Many people love to oppose guns, as they are our society’s weapon of choice. However, this opposition is rooted in pure fallacy. More than half of the households in the United States own a gun and many people without a weapon feel as if this endangers them or provides an unnecessary threat. On the other side of the argument, one can envision someone in the south in a rocking chair chewing tobacco while holding a 12-guage simply waiting for the first sight of his land being trespassed. This is not exactly a great ideal for what people should think about when looking into gun control. But, as it turns out, you are safer living next to the crazy man in the south than in certain parts of Chicago, New York, Los Angeles and other big cities.
For those of you who took chemistry, I like to use the example of balancing equations. To empower the ordinary citizen with the right to bear arms must equate to the criminal who obtains the weapon REGARDLESS of any restrictions. Now, when we unbalance that equation so the ordinary citizen is no longer empowered, the facts speak for themselves.
Washington, D.C., instituted a ban on guns for citizens in 1976, and the results were not what they had hoped for. Ironically, they were just the opposite. Until the Supreme Court eventually reversed the decision, the murder rate had climbed roughly 70 percent in the District.
Florida had somewhat of a different experience but similar results. They instituted a Right-to-Carry Law allowing individuals deemed mentally and responsibly competent to carry a handgun. The years that followed showed an estimated 35 percent reduction in murder rates. There is major weight to this argument as more unfortunate tragedies unfold before us.
The main example I want to discuss is Chicago. The attention we refuse to pay to the battleground that certain parts of the city have become is grossly underappreciated. As I look at all of the states that allow guns, there’s one in particular that sticks out. And by one, I mean there is only one state that until 2012 didn’t allow handguns, and that’s Illinois. I see its future changing as the laws begin to change. To think of America as a place without guns, however, is similar to thinking of rainbows and unicorns. This is how our society has evolved and we should do our best to minimize problems and not increase tension on this issue as President Barack Obama has done.
To contrast another nation that actually went door-to-door in the collection of weapons, you need to look no further than good old England. Although it is hard to directly compare our two nations (as we have different definitions of what actually constitutes a violent offense), the UK has around 40 percent more violent crimes committed than in the United States. Sounds charming.
If that doesn’t do it for you, then maybe this will. Two Harvard criminologists took up the topic of whether our guns are the source of our problems. To borrow from a study published in the Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy titled “A Review of International and some Domestic Evidence”: “Nations with stringent anti-gun laws generally have substantially higher murder rates than those that do not. The study found that the nine European nations with the lowest rates of gun ownership (5,000 or fewer guns per 100,000 population) have a combined murder rate three times higher than that of the nine nations with the highest rates of gun ownership (at least 15,000 guns per 100,000 population). These findings led criminologists to conclude “No” to the question of ‘Would Banning Firearms Reduce Murder and Suicide?’
As any good topic to research, it always leaves one with more questions, such as, is this more of a problem with our psychology and society than with gun? Or, have we become too closed off from each other that we feel the need to possess a firearm? These overarching questions provide confusion and drive the debate of gun ownership, which I do not see slowing down anytime soon. One certainty is that the American people will not give up their right to bare arms easily. And because I like ending with quotes and being consistent.
“In England, if you commit a crime, the police don’t have a gun and you don’t have a gun. If you commit a crime, the police will say ‘Stop, or I’ll say stop again.”—Robin Williams
Gun control is seemingly always at the forefront of controversy in the United States. Do you believe that America has an issue with gun obsession? Do more guns equate to safer public places? Tell us your opinion on the 2nd Amendment and gun ownership. Make sure to send all feedback to opinion@dailycardinal.com
