Lil_g, thank you for the compliment, but I do not teach at a university level. I have been a gun rights advocate for over 20 years and have debated gun rights for much of that time. I have appeared on television in editorial rebuttals and wrote the original version of the concealed carry legislation for the State of Oklahoma back in the 1980's, though they did not pass a version until arond 1994 after I had left the state. The internet has been a great resource in providing information on the topic and making that information available to everyone who is interested. That may account for the small turn out on the topic. We may have many lurkers and few posters. I did ask in my original post that emotional arguments be excluded and that was for a reason. You cannot imagine how hateful some of the anti-gun groups can be. I attended a protest rally against the Million Mom March in May 2000 held on the mall in Washington, D.C. By the way I was there and they only had 45,000 people at the peak and 30,000 when I went by. If you check for turnout from the U.S. Park Service you will see 800,000, come to find out the Park Service now uses figures submitted by the organizations rather than counts done from aireal photos, hence the wide discrepancy. Anyway, a couple of our people went over to check them out and when the 'mean mommies' realized that there were spys amoung them our people were encircled, spit on, and kicked until park police came in to rescue them. As a result when our group of 4,000 marched past the mean mommies to a park next to the U.S. Capital we had police protection the whole way and the police had their backs to us, the gun people. During the march I was called a Nazi by two screamming mommies. It took them off guard when I started laughing and walked over to them to explain that the Nazi's only wanted the police, military, and party elites to own guns, that I wasn't the Nazi, THEY WERE. I was laughing the whole time and continued on my march with my little picket sign while they stood the quietly with their mouths open.
As far as the SNL skit goes I am sure it was amusing, but many gun owners cringe when we see guns portrayed in such a way. I found it offensive when a gun dealer had a commercial on TV in Huntsville, Al and they swung the shotgun so it was pointing right at the camera. Misuse of firearms is the problem and exposing people, especially children, to things like that sends the wrong message.
Nick, you don't have to spend all your time on this thread, just pop in every once and awhile when it is active to see what is going on. I leave for Tulsa tomorrow and won't be checking in on Sat at all.
As far as you question regarding punishment as a deterence I can only say that I don't know. I have not studied the subject beyond knowing that the crime rate in the U.S. has been on a steady decline since 1992 and that the incarceration rate has doubled. So whether it is a deterence or the fact that people who commit crimes are being locked away, I do not know. I do know that according to demographics that we are due a rise in crime between 2004 and 2010, due to the high number of 15 year olds. Don't know how it is related, but that is what they tell me. There was a retired Chicago PD detective on the Phil Donahue show. The show was about the death penalty. He didn't say much for the entire show, when Phil asked him directly his opinion he stated, 'I don't have a bunch of fancy degrees and I haven't studied human behavior, but I know that when I arrest someone and they get the death penalty, I never end up arresting them again.'
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