Dean's gun control stance product of background

[killbotfactory]

Pretty good article with the standard complaints from the Kerry campaign and Brady campaign.

"My position on gun control is not driven by ideology. It's driven by pragmatism," Dean said this week. "I think people are entitled to make their own laws. I just don't want laws made in Washington that don't make sense."

Yep...

While other governors targeted guns in response to school violence, Dean asserted that better enforcement and stronger families were the answer, not more laws. After the 1999 rampage at Columbine High School in a Denver suburb, Dean said, "The remedy is not simply in the law. It's mostly in the community and in the home."

A-yup.

In Vermont, "I always said if you could pass me a gun control bill that would save lives, I'd sign it," Dean said this week. But with a low state crime rate, "I never felt there was any kind of gun control that would stop the murders that were happening."

As for high-crime states, Dean said he does not know whether gun control would help curb violence.

"But I think it's responsible to let them try things, because things are really awful and I don't want any 9-year-old kids badly hurt," Dean said. "Let New York have all the gun control they want."

Seems pretty sensible to me.

The thing I like about Dean's policies and proposals is that they promote healthy and stable families which will curb gun violence in the long run, much more than any new gun control bill.

link

[alwynsw]

1. Amen and amen

We always get the knee jerk reaction from legislators, governors, etc. when a terrible incident occurs. The rule of the day seems to be additional laws regarding guns, drugs, animals, etc.

I agree wholeheartedly with Mr. Dean's approach.

Did you also notice that by expamle as well as by word, he made it clear that gun control laws are a state issue?

I'll stand by my statements I've made for years. Excessive restrictions have done little if nothing to curb gun violence. The harshest restrictions in the country are within the city limits of New York City, Washington, D.C., MIami, and the entire state of Massachusetts. Anyone can feel free to compare violent (as opposed to possession violations) gun crime statistics in those areas with areas that have far less restrictive laws. Criminal by definition, as noted by inference by Mr. Dean, are not greatly affected by more stringent laws.

[dsc]

2. Those comparisons have been done

and they don't help your cause. Boston has the lowest big city murder rate in the country and NYC also is doing very nicely in that regard. DC is a special case in that their homoicide department is well known as the nations worst in a big city. That leaves Miami and I want some citation as to exactly what gun control they have.

[Padraig18]

3. Kick