Quote Originally Posted by Daltex View Post
Would any of you good folks support stricter laws that hold the people accountable rather than just the tools?

Would you support a law of mandatory life in prison / no parole for anyone that commits any offense while in the possession of an illegally obtained hand gun. Steal a car with a stolen gun in your pocket? Immediately removed from society forever. Drunk driving with a gun you purchased without a background check on the street? Same thing.
First, I applaud you for trying to provide some balance in this thread. You're more persistent than I am, I've come to the conclusion that it's futile for the most part.

As for the law you propose, the larger problem is that we don't bother to enforce the laws we already have. I have posted this before but it's worth repeating. As an FYI, it is a Fed crime for a convicted felon to attempt to purchase a firearm from a licensed dealer.

The NCIS data (background checks for the uninitiated) from 2010 shows that 72,659 applicants were denied a firearms transaction for various reason. 34,459 of those were for felony indictment or conviction and 13,862 were fugitives from justice (48,321 total). Yet only 62 cases were referred to Fed attorneys for prosecution and 49 of those were actually prosecuted. Look at that again....49 people actually prosecuted out of 48,000. Those are miserable statistics and everyone responsible for them should be fired IMO. That data is available at NCJRS Abstract - National Criminal Justice Reference Service I've also looked at data available from other years and it is the same...many denials and few prosecutions.

Quote Originally Posted by davids View Post
Fewer handguns and no semi-auto or automatic weapons legally in civilian hands would dramatically reduce the available weaponry for more quotidian murder and suicide.
You'll probably think I'm nit-picking and maybe I am but as far as the statistics go legally held full-auto weapons have only been used twice in a crime since they were first regulated in 1934 and one of those was an off duty police officer who used his department issued weapon.