Posted on 06/22/2022 11:50:35 AM PDT by Red Badger
After the horrifying and tragic school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, on May 24, you would think lawmakers would be doing everything in their power to make schools safer. But, as evidenced by the House’s recently passed gun-reform package, Democrats are misdiagnosing the issue yet again.
There is, understandably, a sentiment among Americans that those in power must do something—anything—to prevent tragedies like Uvalde from occurring in the future. The House’s reform package is certainly an example of politicians “doing something.” But the legislation would blatantly violate Americans’ Second Amendment rights, and represents another dubious attempt to combat gun violence with stricter gun laws.
Democrats’ gun-control aspirations are wrong, first and foremost, because they violate Americans’ Second Amendment rights. An attempt to restrict our right to bear arms is an attempt to restrict our natural right to defend ourselves from government tyranny and against violence from others. The principles of self-defense underpinning the Second Amendment are not and can never be outdated.
History has taught us that George Mason was right when he asserted, “To disarm the people is the best and most effective way to enslave them.” Slaves were prohibited from owning firearms before the Civil War ended, and in the years following the war, states employed various unscrupulous tactics to bar black individuals from obtaining guns. German Jews were systemically disarmed in the 1930s before the Holocaust. And Armenians were stripped of their arms in the carrying out of the Armenian genocide.
The Second Amendment must be ardently defended, as we all have the right to defend ourselves against threats from the state and from others.
But, for the sake of conversation, let’s imagine for a moment, as many Democrats do, that the Second Amendment is out of date. Would the proposed reforms be a smart course of action then?
No, they wouldn’t. Because even if you set aside the constitutional argument for gun rights, the fact remains that gun control’s effectiveness is uncertain at best. Democrats would do well to start taking alternative proposals more seriously.
Despite the rhetoric dominating the gun-control debate, the evidence suggests gun-control measures do not effectively thwart gun violence. For example, take California and Illinois, which lead the United States in mass shootings despite their strict gun laws. And the Washington Post, when removing events like gang violence from mass-shooting data, found that 86 percent of mass public shootings between 2009 and 2016 occurred in gun-free zones like Robb Elementary School in Uvalde.
The bill that just passed the House would, among other things, ban the sale of guns with magazines that can hold more than 15 rounds. But shooters can just use multiple magazines. For example, in 2007, the Virginia Tech shooter had 17 magazines for his handguns, most of which held 10 rounds. In 1999, one of the Columbine shooters brought 13 magazines into the school, each of which carried 10 rounds. In those tragedies, 32 and 13 people died, respectively.
The bill would also raise the age that one can purchase a rifle or shotgun from 18 to 21. Why this would be a priority is unclear, as the median age of school shooters is just 16, and 70 percent of school shooters are under the age of 18.
Furthermore, the amount of attention placed on rifles like the AR-15 is curious. Rifles were involved in just 3 percent of firearm homicides in 2020, and according to Pew Research, handguns are by far the most common weapons used in mass shootings.
The measures in this bill not only violate Second Amendment rights, but are unlikely to curtail the tragedies its proponents aim to avert.
Would a ban on all guns “work” better than this current bill? No, gun bans do not work. While they might disarm law-abiding citizens, placing all of our liberties at greater risk, they can’t stop determined bad actors from obtaining the goods they desire. As with alcohol in the Prohibition era and marijuana to this day, restricting access to goods doesn’t eliminate the goods. It merely leads to the creation of black markets. Australia, often heralded as an example of a nation with ideal gun-control policies, has had to deal with an extensive black market for firearms. It has been reported that Australian citizens may have been at greater risk from gun crime in recent years than ever before.
Stricter gun control may not be an effective solution, but there are other actions that can be taken to better ensure the safety of our schools.
What happened in Uvalde rocked our nation to its core. Instead of attempting to infringe on the rights of citizens and push ineffective gun-control policy, politicians should be working together to devise measures that could actually save lives in the future.
Benjamin Ayanian is a contributor for Young Voices, a PR firm and talent agency for young, pro-liberty commentators. His writings have appeared in the Wall Street Journal, the Star Tribune, Yahoo News, and more. His Twitter is @BenjaminAyanian.
Not the Democrats gun control bill. It’s the traitor Republicans bill just as much.
That’s a feature, not a bug..........................
There is also the usual grab bag of measures which have nothing to with guns at all but are just buckets of money being passed around to bribe supporters.
There is nothing misguided about this legislation. It is about deception and concealment of objectives. The rationale is "gun safety". What mean-spirited people could possibly oppose that?
The contents include ever tightening restrictions and harassments of lawful gun owners, which are completely ineffective at preventing violent crimes.
