How extravagant! It must be great that Scottsdale can burn taxpayer cash to make a political statement about guns. The self-proclaimed, West’s most Western town” is really just plain Left, not West. The west’s most Leftist town is planning the destruction of 700 recovered firearms from their evidence vault. This town like so many others is under the control of gun-rights hating Liberals who think they’re somehow doing something to eradicate guns from the face of our earth by destroying them.
Trading the guns to licensed dealers in exchange for regulation departmental weapons has been rejected. Selling the guns at public auction under proper federal laws has been rejected. Letting public supported museums acquire desirable items for their own collections has been rejected.
The politicians from this town should be forced to pay the market value of the firearms to their taxpayers for allowing this wanton, willful waste.
No gun dealers or gun manufacturers have complaints about these wasteful programs since they fill the needs of the gun buying public with brand new firearms. These really dumb, do-good programs are good for their businesses!
Firearms don’t age nearly as fast as humans. 150 year-old firearms can easily work as well as they did the day they left the factory. New guns are cranked out even faster than Scottsdale can burn money.
Snottsdale seems to be the leading authority of political correctness out here in Arizona. I thought about becoming a cop in Snottsdale until I saw what that town is all about !
ReplyDeleteAs a libertarian from Scottsdale, I should theoretically have the same view on guns as you. Yet, much as I prize the Constitution, I part ways with the 2nd Amendment. I realize this has been an historic right for Americans, and I cherish personal freedom as much as anyone. However, guns are, in modern times, a crime against personal liberty; hear me out.
ReplyDeleteTo start, guns--in FAR greater numbers than any other weapon--enable and permit (nonconsensual) murder. I care far more for the personal liberty of a murder victim than for the average citizen who wants to have the RIGHT to pop a cap in that victim. Even the best civil servants are impotent against mindless, armed rage--a malady which kills thousands of innocent lives every year. I have nothing against the redneck who imagines himself a cowboy, and if guns worked only during ethical circumstances I myself might own one. However, civil society has long outlived its patience with testosterone happy, heat packing murderers. The guns available today bear no resemblence to the rifles of 1776, which should be cause for serious reflection. The idea that anyone who wants it should be allowed a button ON MY LIFE is offensive and shameful. Europe banned guns successfully and the U.S. should imitate their wisdom on this issue. America should give up the fuzzy feeling that comes with pulling triggers and, as Europe and others have shown (and U.S. statistics clearly demonstrate), we will bury fewer innocent people. The statistics are sickening.
The choice to demolish guns is hardly comparable to demolishing harmless property. I'm not in favor of drug laws (the "crime" is ALWAYS consensual), but I would never expect the cops to resell their seized smack. Perhaps that's an unfair metaphor (after all, smack is illegal). My point is that guns are killing machines (okay, maybe YOU don't use them to kill but I must refer you to the statistics), and a responsible government MINIMIZES murder. Your point about supply-and-demand is valid: if police increase the supply, theoretically there will be fewer guns manufactured (although I don't see how this would be a win for you). To your point about museums: valid again, although I would contend our culture is not lacking in its glorification and edification of guns.
I'm sorry, sir, but I can't agree with you on this one. I don't think our government should be in the business of handing out guns (or selling them for profit). If museums were, in fact, clamouring to purchase 700 guns I'll grant you may have a point--if you'll grant me that art is suffering when we glorify the very weapons that gangsters used to blow apart innocent people.
Call me what you will, but I fear angry people who love their guns. There are far more peaceful solutions to whatever problems you face, partner. I trust you're not a vigilante but I will nevertheless remain vigilantly anonymous.
R
You are not much of a Libertarian, other than you want drugs legalized.
ReplyDeleteYou obviously favor big government and lots of control because you need a police state to even begin enforcing gun control laws.
You are a just another sorely misinformed gun and gun-rights hater.
Guns save lives or cops would not carry them. The same holds true for the thousands of concealed weapon holders in Arizona.
You made reference to Europe and statistics you claim show that fewer legal guns has somehow made Europe safer. Your dead wrong here. Gun bans and enforcement is higher than ever in the UK as their gun crimes have soared into the stratosphere.
In the history of wars they have all been fought with state of the art weapons. I take it that you feel the Second Amendment should apply only to muskets. That would allow for a true holocaust if the good guys carried muskets and the bad guys use state of the art weapons.
Americans need protection from criminals with state of the art weapons. Armed good guys must outnumber the criminals or the criminals will control everyone especially you gun haters.
The City of Phoenix auctioned the guns of to the public until the last decade without them showing up in criminal activity. Criminals don’t want to buy guns from licensed dealers, let alone police agencies!
The gun-free state you want is a police state. Prisons are the truest form of a police state but still manage to have a high crime rate. Beatings, rapes, robberies and murders are the norm in our prisons. Despite the most vigorous weapon control possible there are loads of murders committed with knives and yes, even guns. Americans deserve to be armed and self-reliant if their personal circumstances require that.
You gun-rights haters always seem to live in nice safe neighborhoods, drive safe cars and work in ivory towers with lots of security. The needs of others are too much for the self-absorbed gun-rights haters to worry about.
You need to see some modern gun control studies to learn the truth about statistics you mentioned. Professor John Lott has conducted several and FSU’s Gary Kleck’s scholars have done many more. They all show that gun control does not work, except of course to facilitate the disarming of law-abiding citizens. That of course encourages criminals to do their deeds in relative safety.
Rest assured that every one of those 700 guns would be sold in the market place. The laws of supply and demand are not going to simply change for Scottsdale’s expensive political statement. Since the 700 guns sold will be new instead of older used models they will be more powerful, and last that much longer.
The Arizona and Texas Departments of Public Safety for a dozen years collected new statistics that show that concealed weapon permit holders are seldom if ever involved in crimss. That information can be found on their web sites.
Criminals and gun-rights haters like yourself are the problem not armed law-abiding Americans.