The Democrate need to GIVE UP on the Gun Control battle, it is beyond fixing!

[VoteProgressive]

It comes down to this; the gun control battle is a lost cause for the democrats. And continuing to fight this fight can only hurt us and not help us.

Now, I am not a NRA, 2nd Amendment rules, gun nut. I never have been. I own 3 guns (pistol and 2 shotguns), shoot them and have my Concealed Carry license (Kansas / Utah). I do not carry, except when I think there is a major need to. I do have a handgun in my bedroom, in a push button safe that I can open in 10 seconds. There are over 500 thousand possible combinations so the kids cannot ever get to it. The rest are locked up in the basement. I have never needed a gun in my life and do not personally know anyone who has. But I know there have been many who have needed one.

The issue with gun control now is simple…..there are too many guns in the hands of the bad guys to fix the problem at this point. There are over 70 million handguns in the USA. At this point, even if you stopped the sale of all new handguns tomorrow, the bad people would still have them, steal them and use them. There is NO WAY to stop it. So that means that the bad guys will acquire the guns and the good guys cannot. That would not work.

Like it or not, Conceal Carry has not caused many issues. Many, including me, predicted in 1987 that the Florida law would cause many issues with CC people pulling guns out when not needed. This has not been the case. It seems that the CCW citizens seem to be an honest bunch of people. It makes sense because they must be criminal free to obtain the license. So the CCW laws have not increased crime. There are various opinions about if it has reduced crime (arguments go both ways) but no one can prove it has increased crime at all. So there is no logical reason to stop the expansion of CCW at this point. I tend to believe it has caused a moderate reduction in crime. I think the deterrent factor also helps. Criminals interviewed by the FBI say that they are more worried about an armed citizen than the police.

Now, as more people get their CCW, that means more handguns are purchased. And as more people own guns, then it means more guns are stolen from cars and homes. You cannot possible stop it. And as they are stolen, then more guns end up in the hands of criminals. But as long as the criminals have them you need to let the honest citizens have them.

Since there is no solving this problem by banning anything, the dems need to stop letting the GOP use it against. The pro-gun crowd is in general an anti-dem bunch. Walk through any gun show parking lot and the bumper stickers are like a tea bagger party. The NRA has convinced them that dems are evil and they want to take your guns away. Many of these gun lovers seem like they are working class people who should like the dems more than the GOP. But the NRA has been extremely successful in making them hate the Dems. We need to take that advantage away from them. They need to stop trying to fix a problem that cannot be fixed at this point.

The NRA now spends millions to defeat GREAT dems over a single issue; GUNS. If the dems just did not resist this simple issue, it would take the money away from their opponents. If the Dems started getting A ratings then the NRA would stop spending more money on GOP candidates than they do on Democratic candidates. It will take years to get to this point, but we need to start as soon as possible. It is not a battle we can win. The NRA is now a right wing organization. We can change that in the next 10 years if the dems just back off the gun control issue.

Now, there are some simple things to do, I think, to make the gun issue better. The first is to hold parents/gun owners responsible criminally for any unsecured gun that end up hurting someone. If a gun owners gun is found by a child and injures a child then the gun owner should be charged with a crime, and go to jail, no doubt about it. Gun safes for a bedroom are $40. Lock up your damn gun. You are welcome to put it on your headboard when you go to bed and then lock it up again the next morning. But if you forget and a child is injured you should pay a severe price. That does not always happen.

If you are a CCW citizen and you accidentally shoot someone you should also pay a criminal penalty. The more of these type shootings that cause someone to serve time, then the more responsible gun owners will notice.

The need for honest citizens to have guns in the USA today is real. The democrats need to recognize this. If they continue to try to ban guns or stop CCW they are giving the enemy the perfect way to keep many working class voters on the GOP side. I hope they learn this lesson soon!

I am new to the DU and this Gun forum but I hope we can keep the discussion of this topic civil. It seems like many people get angry quicker on this forum than any other. I look forward to hearing others opinions about this topic.