The Real Story Behind Gun Control

The quickest way to start a fire without lighting a match in America is to bring up the subject of gun control.  You are more likely to make a friend out of a conservative by insulting his/her mother than daring to mention banning all firearms in America.  Tell a liberal you own guns, especially high-powered ones, and you spend your Sundays watching football, drinking beer, and going to the gun range and watch how quickly they rescind your invitation to dinner.  With the recent mass shootings in America and “Stand Your Ground Cases”, such as the Trayvon Martin murder in Florida, the country is even more divided than ever on the matter of gun control and the Second Amendment.  Many American’s feel that the estimated 310 million guns in America are excessive and unacceptable along with the belief that if guns were banned across the board in the United States, there would not be three gun deaths per hour in the country.  But is that really the case?  If you are quick to say yes, step back and analyze cities like Chicago and the District of Columbia on how well their strict gun laws are working in lowering their gun violence rates.  Or what about those large billboards that are up along the mass pike highway with the live updated count of how many people were killed in America by a gun? What those same signs don’t tell you is that, despite having some of the strictest gun laws in the country, Boston has 2.01 homicides per 100k population rate.  For a small state whose largest city is one of the smallest metropolises in the country, that’s a pretty large number, especially for a state that is steadfast in its anti-gun and weapons law.  The bottom line is this:  America, since 1791, when the second amendment was introduced, has, and will always be, a culture where guns and the right to protect yourself and property exist.  Eliminating the right to bear arms is not just a violation of the constitution,  but it will also create a dangerous imbalance in America where guns will become inaccessible to law abiding citizens while the black market becomes even more flooded with illegal and unregistered guns for access to dangerous criminals, terrorists groups (domestic and foreign), and drug cartels.

Let’s take a look at the George Zimmerman trial and how the media loves to use the issue of gun violence combined with the race card to fire Americans up about gun control in this country.  The death of Trayvon Martin was a horrible tragedy, but even more tragic was how the media played the race card with the case and how easily and quickly the country fell right in line with it.  When the story first came out about Martin’s death, all that was heard around the country was how it had to be racial, and once again, a “white man was going to get away with killing or injuring an African American.” Yet, when the facts came out that George Zimmerman was half Hispanic, there was barely any mention of that correction by the media or protesters.  Then there was the matter of all the civil rights groups, individuals, and famous musicians and actors coming out to protest at the trial.  What a great show of support and coming together to support and speak out against a senseless death.  But what about the outcry by the civil rights leaders and African American communities when it comes to the epidemic of black on black crimes that are occurring in this country?  Yes, it is true that African American men are seven times more likely to die of homicides than white or Hispanic men; but the most important element of that statistic is that out of the black men killed in America, 92 % of them are killed by other black men. But in high profile cases that involve gun violence, the media or liberal agenda does not want the public to know those numbers.  It fairs better for the gun control agenda to have the race card in play in cases like the Trayvon Martin murder to spark more public outcry.  The tragedy of Martin’s death is beyond words, but there are young black men just like Trayvon dying every day in urban communities all over the country by other black men, and most of the guns being used are not legally owned, acquired, or registered. 

A lot of anti-gun special interest groups, like the Brady Campaign, love to push the gun violence statistics to back up their beliefs that there are too many guns and gun violence in America, along with the fact that it’s anti-gun control lobbyists who are spending the most money in Washington.  So let’s take a closer look at the statistics.  In 2013 nearly 19000 of the 31000 deaths by gun were by suicide.  That is over 61 percent! Despite this alarming percentage, the suicide statistic has been largely ignored by the media, pro anti-gun lobbyists and politicians on Capitol Hill.  Why? Because what sounds better when trying to sway the public: “31000 violent deaths caused by guns “or “31000 deaths by gun in which 19000 were self-inflicted?” Instead it makes better headlines and stories and works better for anti-gun lobbyists to clump the statistics together, especially when trying to ban gun ownership across the boards, even those of law abiding citizens.  Now look at the statistic involving the money spent on lobbying Capitol Hill by both groups.  Conservative pro-gun lobbyists spend more money than anti-gun organizations like the Brady Campaign right? Wrong.  In 2013 anti-gun lobbyists in Washington spent $14 million.  And the pro-gun groups’ 2013 spending outline?  $1.9 million; but liberals and the media don’t give you those numbers.  They instead make groups like NRA out to be the big bad wolf who is throwing money around to get the politicians in Washington to blow the house down on gun law reformation like the three little pigs.  Where is the media reporting on that since they love to report on how much more money conservative special interest group spend than liberal based ones?  Liberal special interests groups are outspending conservative ones by 17-1 on Capitol Hill on the issue of gun control, but yet they are losing the battle.  There goes the argument that Conservatives are winning because of excessive special interest spending. 

