[519] Of freedom to arms

I made the following posting on ReCom.org and thought, hey, I’ll post this on my blog too. And thus begun the Clone Wars have. =p

About a year or so ago, an assault rifle ban introduced by the Clinton administration lapsed. Many predicted an increase in crime with the ban lapse. And it has been a natural experiment ever since. My econ professor said during the day of the lapse, America is a great country, but it’s a weird one. With the regression analysis of firearm on crime in mind, I agreed with him then.

However, despite the prediction, according to NYT here (reg. req.), crime has not risen, at least not significantly from what I understand from the article. Really surprising to me and it only strengthens my opinion on the freedom to arm. Do note however that the assault rifle ban was somewhat ineffective because it banned a subset of firearms.

I’m kind of divided on whether we should have free access to firearm (or at least easily obtained license like those of vehicle licenses) or we should ban firearm from the public altogether. One part of me thinks we should be allowed to own firearms (I’ve held a “senapang patah” a few times but never fired it) or we should all be happy with the current status in Malaysia.

In my opinion, if all private citizens were to be allowed to arm themselves, then those bag-snatchers, thieves, etc would have to think twice or thrice before they act. Furthermore, to those who are in love of CS, Quake, Doom, etc, shooting is fun! You must agree!

At the same time, I’m a green and I find myself quite irritated seeing another hunting season on the horizon.

In the light of this finding by NYT, what is your opinion on freedom to arm?

Nevertheless, I’m quite ignorant of the current firearm status in Malaysia. If anybody has some info to offer, do share it.

This is a modified version.

p/s – presenting to you, two presents I give to me (yes, I’m that sad).

I chose Creative Zen Micro over IPod because:
1. Everybody has an IPod, or two. I want to be different.
2. Zen Micro, for USD 220 offers 5 GB of space, FM radio, recorder (able to record radio broadcast and voice!) and the best thing that IPod lacks, replaceable battery!Behind the mp3 player is my left hand. Behind my left hand is Rifkin’s The European Dream. I found out about the book from Boris. I’m currently reading In Praise to Slowness. With all due respect to Carl Honore, despite some appealing ideas, my economic sense disagrees with many of the author’s points.