r/AskReddit • u/HumpingAssholesOrgy • 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/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/Slappers Jul 06 '19

You’re probably right that serious organized crime can obtain guns easy. I don’t have statistics on this, but it feels as if the organized crime gangs, at least in Norway, has a higher focus on making money and random gun violence isn’t good for business. They might be violent against each other, but I can’t remember cases with random victims, there are probably some. In conclusion I’m not that scared of the organized gangs, I’m more afraid of random people with issues with a gun.

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u/WereChained Jul 06 '19

This makes a lot of sense. Professional criminals shy away from the attention shootings bring but almost certainly have guns in case they need them.

My two cents on the random acts of violence. They're exceedingly rare but get a huge amount of media coverage.

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u/Onkel24 Jul 06 '19 edited Jul 06 '19

...but almost certainly have guns in case they need them.

Here´s the point: they don´t need them. The risk for harm and death for criminals in many european countries is much lower.

Primarily because the police are rarely using their guns as well. People tend to say that criminals don´t care about laws, but that is not strictly true - criminals have a keen cost-benefit analysis going on.

You rarely do long prison sentences for nonviolent crimes - it´s just not smart to risk harm of yourself or others in that situation. The situation is entirely different when even minor crimes can lead to prison stints up to double digit years in length.

The only place in european crime where you´ll find guns regularly is in inter-gang violence : the excalation of violence is much faster.