So why is the pro-gun agenda winning in America?  The agenda is not working because the Second Amendment states “the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.”  It is a constitutional right for citizens of the United States to bear arms and use those arms to protect themselves, family, and their property.  Anti-gun supporters claim that when the Second Amendment was put into the Constitution, America was a rural setting with little or no protection offered to individuals other than the protection they provided for themselves; in the 1700s guns were needed for personal and property protection.  So what about today in America? There is no longer the need for protection? Crime is not at a high right in the country? Anti-gun groups would have Americans believe that yes, crime is a huge issue, but because of guns, and banning guns across the board would, in fact, bring the crime rate down like in Australia.  Okay let’s break that down, as well.  To begin with, Australia did not have a law written into its constitution that allowed the accumulation of over 310 million firearms in its nation over a time span of over 200 years. Australia also did not have the problem that America now has in the millions, possibly hundreds of millions of unregistered and unaccounted for firearms that are being circulated in the black market.  With or without guns, unfortunately, there is a large culture of violence in America, and citizens have the right, and should have that right, to protect themselves against violent attacks by other individuals. 48 percent of the American population will become the victim of a crime at some point in their lives. Why would the American government want to make it harder for their law abiding citizens to protect themselves from those attacks, while at the same time allowing it to be easier for their attackers and potential attackers to acquire the guns by pushing the firearm market into a fully underground industry?  

 Lastly and most importantly, the pro-gun agenda is winning in America because banning guns and stricter gun laws do not work in this country.  Yes, there has been an overwhelming amount of mass shootings in this country, but banning guns is not going to stop them. Mass shootings are all over the news these days, but in reality they make up a very small percentage of the gun deaths that occur in America every year.  Even places like Norway, who have stricter and more restrictive laws than America, especially when it regards to automatic guns, couldn’t come up with a law that stopped individuals like Anders Brevik who killed 77 people in a Norwegian mass shooting in 2011. But the most alarming gun control statistics of all are not the mass shootings or number of people killed by shootings, it’s the gun control numbers coming out of cities like Boston, Chicago, and the District of Columbia, the most gun restrictive cities in the United States.  District Columbia had, until the Supreme Court ruling that ruled that their city-wide ban on firearms was a violation of the Second Amendment, had the most across the board anti-gun law; a total ban on firearms inside the city of limits.  Was DC safer after enacting the law? No; in fact, the District of Columbia has one of the highest murder rates in the country at almost triple the nation’s average. What about Chicago? Well, Chicago has become the Wild West and clocked in well over 500 murders in 2013 while also being a city in America with one of the most restrictive gun laws. Lastly, there is Boston. Living in Boston, one is aware of the mandatory gun laws the liberal state has, but yet, even after being one of the country’s smallest major cities along with having one of the strictest anti-gun laws, Boston is averaging 2.01 murders per 100k people; for a small city, that is a very large average. All over America, these numbers are common.  Anti-gun laws are not working. Why? Because, most crimes and murders committed in America are committed with stolen and/or unregistered guns.  Law abiding citizens are left with strict laws that prevent them from buying the very firearms that will protect them from such crimes, while the criminals have easy access to guns in the black market.  Why do you think most mass shooters pick gun-free zones to commit the shootings in? There is less chance of a citizen with a legal gun being around to challenge and stop them.

If we had wanted to address the issue of gun control, we should have done it before the black market acquired millions of unregistered guns which we do not have the money or manpower to monitor or control.  Just like in 9/11, we can’t allow the media or special interest groups to play into our fears that cause us to make rash and illogical decisions to try to combat the problem.  Since there are hundreds of millions of guns registered and unregistered in America and over 500 gun manufactures what do we do?  Well the only thing that there is a shortage of in regards to firearms in this country right now is ammunition.  Why don’t we capitalize on that shortage?  We can do three very easy and effective things to cut down on gun violence in America without infringing on the constitutional right to bear arms and protect oneself and property; they are: ban semi-automatic and automatic firearms; ban any sell of guns to unlicensed owners and by unlicensed sellers; and most importantly, restrict and track the sale of ammunition.  Since there is already a shortage of bullets in America, it will be easier to track the ammunition from the starting point of the manufacturers, to supplier, and finally to gun owner.  Put a limit on the amount of ammunition a gun owner can buy along with making it only possible to buy ammunition for the guns you have legally registered into the system.  Does it solve the gun violence issue 100 percent? No, but it will come closer than any across the boards ban on firearms and greatly reduce the country’s gun violence.  The Black market can’t be stop in regards to firearms; the amount of unregistered guns in America has ballooned too far out of control for the government to do anything but try to curb and decrease its sales. Drug cartels and terrorists are acquiring guns from America’s black market at an alarming rate, but if they can’t get ammunition or acquire the ammunition without having a tracking system attached to the bullets, the guns are worthless to them.  Let’s not forget that yes, the world is very different than it was in 1791; it is far more dangerous, and the last solution to the gun violence in America is the one that restricts law abiding citizens from executing their constitutional right of bearing arms to protect themselves and property from those dangers.