Continued from HERE (wrong thread)
Again, you're not understanding American culture or American civics. The laws are enforceable, but there are problems with enforcement -- mostly caused by our own freedoms provided by our Constitution as well as logistical problems that are endless and difficult to fix.Originally Posted by eskimo
I'll give you an example:
The City of Chicago is often touted on TV and by the Cheeto as having the "strictest" gun laws in the country. But that's a total load of bullshit. However, that being said, even with those strict gun bans that were in place for over 30 years, we still had a ton of shootings. Because criminals don't follow laws. They're criminals. Background checks etc. only work if people abide by the law. If the criminal sends a straw man to Indiana where you only need a driver's license and that gun buyer then sells the gun to a criminal with six felony gun convictions, the system can't stop that. Straw men purchases are illegal, but no straw man is gonna tell a gun dealer that he's a straw man. And each state has its own gun laws, because of states rights built into not only our Tenth Amendment to our national Constitution but also its Second Amendment. Also, criminals get stolen guns, and now it's really believed by many here that the guns are coming in WITH THE DRUGS. Like, TRAIN LOADS of drugs and guns.
So, how do we "fix" that? I don't know if you've noticed, but Chicago is broke. Illinois is broke. I mean, like, so in debt, Chicago is been lowered to "junk bond" status. Mostly due to bad spending but a lot due to municipal pension debts. Which can't be changed due to our STATE Constitution. So we keep raising various taxes, etc., but more police presence means needing a lot more money. Which Chicago doesn't HAVE.
So, the Cheeto and Sessions has indicated that maybe they'll send in the Feds to help Chicago fight this problem, which our Mayor and our Police Superintendent said would be AWESOME because now gun offenders -- who often make bail within HOURS because gang members are connected to a network of wealth that has no problem paying $10,000 or $20,000 bail -- either commit more gun crimes while out on bail, or they are in jail for a short time and then are let out due to OVERCROWDING in the jail. Can't build another jail because of NO MONEY. BUT, if the Feds take over gun charges, the offenders will be sentenced to FEDERAL prison, also known as "Siberia" because these prisons are far away and so controlled that gangs can't run things while in jail or prison.
BUT ... the Cheeto and Sessions now won't help Chicago at all because it's a SANCTUARY CITY to undocumented immigrants and will not change that. Sessions claims that the gang shootings are all related to undocumented immigrants. Except the shootings are primarily black people. *shrug* Oh, wait, but Sessions says it's because the undocumented immigrants are bringing in ALL THE DRUGS. Which is a load of shit, but whatever, so we're stuck with trying to do the best we can to fight what are basically drug gangs selling drugs to people from the suburbs, and it's like the OK Corral. And it's WORSE per capita in many other cities, here. And it's not going to get fixed any time soon because every one of those cities is too busy managing debts and isn't gonna spend money in a ghetto.
See: Chicago Needs a War on Poverty to Stop the Violence.
And that's just ONE example of why this isn't an easy problem, why it's hard to enforce laws.
Oh, SUUUUUURE, we can do what NYC did years ago, with random searches and seizures, and cops beating the shit out of people -- all people, innocent people -- in order to "enforce" gun laws and to "clean up the neighborhood." But, the Supreme Court of the United States determined that this was not only a bad idea, it was totally illegal. So, that ain't happening. We have civil liberties, here. We can't "enforce the law" by taking liberties from others.
Regarding Congress enacting new laws after Reagan was shot: That is because many members of Congress, including Democrats, know that gun control is so powerful an issue that they risk not being re-elected if they vote in favor of gun control laws that are perceived as a "slippery slope" to voters. In 1994, after a President had recently been shot, and three Presidents endorsed a gun-control law, it garnered more support in Congress; but it DIDN'T have support among voters, which is why a lot of people lost in the next election.
Gun owners see crime as ANOTHER REASON TO HAVE A GUN. So "giving a shit," to them, means owning a gun. Not the opposite. Now, gun owners are pointing to the fact that two gun-owning citizens in Texas shot at the shooter, shot him twice, and pursued him in a car.
This actually happened in front of me, once, weird story: I was living in a suburb of Detroit that's pretty much surrounded by Detroit and has crime problems because criminals come in, commit crimes, then disappear over the city's border into Detroit. Anyway, I lived on the 2nd floor, was home one summer night and heard SCREAMING out front. I ran to my front balcony and saw a neighbor lady, Lotty, being held up at gunpoint by 3 teenagers. Suddenly, FRONT DOORS STARTED OPENING in other homes around where Lotty was standing, and people started coming out HOLDING RIFLES and shit.
And the culprits jumped into a car and took off. And some of these neighbors JUMPED INTO CARS AND TOOK OFF AFTER THESE ROBBERS. Craziest shit I'd ever seen. The cops showed up (really small police force, no money, "jail" was them handcuffing you to the cigarette machine) and they said Lotty shouldn't have screamed, she coulda been shot. Yeah, fuck that shit, you didn't see what happened!
Ends up the neighbors scared the shit out of these robbers, the robbers crashed the car and started running on foot, and I guess these neighbors CHASED AFTER THEM WITH RIFLES and shit.
Like, yeah, this is another Day in America.
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