Pubdate: Fri, 15 Dec 2000
Source: Dayton Daily News (OH)
Contact:  http://www.activedayton.com/partners/ddn/
Forum: http://www.activedayton.com/entertainment/forums_chat/
Author: Rex Tincher

ENFORCING DRUG LAWS WOULD REDUCE GUN DEATHS

The Dayton Daily News is calling for gun-rationing schemes like the 
one-gun-per-month limit Virginia has.

I lived in Virginia when that limit was adopted, and it didn't work. Some 
drug dealers started requiring their customers to pay for drugs with 
legally acquired guns instead of with cash. Others merely smuggled in guns 
from farther away.

Criminals can always buy guns somewhere farther away. Drug dealers can buy 
guns in Mexico, where corrupt government officials have imposed 
super-strict gun laws on honest people but deliberately allow the wealthy 
drug lords to ignore those laws. Sound familiar?

Or drug dealers can buy Eastern European and Chinese guns and hide them in 
their drug shipments. U.S. drug smugglers brought in 690,000 pounds of 
cocaine in the first six months of 2000.

If you want to reduce gun deaths, enforce the drug laws.

Rex Tincher, Kettering
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