funny thing about Chicago: Chicago requires that all firearms be registered with the local police department. Chicago also prohibits the sale of firearms within city limits. Cook County has banned the possession of certain semi-automatic firearms that it defines as assault weapons, as well as magazines that can hold more than ten rounds of ammunition. The state of Illinois prohibits carrying weapons on your person, or in your vehicle in a state of readiness.
In New York it goes like this:
In New York City, after you fill out the three-page application that, among other things, asks you to list your employment and residences over the past five years, turn in two affidavits, get someone to promise in writing to take charge of you weapons if you die or are incapacitated and pay $431.50 in fees, the police may issue a permit to keep a gun in your house or business, or even to carry it. Or they may not. Because New York is a "may issue" state, with permitting authority delegated to the counties, it's up to local officials whether to give you a handgun license. As the NYPD puts it on its website: "If your investigation results in a determination that you lack character and fitness for a license or permit, your application will be denied."
This is why most handgun licenses issued in New York City are for retired police officers or for people who want to keep a gun in their house, not people who want to carry their guns with them as they move about. Only about 4,000 licenses in 2011 were for "carry" outside a home or business.
And those restrictions, of course, do not apply to CRIMINALS
Do I "need" a 30 round magazine to defend home and hearth? Well, no, but "need" does not enter into constitutional rights in my opinion. Ask if certain loud-mouths you know "need" first amendment rights! How about this: The Dallas Texas police department has a "no chase" policy for high speed pursuits. Why do they "need" 350 HP cruisers that get 14 MPG on the taxpayer's backs for then? Thier average response time (39 minutes) leads me to believe they could take the bus and be faster! How's that for overkill?
The "gun show loophole" does not really exist, inasmuch as it's not illegal in most states for people to buy and sell firearms privately, but indeed the gun show environment IS exploited as a shopping opportunity for the types that try to discreetly obtain firearms for misdeeds.
Not that I believe any of the problems are OK, but I am perfectly willing to live with the system as it is, rather than have government take anything away from any of my Freedoms.
As far as the number of homicides in the US, there's 330 million people here. Some people suck. The more you have, the more of them suck at any given time. Afghanistan has somwhere around 300,000 "combatants" that KNOW someone is trying to shoot them, and a US Serviceman's heightened state of awareness (thank God) and superior personal protective equipment and training keeps them safer than the average unarmed bystanders in a city with sky high crime, drugs, and unemployment, so the numbers don't resonate too hard with me.
If we are to believe statistics from special intrests, try these on. Averaged out, 4000 times per DAY a gun is used to prevent a crime. That number includes police officers and citizens alike. A person in the United States is 50 times more likely to successfully prevent a crime with a firearm than they are to be a victim of a gun crime.
Contrast the "gun problem" with the alcohol problem for a minute. 900,000 people or so are arrested every year for DUI in America. Every 39 minutes, someone is killed by a drunk driver, and every TWO minutes, someone is injured in an alcohol related incident. Every last adult in this country knows a person with a DWI, but how many know one (we are talking personal acquaintences here) that is, or was a victim of gun violence?
I agree we have a problem with romaticized violence. We also have a problem with decency toward our fellow man, and respect for the law. Multifaceted deal. People pick which of our Freedoms they would see curtailed to fix society's problems based on a number of things, and no such thing exists as an un-biased opinion on the subject. I can tell you that there is nothing romantic about killing another human being. If you have a consience, it's a permanent weight. If you do not value life, that weight is never felt, and that is the biggest problem of all.
End of rantings. Be safe, all.