The United States Does Not Need Stricter Gun Control
For anyone who thinks the United States has a gun problem, look at the graph above. What does it tell you? It should say clearly, as gun ownership rises, gun homicides haven’t risen alongside increased ownership. If you need more than a graph, let the American Enterprise Institute spell it out.
According to data retrieved from the Centers for Disease Control, there were 7 firearm-related homicides for every 100,000 Americans in 1993 (see light blue line in chart). By 2013 (most recent year available), the gun homicide rate had fallen by nearly 50% to only 3.6 homicides per 100,000 population.- Even as a certain type of mass shooting is apparently becoming more frequent, America has become a much less violent place.
The graph may suggest more gun ownership equals less crime, but the truth is far more shady. In the years since homicides as a whole was through the roof, America’s economy has improved, compelling less people to murder, in certain parts of the country. Since the last year of the above study, the murder rate has risen in the United States, thanks to increased homicides in major U.S cities like Chicago, who holds the distinction of holding nearly half of the entire country’s increased murder rate. One association who collected data from 61 metropolitan police forces found the rise in violent crime is associated with gang violence, the drug trade, and the increase of guns. That story alone may make you believe that stricter gun control is needed, but step back from that assertion. The story which publicized the report neglected to mention whether the increase of guns came from legal or illegal gun sales; but one study from the University of Pittsburgh found in 80 percent of all crimes in which a gun was found, the individual with the gun was not the legal owner of the firearm. The issue around gun control and gun violence is complicated, but one aspect of the debate that is lost among the anti-gun crowd is logic. When you apply legislation to other issues, there is no reason to believe gun control will ever work.
Illicit drugs have been illegal for decades, yet millions in America still use drugs, despite mandatory minimums and legislation banning drug convicts from getting federal loans. Politicians have tried for decades to eliminate drugs from the street, but have failed miserably. Estimates of the number of abortions in America in the 50s and 60s, before Roe v. Wade range from 200,000 to 1.2 million per year, which shows young girls and young women who felt for whatever reason they couldn’t have a child at that time, risked their health to eliminate an unplanned pregnancy. Drug use and abortion proves when you criminalize a procedure or a product people want, black markets are created, and those who want illegal services or products will circumvent the law to acquire the product or service. Many states have instituted background checks and waiting periods for gun purchases, yet criminals still use guns to commit crimes. It seems very illogical to assume even stricter gun legislation would reduce violent crime.
What happened in Vegas was a massive tragedy. I’ve been to Sin City on three separate occasions, and I shutter imagining what happened on Sunday occurring during one of my visits. I consider my friends and myself lucky, but as progressives use another tragedy to push their anti-gun agenda, statistics don’t back up their arguments.
In a story titled, “Mass Shootings Are A Bad Way To Understand Gun Violence,” Maggie Koerth-Baker, succinctly explained how gun control advocates should stop using mass shootings to push for gun control. Koerth-Baker explains, between 1966 and 2012, there was only 90 mass shooting events in the country. Obviously that is 90 too many, but we aren’t talking about a massive or daily issue, and the fact Stephen Paddock, and Omar Matten passed background checks, puts holes in the idea gun regulations work; and when gun violence becomes an issue, reality dictates guns aren’t the issue.
Even pro gun control groups admit, more than sixty percent of all Americans who die by the gun, do so from suicide. Furthermore; the majority of gun deaths in the United States happen to individuals between the ages 15 and 34; and almost seventy percent of those are African American. That issue is compounded by the fact, in all homicides black people are more likely to be victims, and are victimized mostly by other African Americans. Add that to the fact more than half of all homicides in the U.S occur in just two counties with big gang issues, it doesn’t take a genius to find gun homicides aren’t an issue throughout the country.
Gun control advocates may respond to the above assertion by claiming states with strict gun control laws have less gun homicides, however; those statistics that make such assertions are inherently flawed as the data used includes gun deaths by accident, and suicide. Logic and statistics should deflate any of the claims by gun control advocates, but the issue around gun violence, and gun control, is purely emotional. When emotion overrides logic and statistics, your argument becomes incredibly flawed.
The deaths of dozens of people at a concert in a tourist hub is the sexier story because mass casualties, helps push that emotion. The object is the target, and that object is one subjected to scapegoating, when the facts dictate it is not the gun that causes gun violence; and every issue around gun violence can be solved without touching the second amendment. In Donald Trump’s 2018 budget, he proposes a cut to mental health spending, when states and other presidential administrations have woefully underfunded mental health care. Mass shooters like Jared Loughner,James Holmes , and Seung-Hui Cho had mental health issues that weren’t properly addressed; but mental health doesn’t fit the narrative. Cases of mental illness and mass shootings is routinely dismissed, and becomes about race, to the identitarian left who want to hate on whitey. There is already a stigma around mental illness that can’t afford to be enhanced, and making the gun argument does nothing to address the obvious and simple link. Thousands of Americans each year feel so desperately alone and broken, they chose to end their lives in the most brutal manner, or take innocent lives so others feel their pain. Very few talk about it. Suicide is a pressing issue shamefully ignored by identitarians and gun control advocates who have narratives to push. Instead of helping the mentally ill, and petitioning Washington to help out, gun control advocates go after the weapon of choice, instead of the sickness that makes suicide seem like the only way out. Using suicide as a way to push for more gun control fails to properly address the issue of mental illness and negates the fact shooting yourself isn’t the only way to end your life. If I was a mentally ill American who failed a background check and wanted a gun to end my life, I would look for a black market arms dealer. If that proved unsuccessful, I could go to the store, buy some Tylenol, a bottle of booze and poison myself. I could jump in front of traffic, jump off a building or a bridge; I could lay my head on train tracks, or jump in front of a train. I could hang myself, or even take a steak knife and wave it around outside. When the cops are called I could approach them with the knife and wait for them to shoot, and prove eliminating my access to guns didn’t save my life.
