Gun Control: A Way to Keep the Peace, or a Way to Make Us Helpless?

What do you believe; will taking our guns grant us peace? 

In cities across America, there is talk of gun control. Talk of restricting what guns are legal and even if any guns should be legal at all. This long standing debate is revisited constantly because the wrong people get a hold of guns. Kids accidentally shoot themselves, each other, kids shoot each other for drugs or gang related reasons. Criminals get various guns and commit violent crimes.

The idea in support for gun control is that if we make guns illegal, less accidents and violent crimes will happen. If there are not guns being sold improperly, there will be less guns on the streets and therefore less guns available for violent crimes.

In the case above, the boy was on a shooting range with his father. The shooting range is a professional outfit that supervises the use of their weapons and helps to train how to use guns. In this case, like so many others, the tragic mishap ended his life. 

People are afraid the wrong people will get guns. In most cases the fires of this view are fueled by the horrifying instances where small children get a hold of guns. It seems like every couple months we hear a new case where some kid got hold of dads’ gun and shot himself. It happens in small communities and big cities alike. I know a guy who accidentally shot his brother in the face, killing his brother. That is obviously not something you simply get over. He will probably be dealing with that tragedy all of his life.

Guns are powerful killing devices. Make no mistakes, they are made to kill. The whole point of a gun is to do damage and disable or kill your target. If you think of guns as toys someone will get hurt. If you misuse them, someone will get hurt. This is why when you are handling a gun in any firearms training you are told repeatedly to NEVER touch the trigger until you are ready to fire the gun.

Guns are involved in accidents for many reasons. Sometimes it is a matter of people who are... "not the sharpest tool in the shed" shall we say? getting a hold of guns. This video to the right, is about a man who thought since his drill was not doing the job he would use his gun. Too bad for his wife.

Sometimes it is a matter of sanity. Or lack thereof. The next video involves a woman who decided her son needed to die so he can go to heaven.

Obviously we need to make an effort to keep mentally unstable people and children from getting a hold of guns. We all know what happens when a gun falls into the wrong hands. Many people are pushing for strict gun control to solve these problems. Everything from no legal guns at all, to restricting who can own guns and what kind of guns and ammo are legal.

Gun control is also supposed to stop criminals from having as easy access to guns as they do now. The idea being if you have background checks and require a wait time it is harder for the criminals to get guns. If the restrictions get even tougher or guns are completely illegal, that will stop criminals from getting any guns right?

To give this issue a fair look we need to understand a few things about crime.

Watch the 20/20 spot below, please. Go ahead, I’ll wait:

Now, don’t take the word of one news broadcast for it. Do some research; look up case studies. Really take the time to think about it. I am going to pose some ideas you may or may not have thought of. I do not expect to change your mind. But I do hope to help you make an informed decision.

If you watched the video, you just heard it straight from a criminal. They will be packing guns whether or not the government passes laws against it.

If you look around, if you do a little research, you'll find out how easy it is to get a gun illegally. Just think about it logically; where does a criminal get a gun? From a store? No. A criminal about to use a gun for a crime is not going to go buy and register a gun and wait for a background check. They are going to get it illegally.

I figure it is clear at this point I am pro guns. I hope you will listen to why with as unbiased a view as you can.

I have heard many times that criminals are more afraid of an armed citizen than of the police or jail time. Let’s think about that a minute. If you are a criminal and have disregard for law, are you going to be afraid of a cop who may or may not show up in time to stop you?

I have a high amount of respect for law enforcement. My father was a Deputy Sheriff and always spoke highly of the experience and other officers.That having been said, it is important to remember; Police are people too. They make mistakes and are every bit as corruptible as any other person.

I included the video above because it shows a great response time from the police. They did everything right, got the bad guy and prevented what could have been much more disasterous.

There are many reasons I feel we need to be aware of the human factor of police. Follow this link (broken link removed) to see a case where the cop in question was abusing his status and the teenager he was mistreating was lucky to have his video camera. Now, most cops are not like this. Most cops, like most citizens, are good people. Most of the time they are trying to do what they can to keep criminals off the streets and do their best to protect the rest of us.

However, people by very design are flawed and make mistakes from time to time. Response times are usually good. What happens when they are not? Good people die and criminals get away. A very bad example of response time is; “Warren v. District of Columbia”.

Expecting a very small percentage of people to protect us from a much larger pool of criminals is folly. Do not take my word for it. Look up the census. Go to your local police station and ask them how many officers they have on duty at any given time and ask about the reported crimes per given officer. (not to mention the unreported crimes) The numbers may surprise you. If we give up our home defense and leave it to the overworked police force to respond fast enough to stop all crimes before something terrible happens.

Remember how I mentioned “Warren v. District of Columbia”. The result of this case is that cops are not to be held responsible to protect us. Now if we have no right to self defense and we have no one to protect us because the job of the police is to investigate crime, not stop it, who keeps us safe?

Think, really think about that. Who is responsible to keep you safe? Who should be held responsible for your safety?

I'd like to share one more video with you because I think it does a great job of showing the way criminals view gun control laws. (*Edit: I did share a video, but it's been taken down. I'll try to replace these as soon as I can find something equivalent.)

Again everyone. The reason I share all this information is because I feel strongly that we should all be well informed with every important decision we make. Gun control is a powerful issue because if we no longer have legal right to own guns, it will effect those of us who are obeying the laws and not the people who will break the laws anyway.

Thank you very much for your time. I hope you have learned a few things. I would love to hear feedback. Comments are appreciated.