If handguns were illegal everywhere, no exceptions...

[Dreamer Tatum]

Poll question: If handguns were illegal everywhere, no exceptions...

what would describe your feelings about the death penalty for murderers who use handguns?

[dawg]

1. My views on the death penalty are complicated.

But the gun laws shouldn't make any difference.

[Llewlladdwr]

2. Why should the legality of the murder weapon make a difference? NT

[razorman]

3. Hell, we need electric bleachers.

[Nuclear Unicorn]

6. I'm not 100% pro-DP but that was funny

[We_Have_A_Problem]

4. Murder is murder

The tool used to take the victim's life is irrelevant.

What kind of twisted mind somehow considers a murder victim less worthy of justice if they were killed with a knife instead of a gun?

[dtexdem]

5. And although I strongly favor gun control, I wouldn't support such total prohibition.

But I'd sure get rid of concealed (and open) carry laws.

[spin]

20. Concealed carry laws have offered honest citizens an opportunity ...

to equalize the difference between themselves and an attacker who intends in inflict serious injury or kill and is often much larger or armed with a knife or a firearm.

For example, back in the 1920s my mother used a S&W .22 caliber handgun to deter an attacker who was hiding behind some bushes and rushed her as she was walking home from work one night. She drew her revolver from her purse and fired two shots over his head and he ran.

It's quite possible that I would have never been here to type this reply had she not had that tiny revolver.

[guardian]

7. Stupid poll

Why focus on handguns? Is murder by shotgun or rifle any different? Is murder by bludgeoning or knife any less dead? If someone is raped to death will you have a poll about banning penises?

[Name removed]

9. Deleted message

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[X_Digger]

8. Not sure one is connected to the other. n/t

[jmg257]

10. Understand your point...make the penalty so severe to try to limit the

crime before it takes place.

Maybe mandatory life in prison for convicted murders using banned deadly weapons.

[We_Have_A_Problem]

12. So what you're saying is...

...if a criminal uses a permitted weapon to kill, he gets a lighter sentence, thereby reducing justice for the victims of his crimes.

Wow...

In effect, what you're saying is, you don't care if someone gets killed, you just care HOW they are killed.

[jmg257]

13. To a degree. But perhaps you are right...same mandatory sentence

across the board for murder is fine, plus extra mandatory penalty for the possession charges.

[We_Have_A_Problem]

14. Which is already done.

A criminal who commits murder with a firearm is frequently popped for a few other things such as felon in possession or unlawful use of a firearm or whatever. The extra few years don't make a damn bit of difference when they're serving Life WOP or a death sentence.

[jmg257]

16. Well there ya go! Mandatory sentences added on to any crime for

possession of a banned firearm. I like it!

[spin]

22. I'll go you one better ...

Stiff mandatory sentences for any violent felon who is prohibited from owning firearms caught possessing one. It doesn't matter if he has used it to commit a crime.

In my opinion future gun control should focus on taking guns away from criminals, not on taking guns away from honest responsible and sane citizens.

[jmg257]

23. Sounds fine with me! And IF the weapon was banned, a double whammy.

Which makes sense. Do the crimes do the times.

[spin]

30. I oppose banning handguns and eliminating concealed carry permits ...

criminals will always be able to get these weapons and my object by imposing mandatory jail sentences when a felon is caught carrying one is to make violent felons think twice about packing heat all the time. This could cut down on the number of shootings between gangs when they encounter a member of a different gang on the street.

However, even with tough new penalties some criminals would still carry their illegal firearms when they were planning to commit a crime. If we banned handguns or did away with concealed carry laws, these armed criminals would have a tremendous advantage over their unarmed victims when invading an occupied home or mugging some individual on the street.

Of course if you are young and tough, you may not need to have a firearm to terrorize the inhabitants of an occupied home when you break in their home or when you mug some older infirm person on the street. If you are a rapist, it is easy to overpower a much smaller female.

But criminals fear armed victims more than they do police with good reason. Armed or not, if you break into an occupied home and find yourself face to face with an armed homeowner it can ruin your whole day. If you attempt to mug that older person and instead of him pulling out his wallet he whips out a handgun, you may decide to change your field of criminal endeavor. I know from personal experience that a small caliber handgun looks enormous when it is pointed at you.

However, I admit that we need to insure, as much as possible, that only honest, responsible and sane people can purchase and own firearms.

A good start to doing this is to improve our NICS background check to more timely input the names of those who have a violent criminal record or who have been legally adjudged as having a disqualifying metal illness. All this requires is better financing of the NICS system and setting requirements for the states to input the names quickly.

