Agents found 11 military-style machine guns, 133 handguns, 37 rifles, 60 assault rifles, and 7 shotguns in the man's home, authorities said.
  • California authorities found a man illegally owning 248 guns and 1 million rounds of ammo.
  • The state attorney general said he also had 3,000 magazines and several grenades in his home.
  • The guns included 11 machine guns, 133 handguns, and 60 assault rifles, authorities said.
  • merc
    4·
    9 months ago

    Gun control doesn’t work because criminals don’t pay attention to laws

    Of course they do. They make the same calculation you do when you decide to drive over the speed limit: how likely am I to get caught, how serious will it be if I get caught, do I really need to take this risk, etc. That’s why some criminals only break the speed limit, other criminals only steal things from empty stores, other criminals inflate the value of their real estate holdings to get cheap loans, commit campaign fraud to hide an affair with a porn star, and then attempt to launch a coup to stay in power.

    Let’s look at how similar criminals might make a decision about using a gun as part of their crime in London vs. St. Louis.

    London St. Louis
    How likely am I to be caught Pretty likely, guns are rare. It would be a big risk to trust someone to get me a gun. Guns are common, so pretty unlikely
    How serious will it be if I get caught Very serious, gun crimes are heavily punished The gun won’t make things worse
    Do I really need to take this risk No, the regular cops don’t have guns, the civilians don’t have guns, I don’t need a gun Of course I need a gun. Cops are heavily armed and twitchy, the public is heavily armed and twitchy. I can’t succeed at this crime unless I’m heavily armed
    Is the risk worth it Doing the crime is worth it, doing the crime with a gun is too big of an additional risk. If I’m going to do the crime, I have no choice but to use the biggest gun I can find
    • Liz@midwest.socialEnglish
      11·
      9 months ago

      Pretty much any crime done with a gun increases penalties here in the US.

      • merc
        41·
        9 months ago

        Once again laws don’t deter criminals, they just punish honest citizens.

        That’s an idiotic point of view. There aren’t “criminals” and “non-criminals”. Virtually everybody is a criminal, it’s just that most people only break minor laws, like running red lights, infringing copyrights, littering, etc. Those people don’t break other laws because the risk vs. reward calculation doesn’t work out for them.

        Even a big criminal like Donald Trump who has broken dozens if not hundreds of laws isn’t out shooting people because that’s not the kind of crime he does.

        There isn’t some magic switch that turns someone from “honest citizen” to “criminal”, it’s a whole spectrum of law breaking. Even that old lady who goes to church every day probably goes faster than the speed limit, parks illegally, etc. For someone in the middle of the spectrum, say someone who cheats on their taxes, tries to scam old church-going ladies out of their money, etc. there are kinds of crimes they’ll do, and other kinds of crimes they won’t do.

        Way at the criminal end of the spectrum, you have people who commit violent crimes. But, not every violent crime involves a gun. Muggers and carjackers don’t always use guns because the extra punishment is a slight deterrent. So, the law deters them. However, since the US is a society of gun nuts, it doesn’t offer as much of a deterrent as it would in some place like the UK or Japan.

          • merc
            21·
            9 months ago

            Dodging the point yet again, I see.

              • merc
                21·
                9 months ago

                Yes, and I know you got the point because it’s obvious how hard you’re trying to pretend you didn’t understand it. I know I got through to you, and I know that you understand the strength of my argument because you’re working so hard to pretend you didn’t see it. I know I convinced you, but you’re afraid to admit it because you’ll lose face.

                You can keep pretending, but it’s just not believable, sorry.