Reply #64: Yes, they do

[Euromutt]

That's why murder, manslaughter, assault with a deadly weapon, reckless endangerment and brandishing are all criminal offenses.

The rest of the letter is so much hand-waving away of inconvenient statistics with an appeal to junk science like that perpetrated by the likes of Arthur Kellermann, Matthew Miller, David Hemenway, etc. along with an unstated and insupportable premise that deaths inflicted using firearms would not occur if gun control laws were more stringent (blithely ignoring the fact that the overwhelming majority of homicide perpetrators have--or should have--prior criminal convictions that prohibit them from possessing firearms, or the possibility of method substitution).

Consider this: how many shootings have been committed in the past 15 years in the United States using automatic weapons (i.e. machine guns)? The North Hollywood bank robbery, okay, and? I'm not aware of any others (though I'm willing to be corrected). During that same period, London has seen at least four shootings involving SMGs. If criminals want guns, they can get them, no matter what the laws are.