There are things that can be done to reduce gun violence in our country. Those things can be summed up as: enforce the current laws, lock up violent criminals, and stop doing stupid things and start doing thngs that work. Unfortunately some people are evil and no gun laws will stop them from getting guns if they wish or doing what they wish until they are stopped.
I don’t think that I have heard a single thing coming out of Washington that would do anything but make it more difficult for law abiding people to defend themeslves. So one has to wonder if protecting people is what they are after, or if there are other objectives. Only a tiny fraction of gun owners ever harm someone with a gun. Americans are four to five times as likely to die of second hand smoke than to die of a gun, and there are half as many American smokers as gun owners.
There is no guarantee, anf frankly little indication, that Congress without our help will do anything useful to save the lives of law abiding Americans. Congress already put our innocent children into “Gun Free Zones” which are a perfect example of a liberal idea than anyone with common sense knew would be counter-productive. Some of the blood from Newtown and every school mass killing belongs on the hands of Washington politicians who turned all our schools into attractive nuisances for killers looking for lots of easy victims.
Most Americans (not the ciminals and it seeems some politicians) want to save innocent lives, but taking guns away from law abiding citizens and leaving them in the hands of criminals is not the way to do it. Congress has a history of passing stupid and often counter-productive laws, so without our input they could easily do it again and cause many more dead law abiding Americans.
I encourage everyone to contact our elected representatives and let them know how you feel. If my letter gives you any useful idea, great.
Dear Senator or Congresswoman,
If the real intent of the new gun laws being considered is to save lives, there are four things that would help. First, and most beneficial, would be to ensure that a better job is done of enforcing the existing laws and putting the people who intentionally harm other people in prison for a very long time. Existing criminal laws are not being enforced adequately at any level of Government including the Federal level, and we both know it. Enforcing our immigration laws would help significantly because illegal aliens commit a disproportional amount of crime including homicide.
Second, ensure that people who have been adjudicated mentally incompetent and dangerous are included in the NICS database so they fail background checks just like felons. This could have been done twenty years ago and saved lives.
Third, you could take away the undeserved stigma from gun ownership and encourage more responsible citizens to get gun training and consider getting a gun and a concealed carry permit. The recent increase in CCWs is the only thing in our history that has reduced the violent crime and murder rates.
Fourth. Get rid of the whole “Gun Free Zone” concept. Is there any evidence that it has saved a single life? This was a stupid idea that just turned our schools into “attractive nuisances” that entice deranged people to go and murder defenseless children.
Australia, Canada, and Great Britain have all passed strict gun control laws which have not reduced the murder rate. But, law abiding citizens are now at the mercy of violent criminals who are committing more violent crimes including significantly more home invasions in which home owners are defenseless victims.
There are more guns in Australia now than before the Government collected all the guns in 1996, the difference is that now the criminals have guns and law abiding citizens don’t. How does that help?
Since American law enforcement apparently can’t keep drugs or illegal aliens out of our country, they obviously won’t be able to keep out guns either. Thus the result of restricting the rights of law abiding citizens just increases the likelihood of unarmed law abiding citizens encountering armed criminals. Is this the goal?
The number of guns in the US and the number of concealed carry permits have risen greatly in the last twenty years and these are reported to be the major reason for the declining amount of crime during this same period. It is estimated that guns are used thousands of times daily to prevent crimes, usually without firing a shot. If your laws result in fewer law abiding citizens having guns, there will be more crime victims.
It is reported that when people intent on committing mass public murders are stopped by police the average number of people killed is about 14 (it takes a long time for police to arrive). When the murderers are stopped by private citizens the average is 2.5 dead. So, if politicians take guns away from law abiding people then the politicians will be complicit with even more mass killings.
I have offered four things that Congress could do that would save lives without impacting the rights of law abiding Americans or creating more innocent victims. Is there some objection to doing something that would actually save lives? Or is saving innocent lives really your intent?
Sincerely,
