Ban All Urban Guns?

A simple solution to gun crime would be a complete ban.

October 11, 2006

Gross Things: Why gross should not be a standard for how we treat things in our lives.

Observations on the Rural-Urban Split: Polarized politics from an observer from rural Albany County.

Red-Baiting Liberals: Too many Democrats are being exclusionary towards rural people.

Small Town, Small Minded?: Critiquing the notion that rural people are small minded.

The Other America: Somehow it seems like the working class world is semi-invisible to the middle class elite.

Trailers in the Country: What does it mean to live in a trailer in the country.

Why Environmentalism Isn't Winning Red America: A look at how the dynamics of rural life are different.

Working Class Psyche: Many people have to work hard to make a living, and how that ultimately effects their psyche.

Ban All Urban Guns?

Guns are a subject that invokes a great deal of passion in our country. They are associated with crime, violence, and death on one side and sportmanship, outdoormanship, and rugged individualism on the other side. With these powerful symbols it's not surprising that people get very passionate about gun ownership and who can and can not own guns.

Should city people be allowed to have guns? There is something much different between a handgun kept for protection and a long-barrel gun kept for hunting. One is intended to kill humans and one is intended to kill animals.

Indeed, a gun kept in a city might never be used except in a shooting range or in the rare case that on e had to defend oneself from an attacker. A gun out in the country might be used to put down an injured farm animal, to hunt, or some other more practical issue. Accidentally discharging a firearm in a rural area is less likely to have tragic consequences.

That begs an interesting question: should gun ownership be legal in cities? We don't allow people to burn trash or ride their quads down city streets. So why do people have guns in the city? I guess you could argue that people who live in the city can go to state lands to hunt or to use their guns elsewise.You could propose a policy that suggests that all cities are off-limits to firearms like they do at state universities.

We could say no unlocked firearms except in towns with a population less then 20,000. Maybe we could follow that up with a law elimating all short barrel guns except for those used in sport. Besides reiling gun rights advocates, that policy might actually work very well. It might do a lot to control crime, and make it easier to proscute those who quite clearly are packing pistols in the city.

We should demilitarize our cities. Too many people are victims of gun violence. Yet, we should also allow people who actually need and use guns to have them. Why should we give anybody a firearm except for their actual use? Even police shouldn't be allowed to regularly carry lethal firearms except in the most dangerous of situations. We all remember what happened to David Scaringe at the hands of a trigger happy cop.