Alphecca

All the mayors including Giuliani always fall back onto the "illegal guns" description. Which in Washington D.C. is ALL of them. In New York city all pistols are a virtual impossibility to even own, and even long guns require permits, registration, etc. So don't let the "illegal guns " mantra sway you, they really mean all guns, except for the politically connected...

The evolution of Rudy Giuliani’s views on gun control is an interesting story, and offers much insight into the gun control issue. I had hoped that this story would be told elsewhere so that I could just post a link. Since that has yet to happen or I have yet to find it, I will try to tell the story myself.

When Rudy Giuliani was first elected Mayor of NYC it was big national news, for he was a “conservative” Republican in a liberal Democratic city. Of course, Giuliani was one of the most liberal elected officials in the Republican Party, conservative only by NYC standards, especially in comparison to the ultra-liberal David Dinkins, his predecessor as Mayor.

Once elected, Giuliani gave many interviews in which he added details to positions outlined in his campaign. When asked about gun control, he said that he believed that all gunowners in the US should be licensed.

What happened next seemed to genuinely surprise Mayor Giuliani. Many of the Democrats who had opposed his election now praised him for his gun control stance. Attorney General Janet Reno gave a speech lauding Giuliani, and President Clinton invited him to the White House. Rudy was delighted by all the adulation.

Soon, in another interview, he was again asked about gun control. When told that many NYC gunowners opposed his idea, Giuliani said that they should get behind his plan, because the national licensing system he envisioned would be easier than the NYC licensing with which they already had to comply. He was asked if an easier national licensing system might then result in more licensed gunowners in NYC. Giuliani said that that would not be a problem, because the additional gunowners would be screened and trained, and would therefore only be “good guys.”

A strange thing happened: Some “moderate” gunowners in NYC and elsewhere sat up and took notice. Might Rudy Giuliani be that very rare species, a reasonable gun control advocate with whom “moderate” gunowners might work out a compromise?

But poor Rudy Giuliani! Unknowingly, he had attacked not one but two sacred cows of gun control. All his new Democrat friends now denounced his new statements on gun control. What had he done?

Giuliani had said that the national licensing system he envisioned would be easier than the NYC licensing system and would replace it. But all major gun control advocates actually oppose national gun control. Their frequent claim that national gun control is their goal is one of their biggest lies. Every national law they propose contains a provision that enables any state, county, or town to keep or add harsher gun laws or gun bans. Licensing in NYC would not become easier with this type of national law, and major gun control advocates vehemently oppose any national gun control that does not have this provision.

Also, Giuliani had said that more licensed gunowners would not be a problem, because the additional gunowners would be screened and trained, and would therefore only be “good guys.” However, it is dogma among major gun control advocates that guns and gunowners are bad, bad, bad. Any system that results in more legal gunowners, no matter the screening and training, is therefore bad as well. One need only look at all the “studies” that they churn out showing that households with guns were “43 times” more likely to incur gunshot injury, and states with higher gun ownership had higher rates of “gun violence.” If compliance with any gun control law is not difficult enough to drastically reduce the number of legal gunowners, gun control advocates will always demand a harsher new law.

See Rudy backtrack! Stung by the criticism of his new Democrat friends, Giuliani said that he may have misspoken, and needed to re-think his gun control positions. Soon Mayor Giuliani had adopted all the “standard” gun control positions, and never again spoke extemporaneously on the subject, only repeating the usual scripted gun control platitudes for the rest of his term.

For one fleeting and hopeful moment, Rudy Giuliani had seemed to be a breath of fresh air, a reasonable gun control advocate with whom gunowners might work towards some reasonable compromise.

Despite the courage he later showed in other areas, he had wimped out on gun control early on.

Gunowners who had followed this story now had even more reinforcement for their cynicism and their opposition to gun control in view of the true motives of gun control advocates.

Even NYC gunowners. No, especially NYC gunowners.

Good story. Probably right on the mark.

But I also have a pet theory that most mayors have found this approach (licensing, banning, whatever) to be more politically lucrative for them because they do NOT have the money necessary to fully combat the inner city evils properly and solve their social ills.

So they instill the notion within their voting base they will save their families by taking away the tools that do them in. From everyone.

Just how do they take away these tools from the 80 million within this country?

I lived in NYC when Guiliani was mayor. I moved out to the 'burbs because of the dictatorial ways he ran the city. I once went through a red light on my bicycle and was stopped by one of the city's stormtroopers and he gave me a $50.00 fine. Needless to say, I was pissed off. I paid the fine. Then he started fining jaywalkers - something that no other mayor prior to him had ever done. Next thing, he started having guardrails installed along sidewalks so that you could only cross at the crosswalks. I think they've since been taken down (I could be wrong), but that's the kind of dictatorship that was the Guiliani administration. He's a RINO and I trust him as far as I can throw him...with my weak arm.

So anyway, I moved out of New York Shitty and discovered guns, guns and lots of guns. I love my guns!!

Giuliani would be a jackass, if he was better looking.

I believe that Rudy does not support new gun laws. I mean England has a complete ban on guns, so that is not new. He would just move the law from England. See... it's not new it's just copied.