We also need to require the NICS background system to be used for all private sales. While the NRA will oppose such an idea, it is in my opinion quite possible to eventually pass the needed legislation and it would not require any firearm registration beyond what is currently involved in purchasing a firearm from a dealer.

I would also like to see those caught straw purchasing and/or smuggling of firearms to face much more severe penalties. I personally feel that if you are convicted of being involved in an illegal gun trade, you should also face charges as an accomplice to any crime that was committed while using the firearms you trafficked. One or two cases where a person who straw purchased a firearm is charged as an accessory to murder should greatly curtail such activity.

In a nation with well over 300 million firearms, there is no way that we can totally eliminate firearm crime or firearm tragedies. Banning and confiscating all firearms is politically impossible and unrealistic. The tactic of incremental bans of classes of firearms is also politically impossible at this time. With control of both houses of Congress and the Presidency prior to the last election, the gun control groups were unable to get another assault weapons ban passed or even considered.

However there is no reason why enforcing existing laws and improving them would not reduce the violent crime rate in our nation. Responsible gun owners know that crime endangers their hobby and if both the gun control lobby and the gun lobby would sit down at a table, they could come up with some positive steps that both sides could agree upon.

[jmg257]

32. Lots of good points to think about.

I didn't want to just leave your post hanging, and appreciate the time you put into it.

Thanks!

[spin]

33. Thanks back. (n/t)

[Atypical Liberal]

11. I do not support the death penalty.

I do not support enabling the State to kill its citizens for the commission of crimes.

Aside from the fact that they make mistakes, from which the death sentence is irreversible, the State should not be able to wield that power over its citizens.

Too many death row inmates have been exonerated for me to support it. Death row is populated with too many poor people who could not afford top-notch legal defense.

[spin]

18. I don't support the death penalty because it is too expensive...

Plus there is always the chance of a mistake.

[spin]

15. What are your feelings if a person uses a handgun he owns illegally to murder?

Let's suppose that he is an individual who has a long history of violent felonies.

[rrneck]

17. Still against the death penalty. nt

[oneshooter]

19. And if the one killed was a direct relitive of yours? n/t

[Tesha]

21. What's a "relitive"?

And no, my feelings wouldn't vary even if it *WAS*
a direct relative.

Tesha

[oneshooter]

28. Sorry, my wife screamed. She found a rat snake in the closet

Not scared of it, just not expecting to see it!

[rrneck]

24. Same. nt

[slackmaster]

25. It's well known that the death penalty is not a very effective deterrent for murder

What bizarre thought process would lead someone to think that limiting its application to murders involving one specific type of weapon make any sense at all?

[RSillsbee]

26. If handguns were illegal everywhere, no exceptions...

But they're not

[Glassunion]

27. We should just have a giant fucking wood-chipper sitting at the bottom of a cliff

And like lemmings we should just herd every last criminal to the cliff so they can take a giant swan dive into the chipper.

:sarcasm:

[iverglas]

29. so fine, I voted

Now is the OP planning on telling me what the point was?

I'm not a barbarian, so I oppose the death penalty and oppose permitting handgun possession.

What on earth have the two got to do with each other?

Am I likely to abandon my thin veneer of civilization and support the death penalty because a murder was committed with an illegally possessed handgun? Virtually all handgun murders where I'm at are committed with illegally possessed handguns. It has never occurred to me to say we should reinstitute the death penalty for them.

For handgun murders, and not for, oh, mass murders, murders of multiple children by arson, murders for money ... ?

:shrug:

[Tuesday Afternoon]

31. funny, I was wondering the same thing...

what is the point of this poll?

:shrug:

[SteveM]

34. I oppose the death penalty (due process, equal protection)...

The methodology of cap. crimes is secondary.

I fail to see what the OP is driving at with regards to weaponry. We've had proposals to ban handguns right after a public figure is assassinated with a bolt-action rifle; we've had proposals to ban semi-auto rifles right after someone shoots up a school with a handgun (just a couple of days ago by someone clod at the Boston Globe). The weapon de jour is meaningless, and cap. punishment has not been shown to be a deterrent to cap. crimes.

Personal opinion --

Hats off to 2A defenders: Most do NOT support cap. punishment.

[quickesst]

35. I think..............

...it probably wouldn't make any difference. As for the death penalty, I personally believe it depends on the circumstances. Some need/deserve it, other's don't. Guess it's simply a matter of personal opinion. Thanks.
quickesst