Gun laws would only work if persons doing the shooting were law-abiding. They mean nothing, absolutely nothing, to anyone who is not.
we are so sick of this Communist Sheit!
the only “gun control” bill Congress needs to pass is to repeal all of the unconstitutional “gun control” BS they’ve already imposed on Amerika
period.
end of file.
otherwise we need to reinstate good firearms training and sports in our local high schools
There is nothing well meaning or misguided about them. Their intentions are evil from the get-go. This is why you cannot bargain with them. it's why you cannot reason with them. they will never rest until we're enslaved, killed "resisting arrest," or enough of them and their minions are killed or otherwise rendered helpless (voting out of office would be the best way, but with their fulltime election cheat machines running unchecked in many states this may no longer be feasible) to stop their agenda
“There is also the usual grab bag of measures which have nothing to with guns at all but are just buckets of money being passed around to bribe supporters.”
That is all this bill is. A small waste of money, but no actual gun control. It is ugly, but not bad politics if we don’t self destruct over nothing.
FACT: Guns prevent an estimated 2.5 million crimes a year or 6,849 every day. 98+% of the time the gun is not fired and no blood (including the criminal’s) is shed.
SOURCE: http://www.gunfacts.info/pdfs/gun-facts/7.1/Gun-Facts-7.1-screen.pdf, pages 21, 83.
FACT: 98% of mass-shootings occur in gun-free zones
SOURCE: https://www.dailywire.com/news/what-percentage-mass-shootings-happen-gun-free-amanda-prestigiacomo
Democrats love “gun violence” and want ever more of it. It gives them an excuse to take guns away from peaceable citizens.
Uh, I prefer to say ALLEGED gun violence. Inanimate objects are, well, inanimate. Sure are a bunch of dumbass smart folks runnin’ this friggin’ train wreck.
The left, when they take over, often open the prisons. The chaos giving them reasons for tyrannical laws that are really intended to control the productive class. The gun control laws are no different. The law-abiding will be punished if there are violations, and the criminals will be released. Will the left give the criminals their guns back? Probably because it will cause more chaos...the plan.
***the amount of attention placed on rifles like the AR-15 is curious.***
Handguns were the prime target between 1962 and 1984. when the anti-gun radicals found they could make no headway, they then attacked the semi-auto rifles, something they said they would NEVER do!
If they can get a permanent ban on any type of common firearm they will return, and build on that for their prime target, HANDGUNS.
The lies we have been told over the years...
1962 We ONLY want to register handguns. Rifles will not be affected!
1964, We ONLY want to register ALL firearms, not ban them.
1968 We ONLY want to register all guns, and ban the import of foreign Saturday Night Specials, and 5-shot bolt action army surplus rifles! (they got the ban).
1970, We ONLY want to ban small American handguns. Rifles will not be affected!
1976 We ONLY want to ban ALL handguns! Rifles will not be affected!
1981, Actress Lee Grant on GMA screams...”THE NRA IS A RIFLE ORGANIZATION! THEY SHOULD GIVE UP THEIR HANDGUNS AND THEY CAN KEEP THEIR RIFLES!”
1984, they made a grab for the rifles, and missed, but played their hand.
1988,Josh Sugarmann, of the National Council to Ban Handguns tells how to ban rifles.
“Assault weapons’ menacing looks, coupled with the public’s confusion over
fully-automatic machine guns versus semi-automatic assault weapons
—anything that looks like a machine gun is assumed to be a machine
gun— can only increase the chance of public support for restrictions on
these weapons.”
– Josh Sugarmann
Gun owners now know that any time we negotiate with those who want to ban guns, we are up against a stacked deck.
Combatting mass shootings by making it even safer for mass shooters.
The same was spewed out by the news media in 1968 for passage of the 1968 Gun Control Act.
“Today we begin to disarm the criminal and the careless and the insane. All of our people who are deeply concerned in this country about law and order should hail this day.”-— Lyndon Johnson signing the 1968 gun control act into law.
And this from the man who wrote the act, based on the 1938 Nazi Weapons Law.
“No one can predict how many lives will be spared because of this bill, but, if the bloody record of our yesterdays is any measure, millions of future Americans will live to enjoy the promise of many peaceful tomorrows.
I am grateful to have had the opportunity to play a part in this great moment in our time.” Thomas J. Dodd on passage of the 1968 Gun control act.
Absolutely correct. The dems do not want crime control.
To stop mass shootings we need to reopen the closed down mental institutions. Almost every mass shooter has been mentally unstable, and a known loon.
The problem with reopening the mental institutions is so many politicians in the Biden Admin would need to be incarcerated there for mental illness.
So the hospitals will remain closed and those who should be inmates are still on the streets, killing people, driving over people, throwing women onto the subway tracks...
Crooks, criminals and crazies can always get guns, no matter what the law says.
The Republican Party can no longer be trusted on any issue.
We need CWII.
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