longbough

Regardless of rationale, this is what will happen if the gun ban remains over the next couple of years:

1.) Statistically significant increase in violent crime - ESPECIALLY rape - which has been the one crime that disproportionately rises with every increase in gun-control legislation (e.g. this is what happened when the Brady Bill went into effect.)

2.) If there is only a moderate increase in violent crime it will not be discussed in the media at all. The opponents of gun-control legislation will publish the facts on blogs and in forums like these ... while gun-contol advocates will dismiss the statistics as biased and probably twisted simply because it's coming from people supporting gun-rights. Still, the majority will refuse to find an objective source for facts.

3.) If there is a significant increase in violent crime and rape - then the blame will be placed on the surrounding counties. Gun control advocates would paradoxically use it as "proof" that the ban needs to include surrounding counties... and so on and so forth. Its just like what's going on in Canada (with its restricitve laws) where violent crime has increased in comparison to the crime rates in the US ... and the blame is placed on gunrunning from the US (where overall crime rates have decreased).

I'll mention the analogy with The War on Drugs again ... If anything it's easier to find illegal drugs because it's a chemical that can be detected in the body, smelled in many cases, sniffed out by trained dogs - yet people are still growing MJ in their back yards and cooking Meth in their basements without problem. Controlling illegal guns will be much more difficult because, broken down, they're just pieces of metal, springs and machinery that wouldn't look out of place in a box of machine parts.