Reply #21: I believe that the volumes of statistics [View All]

[billh58]

which appear daily in this forum do little to address an obvious fact: the vast majority of legally manufactured guns in the United States enter the system as legal purchases initially. How then, do legally purchased guns become illegal weapons in the hands of criminals?

The most often repeated reasoning behind advocating wide-spread arming of the general public in the public venue, is the need for self-defense because criminals are illegally armed. The question then becomes: how are legally purchased guns being acquired illegally by criminals?

Are guns being stolen from legal purchasers? Are legal purchasers selling them to criminals illegally? Are they being "lost" by legal purchasers, and "found" by criminals? Whatever method criminals use to acquire illegal guns, it doesn't appear to be all that difficult for them get as many guns as they want.

It would seem that it would be more socially beneficial to plug the gushing leak that allows criminals to obtain illegal weapons, than it would be to advocate a domestic "arms race" in the name of self-defense. Will the general public really be safer when everyone is carrying arms in public? Or do we just need enough civic-minded legally-armed citizens to keep the peace in order to offset the number of criminals who are illegally-armed?

http://www.ojjdp.gov/pubs/gun_violence/contents.html