would you support a constitutional amendment to ban handguns?

[WalterMitty]

yes, obviously.

of course we will never be able to clean up all of the saturday night specials that are floating around on the streets.

[WalterMitty]

of course i believe in freedom,

i wish kids in the inner city were free to go outside and play without fear of being shot up in a drive-by.

how many (innocent) people have to die before we get serious about doing something?

if 2 service men die in iraq tomorrow, thatll be in the news.  how many people are going to get shot up tomorrow in our cities?  you wont hear much about them.

[WalterMitty]

No (not walter mitty)

well maybe im an extremist on this issue.  i can live with that.

im just fed up with picking up the paper every day and reading about another young person shot.

[WalterMitty]

Maybe offering bribes for people in inner cities to give up their guns might work better?

like a gun buyback program?

those dont work.  what tends to happen is people bring their old, cheap, saturday night specials in and use the money they receive to buy a newer gun.

[WalterMitty]

i wish kids in the inner city were free to go outside and play without fear of being shot up in a drive-by.

how many (innocent) people have to die before we get serious about doing something?

Walter, you've already admitted it would pretty much be impossible to get rid of all the guns the criminals have, so why would banning them change that? How will removing a method of self-defense of law abiding citizens while the criminals still are packing, as you admit, make people feel safer?

If you want to get serious about gun crimes, then punish the criminals, not those who use their guns responsibly and in the bounds of the law.

Also, I think you're seriously exaggerating the problem. According to the CDC, there were only 1,822 homicide by firearm deaths in the age groups of 0-19 in 2003 out of a population of 81 million in that age group - I seriously doubt most of them go outside worried about getting caught up in a drive by.

that is 1,822 preventable deaths.

[WalterMitty]

that is 1,822 preventable deaths.

As dazzleman pointed out, that presumes that the ban would be effective, which I must again mention that you have admitted it won't be. It's either going to end gun violence or it isn't - make up your mind, Walter, which is it?

It also presumes that in every case that if a gun wasn't available that another method, such as a knife stabbing, would not have been used. You can't say that to any degree of certainty, and given that murders by other methods still occur I would be that a fair number of these would even if guns were not available.

would a ban end gun violence?  no, of course not.  it would, however, be a  step in the right direction.

we may not ever get the guns off the street, but doesnt it make sense to stop manufacturing these things?

as for stabbings, innocent people dont die in drive by stabbings.  and you and i and everyone else knows that handguns are the weapons of choice for would-be murderers.