How do we help places with heavy gun crime..

There are a lot of people on this board who feel we should change the party position on gun control. I am pro-gun control laws, but I am willing to change my position on one condition. I need to know that we have come up with some other way to help the cities who are suffering from heavy gun crime.

What alternatives are there? Is there anyone with a better plan than registration and background checks? Simply abandoning inner city and suburban communities because rural people are paranoid about having their guns taken is not an option for me. I am a liberal and I am my brother's keeper.

So what can we do to help cities and yet win over the gun voters?

shooting up the good citizens shoot back

White man shoots a burglar, "we need more of that!"

Black man shoots a burglar, "he's probably lying; probably a drug deal gone bad, and he's just trying to cover his self!"

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it's probably good you couldn't remember the source, cause he's been totally discredited.

I just sat here and tried to imagine the neighborhood I grew up in, except with fully half the adult males packing a firearm. No matter how hard I try to believe otherwise I still envision a bloody war zone. I would never have seen my 15th birthday, I am certain of that.

and going instead for local, common sense laws.

I am not in any way advocating for any particular law in any particular case, but .........

In some locations a total ban on guns could make sense. In others, more and stricter registration and licensing. In other areas, maybe everyone *is* armed. (That scares me, personally, but if it makes sense in some specific location where I *don't* live, who am I to argue with it?).

In my view, there is nothing in the gun issue that really rises to a national issue. Things like a woman's choice do, but not guns.

Just my own views ......

areas and states. People can get the guns in one place and transport them to the other protected areas and make a huge black market profit. Then 5 year olds are getting shot in their front yards.

with the worst problems already have the stiffest laws.

NOT part of our national platform.

It's a no-brainer to me. The issue of guns looks a hell of different to someone living in SE Washington DC than it does to a rural Kentuckian. A lot of issues are like that, and as such should best be dealt with at the state level or even cities and counties. I despise doing anything simply for political expediency but this would actually help us win elections at the national level as well, an added bonus.

As to the question of what to do about localities suffering from large amounts of gun related crime, the real answer is that WE do nothing. Unless of course one of the collective "we" happens to live in such an area. It is up to each state etc to make whatever gun laws work best for them.

You have a larger issue though, seems to me. Gun laws of any sort by themselves will really not do much to affect change in most of those high crime areas you refer to. Guns are not the cause of gun related crimes in those areas, and it isn't feasible to effectively ban them in any case. Even if you could it would be about as effective as banning short skirts to stop prostitution.

It seems to me that a more effective approach would be to address the root causes of crime in those areas. After-school programs, drug treatment programs, poverty relief, urban renewal programs and so forth are bound to get better results. Ask yourself: why do gun-related crimes occur less frequently in more suburban areas and less poor areas? Better gun laws or less desperation and hopelessness?

The only thing I would add is to strictly enforce responsible gun ownership.

There are no gates at the city entrance.

During the 90s ...

... did New York's crime rate go down because of stricter law enforcement?

... did Chicago's crime rate go down because of liberal, social initiatives?

... did Dallas's crime rate go down because of the concealed carry law?


Or did the crime rate go down in all of these cities (and everywhere else in the United States) because of the fantastic economy?

Gun control policies cannot be one-size-fits-all.

Cities and suburbs can handle their own State houses. On an issue this divisive they don't need/can't afford the assistance/meddling of well-meaning outsiders.

As far as being our brother's keeper, let's stick to national-level economic issues around which consensus can be built.

I grew up in very rural Colorado and now live in Alaska. To say that the gun control laws should be the same in those two places as in downtown L.A. is stupid. No more federal gun laws, leave it upto the states, counties, etc.

it can't be unless we are willing to abandon powerless people in high crime areas.

Hasn't strict enforcement and long prison sentences for those who break existing gun control laws helped reduce crime?