Yep, NFA processing times are going through the roof. Why I bought a can NOW. Do it, or forever hold your peace.

Yet crime statistics keep dropping:

Crime rates keep dropping, FBI crime statistics show

We obviously need more gun control laws...

I think connecting A and B is a bit of a stretch.

I agree with you.

Yet if statistics indicated that crime were going up that connection (correlation I think is the best term) would be headline news every major newspaper and network newscast. New tough gun control legislation would be pushed for and gun owners would be demonized.

It is interesting though...usually when the economy hits the skids crime rises. Why do you think it has not?

http://crimetrends.com/sitebuilderco...pCr2000_09.jpg

Looks like it's not tied to "scary firearms" at all, as the sun-set of the AWB didn't have any effect what-so-ever.

Or maybe it IS! tied to firearms. Look at the little dip in violent crimes in 2008/2009...

http://articles.cnn.com/2008-11-11/j...er?_s=PM:CRIME

Hrrmmm...record firearm sales...record crime lows...hrmmm....

Just think, how would YOU behave if you knew nearly everyone had a firearm on their person? Would you cut people off in traffic as often? Yell at someone for taking too long at some task? It would make our society much more polite, I believe. Further, exactly how long do you think you would last on a shooting-spree on a college campus if every student and professor who wished to own a firearm and carry it was doing so? Yeah. Probably not nearly as long as some of those tragic events lasted. Nor as damaging.

Correlation != Causation regardless. Just about any time you see a statistical correlation used in an argument (especially in the news), there's no proof of causal link. It could as easily be that lower crime rates paradoxically cause an increase in the sales of guns by some social/psychological effect nobody's thought of. Or it could be that the average temperature rose 0.03 degrees during that timeframe, and rising temperatures cause both a drop in crime and an independent increase in gun sales. Or it could be random chance.

There are many more sound arguments for gun ownership than dubious crime stats correlations.

I don't think it would really matter.

After all, if everyone carries a gun, then isn't the playing field even?

Higher stakes. Things would not be the same.

Higher stakes than 3-ton automobiles being tossed at each other?

It's true that there's no proof of causation. The 47% decrease in violent crime rate since 1991 might be related to other factors than the 90 million increase in guns owned during that same period. No way to know.

OTOH, what we have NOT seen in an increase in violent crime associated with increased gun ownership, including over the last 8 years for so as states have had massive increases in handgun carry permits issued.

I read in the paper today that police officers killed with guns increased compared to last year. Not by much. I thought i throw that out there.

*sigh* sad thing to hear...

Yes. Would gun control have prevented that increase? Does that increase have anything to do with the increase in the number of concealed/carry permits across the US?

Whether gun control has anything to do with that at all the media will likely spin it against us... there's no one to stop them from doing so.

Do you remember that story ABC News did years ago to discredit concealed carry? They argued it was dangerous because it put guns in the hands of inexperienced people. To prove it, they took a sample of college students and set them up to fail. Tried to teach them to shoot in less than a day, then gave them a holster and a blank firing pistol and had them sit in class. They then would send a "gunman" into the classroom and watch as the kids 1) took forever to figure out what was going on and 2) fumbled around all of their crap to draw their pistol.

It was laughable to people like us that actually have a clue... but unfortunately they can pull those stunts off because the majority of the uninformed public is... well... uninformed and gullible.