Opposed to popular belief, Chicago has loose gun laws.

For whatever reason, people like citing Chicago as an example on how gun control doesn't work  The problem with that, however, is that it's a big misconception that Chicago has some very strict gun laws: they're actually looser than before.

In 1982 the city of Chicago banned hanguns, In a 28 year time period, murder rates started to plummet (the early 90s murder rose to a degree, but then plummeted more than before). That's all fine and dandy....  Except In 2010 the supreme court overturned Chicago's ban. Now cheap hand guns were easy to come by. Guess what happened? The murder rate skyrocketed. The proof is in this diagram:

Not only that, but in 2012 the federal court also overturned the entire state of Illinois's concealed weapons ban!

Now this graph stops at 2007, though you can easily look up the rest of the manslaughter rates/gun crime rates rising since 2010. Now tell me, why do people use Chicago as an example of gun control when Chicago has loose gun laws? Because none of them really know about the 2010 hangun ban oveturn and just like to find something and use it to support them when in reality it doesn't. Also, let's not forget Chicago is a city and that obtaining guns from city/state to city/state can be really easy. What would stop someone from Chicago to go to Milwaukee to obtain a gun, and then go back to Chicago? Nothing really.

That fact alone confuses me as to why people would use a city as an example for gun control, either for or against. If it were federal/national and it did/didn't work, then we could use the information and learn from it. It also wouldn't hurt to learn from other countries such as Great Britain, Japan, or Germany, where there are semi-strict gun laws, and barely any form of gun crime. We could take their examples, and apply it to our country, but even better. Unfortunately the cold war-type mindset of "different opinions = bad!" still rings strong in some minds, when it really shouldn't.

Democratic Underground: A site for whiny crybabies who think anything remotley Republican is "evil"

I wouldn't exactly call myself a Liberal or a Conservative, though my views lean more liberal than any other sort of party. When I discovered Democratic Underground through searching up things (such as Ron Paul, as I can't stand him) and the more I browsed through their forums, the more I felt like joining as it felt like being surrounded by a group of people who all had similar ideals to mine. I was wrong....

So a few days ago, I decided to make an account and started posting on a few forums. At first everything seemed fine, except when I posted on this forum:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022600872

Now my first post is up and visable, though the rest of mine aren't. This one little post started a pathetic war between me and a group of posters who bitched at me because of what I said about the cartoon. Now instead of being rational and maybe explaining what I said that was so wrong (tbh it's not that I disagreed that the cartoon didn't list important points, the cartoon itself was just full of arrogance and complaining about something without doing anything about it that it angered me), instead I get yelled at by people who midsunderstand my points, call me a libertarian/conservative (odd.....), and just needless bitching on myself as if they didn't just meet me (I posted that at least an hour after I created my account)

So much for open conversations, the rest of it was just exaggerationg facts to fit themselves, and me getting 2 messages of mine hidden (which apparently means I can't post on that one thread). One message was me putting the words "butthurt" into my comment which apparently means it's rude and that DU are sensative, while the other comment was me making "conservative statements", which I didn't understand until I read their Terms of Service. I thought the TOS would be simple forum rules, such as no trolling or spamming and all that... I was wrong

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=termsofservice

Most of the TOS is that common stuff, except a few rules:

Don't be a wingnut (right-wing or extreme-fringe).

Democratic Underground is an online community for politically liberal people who understand the importance of working within the system to elect more Democrats and fewer Republicans to all levels of political office. Teabaggers, Neo-cons, Dittoheads, Paulites, Freepers, Birthers, and right-wingers in general are not welcome here. Neither are certain extreme-fringe left-wingers, including advocates of violent political/social change, hard-line communists, terrorist-apologists, America-haters, kooks, crackpots, LaRouchies, and the like



So anything that remotley resembles a "wingnut" ideal is bad? So much for open-minded people (especially when if you do a quick search on their site, they bash people for being too close-minded. mmmh.....). That rule just sealed the deal that I was on a site for paranoid leftists who only want to bitch at things and never do anything to change it. I bet if you gave even the slightest bit of commemoration to Ronald Reagan or George Bush, you'd be labeled a Nazi and banned.

Shortly after my hectic debate with those people, I was soon revoked/banned, which I'm glad because I'd rather not join a forum for a bunch of idiots like those people. Not to say that I hate either party, I just hate those who take it to the heart when somebody has a different opinion than yours.