Lil Wayne and New York Gun Laws: Which is Dumber?

So rapper Dwayne "Lil Wayne" Carter went to prison today for a year. His crime? Having a loaded .40 caliber handgun in his tour bus in Manhattan. Now, if this had happened in most other states, there would have been no law broken and no charges brought against Mr. Carter.

Don't get me wrong, Lil Wayne, Plaxico Burress, and anyone else (unless disqualified for previous crimes or mental defect) has access to legal means to possess (and carry) a handgun in New York City, so I'm not saying that these folks shouldn't be charged. I would just like to point out the glaring flaw in the system.

New York, especially New York City, has some of the strictest gun laws in the nation. And yet, New York, especially New York City, also has some of the highest violent crime rates in the nation. Does anyone else think this is weird? Vermont, on the other hand, has some of the lowest violent crime rates in the nation. Now, this is obviously because Vermont has completely banned guns from within its borders, right? WRONG! In Vermont, anyone over 18 years of age (unless disqualified for previous crimes or mental defect) can carry a firearm on his or her person at all times. Does anyone else think this is weird, or am I taking crazy pills?

See, if you're the kind of person who is going to rob someone, are you more likely to do so in a place where it's difficult to possess a weapon, or in a place where it's very easy? Don't get me wrong, I'd love to live in a world where no one uses guns for violence, and then we can get in a big circle, hold hands, and sing "Kumbaya", but this is not the world we live in. If we ban guns, then only the outlaws have them. And, as it's been said before, "The only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun." Please, feel free to fact check this post, and call me on anything I got wrong. I'm always up for respectful debate.