@Blue Republic @Blue Republic

Chile's incoming socialist president announces legislation to
completely ban private gun ownership.

Source

Until now, private gun ownership in Chile has had a longstanding tradition - though not a constitutionally protected right - of gun ownership, with about 11 (legal, permitted ) guns per hundred people in private hands.

Worth considering(From Future of Freedom Foundation):

Before Agreeing to Gun Control, Remember Chile
by Jacob G. Hornberger
October 6, 2017

Calls for gun control after a mass shooting in America has, of course, become standard fare. But before Americans permit themselves to be stampeded into surrendering their right to own guns, it would be wise to keep Chile in mind.

In 1973, the Chilean national-security establishment, after winning a quick military battle against the president of the country, took power. The new ruler, a military general named Augusto Pinochet, established one of the most brutal dictatorships in modern history.

Tens of thousands of people were rounded up without arrest warrants, indictments, or other aspects of due process of law. Most of them were brutally tortured. What Pinochet’s people did to female prisoners, sexually, is so gruesome that it defies credulity. Some three thousand people were executed or disappeared.

What had these people done? Their only “crime” was being socialists or communists or supporters of the democratically elected president who had been ousted in the coup, Salvador Allende. That’s the reason they were rounded up, incarcerated, tortured, sexually abused, executed, or disappeared.

If anyone objected, he would be forcibly added to the ranks of the victims.

Chile’s federal courts? They went silent. The judges knew what would happen to them if they enforced the law and the Constitution against the country’s new military dictatorship.

The Pinochet regime was a model of the term “tyranny.” It would be difficult to find a better example of a tyrannical regime. The Chilean people had learned first-hand why President Eisenhower had warned Americans in 1961 of the grave danger that their own “military-industrial complex” posed to their liberties and democratic processes.

As Thomas Jefferson pointed out in the Declaration of Independence, people have the right to resist a tyrannical regime and even to overthrow it.

So, why didn’t those Chileans who were being victimized by the Pinochet dictatorship resist it by force?

One big reason: gun control. Due to gun-control laws, the Chilean people lacked the means to resist or overthrow Pinochet’s tyrannical regime. When the tyrants are the only ones who have the guns, citizens have two choices: Obey or be killed, incarcerated, tortured, or abused.

A gun-control advocate here in the United States is likely to respond, “That was Chile, not the United States. Our national-security establishment would never do such things.”

That response, however, overlooks an important point: Our national-security establishment loved what Pinochet was doing, supported what he was doing, and participated in what he was doing...

Rest here

OK, I get mail from Public Citizen and their related campaign Global Trade Watch several times a week - asking for $$ of course.

Wikipedia says this about them:

Public Citizen is a non-profit, progressive consumer rights advocacy group and think tank based in Washington, D.C., United States, with a branch in Austin, Texas.

Public Citizen advocates before all three branches of the United States federal government. Its five divisions include: Congress Watch; Energy; Global Trade Watch; the Health Research Group; and Public Citizen Litigation Group, a nationally prominent public interest law firm founded by Alan Morrison and known for its Supreme Court and appellate practice.

Broadly speaking, Public Citizen favors robust corporate accountability and strong government regulation, particularly in the areas of transport, healthcare, and nuclear power. The organization's priorities range from campaign finance reform to drug and auto safety and financial reform. The unifying theme is an effort to curb the impact of corporate power on American democracy.

For example, Public Citizen has been a public voice on matters related to drug policy and pricing, exemplified by advocacy surrounding Gilead Sciences and remdesivir, and the potentially cheaper alternative GS-441524.

Not sure how it relates to the above goals, recent themes of their mailing have been assuring me that abortion is healthcare and that we'll never end the pandemic until we have vaccinated the world (whether they want it or not) and whining about potentially being banned by Elon Musk.

After the Buffalo, NY shooting, though, they quickly segued to guns. Or, apparently, in progressive parlance: 'Death Machines'.

In case I might not be properly alert to the Death Machine threat - and the need to immediately ban evil 'assault weapons' I received this informative heads up from 'Robert':

I just wanted to make sure you saw my earlier note. It’s copied below in case you missed it.

- Robert

******

Here is a list of mass shootings in the U.S. over the past decade in which ten or more people were killed by a shooter who used at least one assault weapon:

2022 — 21 people killed at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas.

2022 — 10 people killed at a grocery store in Buffalo, New York.

2021 — 10 people killed at a grocery store in Boulder, Colorado.

2019 — 23 people killed at a big-box store in El Paso, Texas.

2019 — 12 people killed at a municipal building in Virginia Beach, Virginia.

2018 — 12 people killed at a bar and grill in Thousand Oaks, California.

2018 — 11 people killed at a synagogue in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

2018 — 17 people killed at high school in Parkland, Florida.

2017 — 26 people killed at a church in Sutherland Springs, Texas.

2017 — 60 people killed at a music festival in Paradise, Nevada.

2016 — 49 people killed at a nightclub in Orlando, Florida.

2015 — 14 people killed at a conference center in San Bernardino, California.

2012 — 27 people killed at an elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut.

2012 — 12 people killed at a movie theater in Aurora, Colorado.

Looking at just the most horrific massacres — where ten or more of our fellow Americans are gunned down by a madman wielding military-grade weaponry — we are averaging one every eight-and-a-half months.

OK, certainly not good. Worth looking at, and putting in perspective, no?

Putting aside for the moment such matters as how many of these incidents actually involved
"madmen" (at least two had a strong political motive, another workplace issues), the role of psych meds (a number of the shooters were on or had significant history of psych med use), the relevance of gun-free zones and local gun restrictive ordnances (the Aurora theater shooter picked the place based on its 'no gun' policy, the Buffalo shooter chose Buffalo at least in part because of its restrictive gun rules, the school shooting were all in 'gun-free zones) and other such considerations, how about we RUN THE NUMBERS?

While one innocent dead kid is too many, it seems that some dead kids are far more worthy of media attention than others.

So, let's take a look at the national toll from high (10 or more dead) casualty shootings (involving an 'assault weapon') and compare it to say, the homicides of a single city. How about Chicago?

From the list above, for the years 2016-2021 the death toll for such mass casualty shootings totals 220. For an average over the six years of: 36.7 deaths per year.

Over the same period, homicides in Chicago were as follows (not all Chicago homicides were from guns, but a very high percentage are):

2016 - 765
2017 - 653
2018 - 563
2019 - 490
2020 - 770
2021 - 797

For a total of 4038
Average per year 2016-21 - 673

versus 36.7 per year from mass casualty shootings involving an 'assault weapon'

Yes, that's right. The death *nationwide* toll from the events (that are supposed to prompt us to clamor for rendering illegal millions of the most popular class of firearm in the US)... is approximately equal to nine percent of the death toll (not all from guns) of a SINGLE US CITY.

FWIW - over Memorial Day weekend in Chicago around 50 people were shot and ten killed - has that been all over the news?

Don't know about your state constitution (you can check here) but Oregon's is fairly typical:

The people shall have the right to bear arms for the defence of themselves, and the State, but the Military shall be kept in strict subordination to the civil power[.] Art. I, § 27 (enacted 1857, art. I, § 28).

[Self-defense right protected, State v. Hirsch, 114 P.3d 1104, 1110 (Ore. 2005).]