San Diego Police Chief William Lansdowne is fully supportive of the Obama/Feinstein gun grab, and says if lawmakers play it right Americans can be completely disarmed within "a generation."
The crazy thing is, the more these politicians (Obama, Biden, Feinstein, etc.) talk about gun control, the more gun sales increase, and the more NRA membership increases (several hundred thousand new members in the past 8 weeks). Seriously, gun distributors are selling out of firearms and ammunition. Most semi-automatic rifles, with the exception of .22's, have literally sold out in the United States.
There is absolutely no way that the NRA could have done more to promote record-breaking gun sales in America than these myopic politicians have unwittingly done. I wish they would stop focusing all their attention on the guns, and deal with the causes of gun crime (like gangs, drug addiction, domestic violence, mental illness).
Can you imagine how ridiculous it would seem if Mothers Against Drunk Driver (MADD) spent most of their energy protesting against cars? Yet these politicians arrange press conferences and photo ops to hold up scary looking rifles that have seemingly been possessed by some evil entity that makes them kill people.
According to the Center for Disease Control, "In 2010, 10,228 people were killed in alcohol-impaired driving crashes, accounting for nearly one-third (31%) of all traffic-related deaths in the United States." 10,228 people! Yet vehicles are not considered the cause, and only the drink drivers' cars are (sometimes) impounded.
(http://www.cdc.gov/motorvehiclesafety/impaired_driving/impaired-drv_factsheet.html)
According to the FBI 2010 crime statistics, by comparison, in the same year, 358 people were killed by rifles. That number includes rifles of all types, not just the semi-automatic "assault rifles" being vilified by President Obama, Biden, Feinstein, et al. That means "assault rifles" were used to kill less than 358 of the 13,000 people murdered in 2010. Handguns were used to kill 6000 people, knives were used in 1700 homicides, and blunt objects in 540 homicides. (bat, hammers, etc.).
http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/crime-in-the-u.s/2010/crime-in-the-u.s.-2010/tables/10shrtbl11.xls
In spite of these statistics, it's just not as exciting for a Senator to stand in front of the fawning press holding a baseball bat, or a knife. Politicians take the easy route. They pin an American flag to their lapel, hold up a Colt AR-15, and proudly announce that they are tough on crime, and they're going to take on the NRA. I guess dealing with gang members and perpetrators of domestic violence is too scary, even when you have a permit to carry your own concealed firearm (cough, cough, Mrs. Feinstein), or have your own armed security detail.
Until these misguided, myopic, self-promoting politicians venture out of their Ivory Tower and deal with the actual causes of deadly violence, none of their fact finding, blue ribbon advisory board, committee meeting over coffee and warm butter crescents is going to do much good. It's become a cliche, but "assault rifles" are simply not violent. Gang members, drug dealers, wife beaters, muggers and thieves, rapists, and sick fucking psychos are violent. Throw them, and keep them, in prison. Take away their guns, knives, bats, and everything else that could hurt somebody. Add 10 years mandatory prison time to any criminal who uses a firearm in the commission of a crime. Put any parolee found in possession of a firearm back in prison for 10 years.
Law abiding citizens who do not share the criminals' violent traits are not the issue, and they're not the problem! By all means, make people submit to a background check before they acquire a firearm, initiate a database for seriously mental ill individuals, continue to teach citizens how to safely use and store their firearms. But declaring war against semi-automatic rifles is like blaming matches for arson. It misses the point almost completely.
