Our nation is in a big tizzy at the moment about gun control. We go through this periodically when a tragedy occurs—and I think that’s somewhat normal. A tragedy should shake us up.
The issue is gun control. How much control should the government have over the weapons owned by lawful citizens? The 2nd Amendment to our Constitution makes it clear to me that we have the right to keep and bear arms. There is zero history that shows that a basically unarmed citizenry is at all safe. Britain has a great deal of gun control; even many of their police don’t carry firearms—and Britain is one of the most dangerous places in Europe.
Almost anything can be used as a weapon. The most recent statistics from our FBI show that baseball bats are the most commonly used weapon in murders in America. Indeed, more people are killed with hammers and clubs than with rifles. Firearms in general, and so-called “assault rifles” are at the absolute bottom of the list. There are no stats, but there are a huge number of Americans who protect themselves from criminal assault every day—and they do it with licensed firearms—even so called “assault rifles.” By the way, as we’ve discussed on Frontlines of Freedom, firearms experts are unable to identify what an “assault weapon” is. Different governments have, from time to time, defined assault weapons or rifles—but they just come up with a list of thing they think are bad—and call anything on the list an assault weapon; the phrase is simply an emotion-laded political phrase used to condemn weapons in general.
There is some legitimacy in addressing the logical problem of keeping children safe in schools. Logically, lesser included problems are: “Provide Security for our Citizens at Public Gathering Places” and “Strengthen our Second Amendment Rights as Citizens” and “Provide a means to insulate Emotionally Dangerous People from Society”.
What is being addressed by the Democrat Proposals? : “Weaken our Second Amendment Rights as Citizens”. “Demonize Legitimate Law-Abiding Gun Owners”. “Destroy Legitimate Businesses”. “Make more expensive all Guns and Ammunition”.
In all of the most recent mass killings in America the Perp was someone clearly mentally unstable. Further, in all of those cases, the Perp picked a “gun free zone” for his murdering. Would not logic suggest the primary focus be on mental health—and secondarily on getting rid of “gun free zones”?
I firmly believe that as our economy worsens, crimes against persons will increase. Further, I firmly believe that we’re soon going to be seeing Islamist terrorism here in America. All American citizens who wish to be armed should be—both to protect themselves and to help protect our society—that’s also the intent of our Founding Fathers.
