It’s possible the media exploiting police shooting blacks(race baiting) has contributed to the race issue more than anything. Then we get black lives matter..and the mentally ill get weapons and go about shooting cops. Unfortunately the media aren’t being held accountable and they go on race baiting.

Do note that Trump does scream/yell at the media..very interesting.

In my mind one of Obama biggest failings is that the whole race issue got worse under his watch when it should have gotten better.

The other reason Chicago is a straw man – and I appreciate Mike’s argument; I don’t think there are any easy answers here – is that the gun violence is limited to very specific areas of the city. I spend probably 10 weeks a year in Chicago for business, and my daughter lives in downtown Chicago. I feel as safe walking her dog at night in her Chicago neighborhood as I do walking my dog at night in my neighborhood in a small town in New England.

I tend to be as bit more pro armed citizens if you will, Like you BT I grew up with it, my dad DID hunt and I owned my first gun…a shot gun at age 5, we lived in a rural area and hunted quail we didn’t have to drive anywhere either we had bird dogs that my dad trained and over a thousand acres right out the front door, quail were plentiful.

Unlike most people I have used a gun for personal protection, and by used I mean unholstered and aimed it. That meant someone else plus I was a split second from a very different life…or lack thereof.

Maybe its my heritage but I have a very strong distrust of anyone who seeks power over me and I see gun ownership as the last line against tyranny.

the question I pose is what exactly should render any weapon illegal to be owned by a law abiding citizen? The way it looks? A lot of people make reference to “military weapons” but lets be honest if it isnt used for hunting and even if it is any weapon is a military weapon…as the left often points out when that amendment was written we had muskets….muskets were used to fight wars then, I don’t think there was any intent to exclude muskets, or any other weapon in the framing of the second amendment.

What we don’t see and what nobody likes to bring up is the single most important word that should be associated with weapon ownership that word being RESPONSIBLE.

The trend seems to be to seek to place the blame anywhere but the individual, which is where the blame belongs. The “War on Drugs” has created a lack of space in prison with mandatory sentencing guidelines and the truth is you can do more time for growing a plant than you can for using a gun to commit a crime. That just shouldn’t be. I would start by getting non violent drug offenders out of the prisons, that would free up half the cells right there, now you commit a crime with a weapon you do enough time that by the time you get out your hormones or whatever have settled down.

Everyone likes to twist numbers like Tim did but most of this country is not plagued with crime and there are countries with WAY higher rates of gun ownership that have almost non existent crime rates, while if you look at our country Chicago isnt called Chiraq for nothing, gun crime rates are astronomically high yet Chicago has the most restrictive gun ownership laws in the country.

The problem is largely societal, we don’t hold the individual accountable the way we should and until we do….Bang.

I suppose where for me it gets dicey is military weapons in the hands of every day people. Years ago, I wrote about a Mafia war in Northeastern Ohio. The home of one Mafia Kingpin was raided and they found just a ton of weapons. The excuse: They all belonged to the guys wife, who used them for hunting. “Yeah, when’s the last time she bagged a deer?” one of the officers asked.

After Newtown, the Orlando incident, the young Muslim couple shooting up a Christmas Party in California, the deranged guy shooting up a movie theater in Colorado, I really do wonder who are we protecting when automatic weapons are easily accessible and so frequently used to create havoc and destruction that just wouldn’t happen with a six shot revolver.

I know the gun lobby response is that the answer to gun violence is more guns in the hands of good citizens, but I’m not sure that an increasing arms race does anyone any good.

As Tim wrote: Bang!

If you dont mind my two cents worth I would point out that to get an opinion you should offer an opinion otherwise it feels more like bait. Just sayin

I think most people really do understand the primary causes of the problem but another problem stands directly in the way of addressing these causes. and “gun control” has nothing to do with either, people control does.