Vapid point; #1; We should be the safest nation in the world if guns make us safe. And we're not.
Rational response; Given the most violent places in America don't allow people to carry a weapon, point one is like saying seat belts don't make us safer...when you don't use them.
Vapid point #2; We should just enforce the laws we have...
...and then talk about the laws we DON'T have.
This isn't worth comment any more than saying apples aren't oranges.
#3 good point but, pointless; guns don't just affect urban areas. Gun violence rates are the worst in areas with the most restrictive guns laws.
#4 I agree; there is no constitutional reasoning against some restrictions on guns anymore than absolutes on speech. I don't think Westerboro has any right at a funeral they clearly intend to disrupt and I don't think I have any right to a nuclear bomb. However, the argument is over what 'common sense' means. As we've seen so far, much of the anti 2nd amendment agenda is not about common sense restrictions but prohibitions and, certainly, as we see, not logic.
#5; agree, gun laws can work to the public good. Again, the debate would be over 'common sense'. When LA erupted into riots, I would have wanted my daughters to be free to swing by the gun store on the way home if they decided they needed a weapon. In this computer age, there is no reason to not have a system in place that would allow a law abiding citizen to buy a gun at their pleasure or desire. And no reason to not be able to see a Jared Loughner's record showing death threats and other negative interaction with law enforcement.
#6 I agree with also. Yes, gun laws punish the law abiding, by design. However, criminals do worry as well about gun laws. To the extent they are enforced. Which brings us back to #2. Gun charges get dropped all the time because they are insanely punitive which keeps the law abiding fearful of over stepping but also leads to judges and lawyers throwing them out against people with laundry lists of other crimes.
#7 What is 'normal'? Is it 'normal' to have high rates of gun violence in areas with very prohibitive gun laws and then argue we need more gun laws? Criminal use is THE problem.
#8 Maryland is the poster child for why it is true that government abuses gun laws. Joe Curran, when as AG, pushed gun law interpretation where for minor domestic or civil crimes that COULD have had felony charges applied, but did not, that the defendant would lose his already limited gun rights.
Saying government won't abuse power is like saying sugar won't give you cavities.
#9 Political suicide? Why wouldn't a politician just vote for what they believe in and show some character and principle? Maybe it's not fear of voting for restrictions but, fear of voting for yet another dumb gun law that doesn't address the problems?
#10. The granddaddy of them all is a myth? Guns actually just up and kill people? Like pencils? Garden shears? Butter knives? Baseball bats?
I wonder if it would lead to more productive governance and a more perfect union if those who were against guns, period, would just say so, and leave the actual legislation to adults intent on actual common sense regulation and just stop with trying to cloud the right to keep and bear arms by delegitimizing the pro second amendment folks as myth makers by creative us of...myths?
I didn't notice!