|
Gun Control
really does work!
Commentary
by
Alan L. Lund
With all the
media induced frenzy over gun control, the 80,000 Million Mommies,
and the President's various plans surrounding the issue, I have to
say that in reality gun control really does work. There are volumes
of evidence to prove this. Before anyone gets the wrong impression
(like, hey I thought this guy was opposed to gun control) let me
explain how it works.
Gun control is an
effective
tool when dealing with crime. It has proven to have profound
results. Why, in Australia alone gun control has had a dramatic
affect on the crime rate. Don't believe it?
Australia
banned private ownership of most guns in 1996, crime has risen
dramatically on that continent, prompting critics of U.S. gun
control efforts to issue new warnings of what life in America could
be like if Congress ever bans firearms. After Australian lawmakers
passed widespread gun bans, (law-abiding) gun owners were forced to
surrender about 650,000 weapons, which were later slated for
destruction, according to statistics from the Australian Sporting
Shooters Association.
The bans were
not limited to so-called "assault" weapons or
military-type firearms, but also to .22 rifles and shotguns. The
effort cost the Australian government about $500 million, said
association representative Keith Tidswell. Though lawmakers
responsible for passing the ban promised a safer country, the
nation's crime statistics tell a different story:
Countrywide,
homicides are up 3.2 percent; Assaults are up 8.6 percent;
Amazingly, armed robberies have climbed nearly 45 percent;
In the
Australian state of Victoria, gun homicides have climbed 300
percent; In the 25 years before the gun bans, crime in Australia had
been dropping steadily, now there has been a reported "dramatic
increase" in home burglaries and assaults on the elderly.
At the time of
the ban, which followed an April 29, 1996 shooting at a Port Arthur
tourist spot by lone gunman Martin Bryant, the continent had an
annual murder-by-firearm rate of about 1.8 per 100,000 persons,
"a safe society by any standards," said Tidswell. But such
low rates of crime and rare shootings did not deter then-Prime
Minister John Howard from calling for and supporting the weapons
ban.
The statistics
speak for themselves, and gun control works. The problem is
"who" it works for. Everyone interested in the subject is
by now familiar with John Lott's work "More Guns, Less
Crime". Dr. Lott admits he had no interest in firearms until he
began to research the affects of gun control on society. His
conclusions led him to write a very exhaustive piece of research
that proved that an armed populace is the greatest deterrent to
crime.
States which
passed concealed carry laws reduced their murder rate by 8.5%, rapes
by 5%, aggravated assaults by 7% and robbery by 3%; and, If those
states not having concealed carry laws had adopted such laws in
1992, then approximately 1,570 murders, 4,177 rapes, 60,000
aggravated assaults and 12,000 robberies would have been avoided
yearly.
Again I will
say it: gun control works (for the criminal). Tell me how you feel
when you take your family out to eat or just an afternoon at the
mall and are forced to sit at a stop light where thugs happen to be
hanging around on that particular corner. If you live in a state
where the gun laws are hyper-oppressive, and being the model
law-abiding citizen (ready-made-victim) you are, odds are great that
you are not armed. Knowing your state law prohibits you from
practicing self-defense, do these seedy individuals have greater
confidence in approaching you? Think about it.
Here in America
we are in the pre-ban phase of gun control. The tighter the gun
control restrictions become, the higher the crime rate goes up.
Washington DC and Chicago, IL are two examples of rigid gun control
law that have led to an exploding crime rate. The arguments of both
cities as to why this has happened crosses the line of stupidity.
"Guns are being brought in from other areas and used to perform
criminal acts in our city" is what you get from both mayors of
these crime infested metropolises. Duh! Criminals don't close the
doors and have going out of business sales, they just choose to
operate in areas that offer the least amount of resistance and our
benevolent government seems all to happy to oblige.
Several years
ago California required law-abiding citizens who owned one of those
wicked looking "assault" rifles to register with the
state. This was done with the state going out of it's way to
guarantee these law-abiding citizens that their second Amendment
rights were not being infringed and that this was not a
pre-confiscation maneuver. Later when the state was proposing
stricter gun control measures and banning so-called
"assault" weapons one politician made the statement that
we now have all the names, let's just go to their homes and take
them. I like what one person has called this; People Registration,
because that's what it is.
Watch closely
those countries that have recently banned citizens from defending
themselves from common street criminals. The "real"
criminals are not far behind and they want more than your wife's
jewelry or that forty bucks you have in your wallet. They want more
than what that of a sick mind requires in order to fulfill a rapists
needs.
Guns are less
available now in this country than they have ever been. There are
more restrictions on our Second Amendment rights than any time in
history. Laws that make the law-abiding jump through any number of
hoops just to exercise a right are written in volumes. Certain
weapons have been banned in many areas of the country. Gun control
is here and according to the gun grabbers crime should be all but
eliminated. Yet we have a growing ATF and FBI. We have a military
style local police force that is becoming more and more beholding to
the federal government. Why?
There has been
a political ideology in place for years that seems to float from one
society to the next and it has historically sought to destroy and
dominate those who disagree with it. It has found a home here in
America and has been allowed to flourish under our form of
government. This ideology has chosen it's side and controls the very
foundations that we depend on. It has perverted every social
institution in the land and made that which was abnormal the norm.
It has created enemies of the state by influencing government to
take a side on issues where the government is required to remain
neutral. Bill Clinton may be out of job in six months but his party
will still be in Washington, and no matter what happens in this
coming November's election, this ideology has infected both parties
now. They both see the possibilities and political advantages that
will come from an unarmed populace!
The
"real" criminals don't necessarily show their true colors
immediately, but in the end they always do. And they always
eliminate their opposition. History doesn't lie:
"In 1929,
the Soviet Union established gun control. From 1929 to 1953, about 20
million dissidents were rounded up and exterminated.
"In 1911,
Turkey established gun control. From 1915 to 1917, 1.5 million
Armenians were rounded up and exterminated.
"Germany
established gun control in 1938 and from 1939 to 1945, 13 million
Jews and others were rounded up and exterminated.
(see Footnote)
"China
established gun control in 1935. From 1948 to 1952, 20 million
political dissidents were rounded up and exterminated.
"Guatemala
established gun control in 1964. From 1964 to 1981, 100,000 Mayan
Indians were rounded up and exterminated.
"Uganda
established gun control in 1970. From 1971 to 1979, 300,000
Christians were rounded up and exterminated.
"Cambodia
established gun control in 1956. From 1975 to 1977, one million
'educated' people were rounded up and exterminated."
Defenseless
people rounded up and exterminated in the 20th Century because of
gun control: 56 million.
So don't tell
me gun control doesn't work! The numbers prove it!
The big lie is
about who gun control works for!
**********
Footnote:
Some concern has been expressed regarding the accuracy of this
statement and our attempt to locate the author for
comment has been unsuccessful. We are providing the following links
in order that the reader might formulate his own understanding of
the situation in Germany prior to WWII and how that relates to the
gun control debate. - Ed
The Myth of Nazi Gun Control
By
N. A. Browne
On Gun Registration, the NRA, Adolf Hitler, and Nazi Gun Laws:
Exploding the Gun Culture Wars
By
BERNARD E. HARCOURT |
