going to break into a house when you know they probably have guns.

Thoughts? A flawed argument.

On one hand, most states with lax gun laws are states with low population densities, where crime rate is naturally lower. Some stuff doesn't get reported, while others, like muggings, are virtually impossible. Also, many of the most dangerous cities in the country are in states with those relaxed laws, like Saint Louis, Atlanta, and Phoenix, while New York and Chicago have lower crime rates at the moment than they've ever had. And look at some of the real gun tragedies - Columbine, Virginia Tech, Aurora; each of those were in states with lax gun laws and only the Columbine kids had their guns illegally.

In another hand, states with stricter gun laws have problems with gun runners. People who buy guns on the cheap in a state with lax laws and sell them in states with strict laws. Because there are no border stops between state borders, this is rather difficult to stop.

And if you were going to break into the house of someone with guns, you either bring a better gun or break in during the middle of the day when everyone's at work (which is why most break-ins happen during the middle of the day). And, as someone who lives in Atlanta, I wouldn't have a gun if I didn't have to worry about other people and their guns. But if owning one is par for the course, I don't have much of a choice.