U.S.A. –-(AmmoLand.com)- We’ve heard the advocates of gun control say they haven’t done enough and we need even more gun-prohibition laws than we already have. They say that disarming honest citizens stops criminals from committing violent crimes. Those are bold claims, but that doesn’t make them true. Politicians lie to us all the time. I’ve looked at the record. I am not convinced that gun prohibition works as advertised, and we have some tragic stories to consider as well. The closer I look the more I think that gun-control laws cost lives.
Violent Crime in Failed Cities
Much of our so-called “firearms policy” is driven by emotion. We all feel compassion for the people of Chicago, Saint Louis, and Baltimore who cringe at the sound of gunfire every night. The war raging between rival drug gangs fighting for turf leaves innocent civilians caught in the nightly crossfire. Over four thousand people were shot in Chicago so far this year.
Notice the long causal chain that ties this together. Bad public policy leads to business failure- to unemployment- to addiction and depression- to broken families- and finally to more gangs and violent crime. I wish you could break that vicious chain of events bypassing more gun-prohibition laws. You can’t, but politicians need to deflect blame for their mistakes. They need a scapegoat. They passed 23-thousand gun control regulations so far, and still, there is no peace.
Violence is concentrated rather than ubiquitous. Ask yourself why Chicago, Detroit, and Baltimore are dangerous, but San Jose, Henderson, Austin, and San Diego are not. More than half of the counties in the US will not have a single murder this year. A mere 2 percent of our counties produced more than half of our murders.
Maybe it isn’t the guns, but the violent people we leave on our streets. In every city, the politicians and the powerful are protected with guns. It is the poor who are disarmed in the name of “gun control”.
Lives that were Damage by Gun Control
There is a real cost when gun prohibition fails. Sure, we see the body count every weekend from our failed blue cities. Beyond that is the tragedy of the honorable men and women we’ve thrown in prison as we feed the fantasy of gun prohibition. It takes about a thousand dollars, over a year of waiting, and a week off work to get your carry permit in Chicago. If you’re a parent who was robbed and saw your children shot, then that is too long. Many people who couldn’t wait are arrested and thrown in prison for the non-violent crime of wanting to protect their families. How long should they have to wait to protect the people they love?
Support for the right to bear arms in public has come from an unexpected quarter now that public defenders in both Chicago and New York have called for expanding and simplifying the permit process. To quote them,
“Embedded in the (US Supreme Court) justices’ inquiries- full of racially coded language and myths about “high-crime areas” and “muggings”- was a false assumption that police keep communities safe, and a dangerous distinction between “these people with illegal guns” (read: Black people living in cities) and “ordinary hardworking people” who have to commute home every night (read white people in the suburbs).”
Being a felon under President Trump was one thing when the Trump economy virtually eliminated black unemployment. It is phenomenally harder to be a black man who served time for a felony conviction now that the Biden economy has seen unemployment soar. Disfavored minorities and people with a criminal record find it much harder to find work today. They work they can find is part-time and for lower wages. Some occupations with licensing requirements are barred to felons.
The Lords in power tell us it is all done for the public good.
That is what the nobles always tell the serfs.
About Rob Morse
The original article, with sources, is posted here. Rob Morse writes about gun rights at Ammoland, at Clash Daily, at Second Call Defense, and on his SlowFacts blog. He hosts the Self Defense Gun Stories Podcast and co-hosts the Polite Society Podcast. Rob was an NRA pistol instructor and combat handgun competitor.
The Left seeks to disarm Americans, making them universally defenseless victims, while simultaneously releasing massive numbers of violent felons and refusing to even prosecute criminals. The 1-2 combo ensures more victims and more crime. They believe the public will then cry out for politicians to save them. We won’t. We will be our own first responders, and we will hold politicians accountable for creating the opportunity for criminals to harm us. The 2nd specifically prohibits the government from having power or authority over citizens’ arms. That will no longer be ignored.
It’s not economics – it’s dysfunctional micro cultures.
Each violent criminal is responsible for their decisions to commit violent crimes.
The dysfunctional micro cultures, which cannot be fixed by a politician (irrespective of party), produces a higher percent of people who make decisions to commit violent crimes.
The people living in very specfic neighborhoods can fix their dysfunctional micro cultures.
It’s clear to me that Democrats cause murder far more so than guns. We need a ban on Democrats.
Alcohol prohibition was a dismal failure. Drug prohibition is a dismal failure. Even prohibiting driving over the Federally mandated 55 mph speed limit was a dismal failure. In all of these cases, and likely many others, the prohibitions failed because they had the support of the politicians, but not of the people. The Left could support their case for gun prohibition by simply explaining how it will be different in some easily explained and verifiable way from the failed prohibitions of the past. Don’t wait for them to do so. They can’t. Because there simply is no difference. There’s an… Read more »
leftists, politicians, and especially leftists politicians do not care about what happens to people when they create law. they only care about the power they wield over their subjects. if they cared they would pass legislation that would allow citizens to exercise their Second Amendment right to defend themselves from predators, both two and four legged ones. you would think that with over twenty thousand gun laws leftists would find a way to take those predators off the street to ensure the safety of the vast majority of the population. there should be no plea bargaining when firearms are involved.… Read more »
Nice article Rob. Spot on in that economics drive crime far more than availability of firearms.
you may want to edit paragraph three – spell checker inverted meaning of one sentence! Bypassing means to go around or avoid, I’m certain you meant “by passing”.