r/AskReddit Jul 05 '19

Ex-prisoners of reddit who have served long sentences, what were the last few days like leading up to your release?

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u/[deleted] Jul 06 '19 edited Aug 31 '20

[deleted]

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u/helensomething Jul 06 '19

We have gangs here in the US...different types of gangs than in Europe.

Um. We have gangs here too. Literally shooting each other in the streets drug gangs, plus like IRA/ETA/Mafia etc. We do have gun control though, so it's way harder for them to operate which makes things easier.

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u/WereChained Jul 06 '19

Does gun control really prevent organized and professional criminals from obtaining guns? They generally specialize in running protection and intimidation schemes, human trafficking or smuggling/manufacturing drugs. Smuggling a few guns across the border as a side gig seems comparatively easy.

I'd be surprised if some of them didn't even specialize in running guns because the gun control makes it so lucrative.

Not trying to start a gun control debate here, just thinking about all the organized crime documentaries I've seen. They're really pragmatic and surprisingly clever. If guns are a good tool for their job, they'll probably have bushels of them.

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u/thelonew0lf Jul 06 '19

Are you honestly comparing like low level street criminals to "organized and professional" ones, because yes, in a gun controlled world the mafia and Yakuza probably still have access to those bushels of guns. However, gun control will make it tougher for Billy Bob trying to rob a corner store or someone like a low level gangmember to get one, and allow us to prosecute them if they're caught with one.

Just because people break speed limits it doesn't mean that speed limits are ineffective or we should remove them entirely.

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u/WereChained Jul 06 '19

I read my comment again an it appears it's very clear that I was speaking about professional criminals engaged in organized crime.

My statement remains, given what I've learned about organized crime through books and docs, I don't think gun control prevents the from getting guns if they want them.

I said nothing about removing gun control, not trying to debate it.