In relation to the Las Vegas shooter, little is known in terms of his mental health, but one must question the sanity of an individual who sees justification in gunning down innocent civilians. The reasoning could be political, it could be a result of personal demons, as is the case in the shooters I mentioned above, and others who didn’t get proper mental health care.
Another issue around gun violence is gun accidents. More than 200 children have unintentionally fired a weapon in 2017, as of this writing. This means parents, uncles, and other family members have failed to properly store their weapons, and teach the children in their lives about gun safety. In a story written two years ago for another outlet, I interviewed gun owners and one individual who grew up around guns, and every single one of them spoke about being taught gun safety by close family members. At a young age they were told clearly guns are not toys, and to not aim the weapon at something or someone you don’t want to destroy. Every single gun owner should store their weapons in locked safes, or other locked storage compartments; and they need to tell their children guns are no joke, but again, gun safety doesn’t fit the narrative. Very few if any stories center around groups or individuals educating gun owners of the risk involved in guns. The media simply doesn’t want to encourage gun ownership, or present gun ownership in a positive light. Owning a gun according to the media means you are paranoid. It means you’re showcasing fragile masculinity. Some have even suggested the NRA is a terror group.
Thirdly; to drastically reduce gun deaths, proper steps need to be made to end inner city violence. Too many inner communities are infested by violence. Children go to bed at night under the sound of gunfire, fearing they could be next. To eliminate violence, ending the drug war would do wonders. Increasing the economic and educational opportunities of every individual in these communities will help decrease violent crime. For far too many in inner city America, gang life seems like the only option to survive. Schools aren’t very good, and good jobs don’t exist. So it seems somewhat reasonable when a young inner city youth decides to sell drugs for a living. With the drug trade comes territorial disputes, that are settled with gunfire. The gang members in the inner cities find no hindrance in their quest for guns, and that has been the reality for decades.
With every mass shooting comes a renewed called for stricter gun laws. The emotion card is played over an over again, and nothing ever happens, as issues like mental health, the disastrous drug war, and gang violence are ignored as politicians, celebrities, and gun hating leftists go for the object instead of the factors that lead a person to fire a gun and individuals or themselves.
There is no tragedy heartbreaking enough to warrant the loss of constitutional rights. As yourself if fighting terrorism is a good excuse for your wife being groped by the TSA. Ask yourself if terrorism is the perfect excuse for having the NSA store every commucation you’ve had. The American gun owner who has not committed a single violent crime doesn’t or shouldn’t have to lose his or her right to own a gun.
“But no one is talking about taking away anyone’s guns,” you may be thinking, but recent posts by Michael Moore, one columnist from the New York Times, and frequent comments from Bill Maher suggest many gun control advocates want a repeal of the second amendment. The idea of the second amendment is antiquated; the statist sees lax gun laws as barbaric, and believes government grants rights, when reality shows gun ownership is a natural right, and the second amendment is there to tell the American government they can’t infringe on that right.
Gun owners possess firearms for many reasons. They like collecting old guns, they like to hunt, or protect themselves, their family, or fellow parishioners, and all of that is dismissed as lunacy by gun control advocates who make poor comparisons to push their poorly constructive narratives.
One laughable comparison is the fact more Americans have died from guns in the passed 50 years, than in all wars. Currently there are more than 320 million Americans within the country, and the highest amount of Americans who went to war is 16 million. It doesn’t take a mathematician to know the sample sizes are drastically different, and more Americans dying from guns than in war is obvious.
Another tactic is to compare gun control laws in other nations to suggest strict laws will work in the U.S . As the BBC noted in 2015, Australia and other compared countries don’t have a second amendment like constitutional law. The compared country’s have a different culture, history, and don’t love gun rights as much as Americans. America also has an inherent distrust of government and like to be left alone. Comparing apples to oranges can’t win any arguments.
Like after every other mass shooting, some celebrity will do something stupid and distract the nation, and nothing will change. Nor will anyone address the real issues tied to gun homicides; leaving millions of Americans helpless. Unless the real issues of mental illness, gang violence, and gun safety are addressed, gun violence will continue to happen. Maybe, just maybe if all the energy directed at gun control was applied to the woefully ignored issues that plague the United States, the issue of gun violence would be a whisper instead of a bang.
