Forum Post: Reducing Illegal Gun Proliferation

The greatest demand for black market guns in America is the illegal drug trade. That demand is so huge that it acts to subsidize the cheap and easy to get proliferation of guns to all would-be criminals seeking to escalate their criminality with deadly force.

If the demand for these weapons is reduced then their supply on the street will decline and their black market price will go up making them harder to get by would-be criminals.

Now here is the magic bullet in this equation. If the profit were taken out of the black market for intoxicant drugs there is no other form of illegal activity as lucrative. ALL demand to illegal guns around the world would decline if we stopped the demand by the drug black market.

2007 United Nations World Drug report pg. 170

"The relatively high value assigned to the drug trade is understandable because, unlike human beings, diamonds or firearms, the drug supply is consumed each year and in need of continuous renewal. As a result, drug trafficking remains the single most profitable sector of transnational criminality."

"Drug trafficking is of interest to transnational organized crime groups because drugs generate more profits than any other form of trafficking. Placing a value on illicit markets is difficult, but the estimates generated by specialist organiations show that the drugs trade is greater in value than most other criminal commodities by at least an order of magnitude. In the 2005 World Drug Report, UNODC valued the world narcotics trade at some US$320 billion, a figure in keeping with previous estimates from a variety of sources. Estimates for other major illicit flows are considerably less. For example, in 2005 the International Labour Organization estimated the value of global human trafficking to be US$32 billion. Estimates of the value of the trade in conflict diamonds range from 1.5 - 2 per cent to 3 -15 per cent of the overall trade in rough diamonds. Small Arms Survey puts the value of the illicit firearms trade at no more than US$1billion. The relatively high value assigned to the drug trade is understandable because, unlike human beings, diamonds or firearms, the drug supply is consumed each year and in need of continuous renewal. As a result, drug trafficking remains the single most profitable sector of transnational criminality."

Legalize intoxicant drugs and hundreds of billions of dollars a year in drug profits would no longer by in the hands of gun toting crazies and criminal anarchists who need guns to protect it.

Here is one way to start to legalize drugs:

Tell Congress: End The Jim Crow Pot War In 2013 http://home.ptd.net/~aahpat/RESCHEDULE/reschedule_cannabis_in_2013.html

Ending The Jim Crow Pot War in 2013

Senator Patrick Leahy, Chairman of the powerful U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee and a sympathetic ear to pot reform issues, is planning hearings soon to consider the federal response to the legalization votes in Colorado and Washington states.

We can end the war on pot if we engage Sen. Leahy and the Congress NOW on this issue. The war against pot begins and ends in the U.S. Congress.

The time to act is now.

If Leahy is your senator PLEASE consider writing to him and asking that the Congress consider removing cannabis from Schedule One of the Controlled Substances Act and instead include it in subtitle E of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 for distilled spirits, wine, malt beverages and tobacco. This would allow the states to regulate cannabis as they see is best in their communities.

If Leahy is not your senator you can write to your senators and ask them for forward to Leahy your wish that Congress consider removing pot from Schedule One of the Controlled Substances Act and instead include it in subtitle E of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 for distilled spirits, wine, malt beverages and tobacco. You might also express your wishes that your U.S. senators and Representatives join you in your advocacy on this issue to Sen. Leahy.