Reply #35: It takes at least 4 hours to drive to NYC from Vermont!

[UnapologeticLiberal]

On June 23rd, I thought the trip was going quickly on the way back to New Jersey because we got out of Vermont and into NY State pretty quickly, but then we were in New York for what felt like forever before we got to the city. And Boston is at least 3 hours from Vermont...so it is not like it is right around the corner for people to go buy guns, especially the people most likely to use them for things like gang violence, many of whom live in the inner cities and do not have cars. Many people of all income levels do not drive who live in NYC...and there have got to be easier ways to get guns than to go all the way to Vermont.

Now, in DC, this is a bigger issue, because Virginia has pretty lax gun rules and is very easily accessible by Metro. That is I believe part of why violent crime has gone up in DC in the last 20 years despite all the new gun laws. So I don't think Dean was negligent in not passing more gun laws in Vermont, which has the lowest homicide rate in the country, for fear of people getting guns there to use in NYC. But I think that the DC-Virginia case casts doubt on Dean's position that it is a state issue. Then again, if DC had the rights that states have, there are plenty of ways that they could use leverage against Virginia to get them to take the District into account in passing their gun laws, such as putting tolls on the bridges between DC and Arlington or charging a wage tax on Virginians who work in the District and get a completely free ride right now.