Washington politicians want to appear to be doing something against gun violence. Yet, while the Sandy Hook massacre is the excuse for gun controls, everyone acknowledges that the proposed legislation would not have stopped that horrible event.
People say, “If only one life is saved, gun control is worth it.“ Yet I am not aware of any evidence that these gun controls would have stopped any of the mass killings or save any lives.
Sane people know that criminals and terrorists can always get guns. Even with Massachusetts’ strict gun laws, the Boston bombers illegally obtained at least one gun.
Last week we saw hundreds of police defending themselves with the same “assault weapons” that gun control advocates say law abiding citizens shouldn’t have.
Yet, how were law abiding Bostonians, holed up at home as directed, supposed to defend themselves against terrorist intruders? If the police in groups need “assault weapons” for defense, why is it unreasonable for home owners to have them to defend against the same threat?
In one exchange, the police fired about 200 bullets at the bombers. This disproves Vice President Biden’s absurb claim that you only need two shots, Governor Cuomo’s claim that you only need 7 shots, and other nonsense statements. If people intending to harm you are breaking into your house, you need as many bullets as it takes to defend yourself and your family…and you deserve to have them.
The only crimes potentially avoided by the proposed laws are those by law abiding citizens who get guns and go bad. This is a tiny number compared to the crimes avoided or stopped by armed citizens.
While the emotional feeling is that gun controls save lives, research and experience indicate that gun controls costs lives. Criminals prefer defenseless victims, they don’t like armed ones.
Any lives saved by the proposed gun control laws will be at the cost of more lives lost and more crime victims. To save one life is it worth losing ten other lives? Or 5? Or 2 lives? No. Along with additional deaths there would be many more rapes, robberies, home break-ins and beaten home owners.
We can all wish the world were different. We can choose to live in a fantasy world where there are no crimes, accidents or terrorists, and be unprepared when reality strikes. Or, we can live in the real world and prepare because there are bad people and bad things happen.
Better enforcement of current laws would reduce gun violence. But, laws like the current proposals that only work in a fantasy world have really bad consequences. They will only make more victims not fewer victims.
