Gun Control

By Thomas K. Remington

There are numerous articles written over years and years of debate about gun control and what effect, if any, gun legislation has had on curbing crime and in particular, violent crime. I am sure there are countless reasons why people believe that guns should be controlled by government and in many cases outlawed and removed from our society completely. History has proven in several instances that this radical approach has resulted in mass executions of groups of people that some governments viewed as a threat. What concerns me about creating laws of this nature is that it may result in no changes pertinent to what those who proposed the law believed to be problems to begin with. This type of legislation is often referred to as “feel good legislation”.

Feel good legislation, so named because it makes people feel as though change will come simply because a law has been put into effect, can have a real negative outcome. Like with many laws, it is relatively easy to uphold and enforce those laws to the law abiding citizens of this country. An example of this would be a law that prohibits driving a car after your license has been suspended yet time and again we read about innocent people dying as the result of an automobile accident created by a drunk driver driving without a license. Making the law doesn’t necessarily stop the act and enforcing it is difficult. The same holds true with gun control. If you take away the right of people to protect themselves, then the only ones left holding the guns would be the criminals. This has been proven time and time again.

If you would like to take a look at some all encompassing facts about firearms, gun control laws and the statistics that go along with those, go to www.justfacts.com/gun_control.htm and plan to spend a little time. You will be amazed at some very interesting statistics. You will also find facts and figures from both sides of the issue. Nothing is hidden here and there doesn’t appear to be any hidden agenda from the researchers. Here is just a sampling of some of the interesting things you will find there:

“In April of 1999 Bill and Hillary Clinton held a press conference on gun control legislation. Hillary Clinton stated:
“And since the crime bill was enacted, 19 of the
deadliest assault weapons are harder to find on our
streets. We will never know how many tragedies
we’ve avoided because of these efforts.””

“Seven days after the 1999 Littleton, Colorado school massacre, Bill and Hillary Clinton held a press conference on gun control legislation. Bill Clinton stated:
“And we smile about that, but there are some people
who would be on this platform today who lost their
seats in 1994 because they voted for the Brady Bill
and they voted for the assault weapons ban, and they
did it in areas where people could be frightened.”

“Do we know for absolutely certain that if we had
every reasonable law and the ones I’m going to
propose here that none of these school violence things
would have happened? No. But we do know one thing
for certain; we know there would have been fewer of
them, and there would have been fewer kids killed in
the last several years in America. We know that for
certain. We know that.””

These are the kinds of statements made by many people but coming from the President and First Lady is irresponsible to say the least. This is a classic example of promoting feel good legislation especially at a time when many Americans were upset and frightened over the events at Columbine High School. Their statements were not factual and it can only make you wonder what their agenda was in making such statements.

In the Bill of Rights, second amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America it reads as follows: “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.” Those opposed to gun ownership will argue about the wording of the second amendment and state that it refers only to the militias of years gone past but if you study the Federalist Papers, those used to lobby the people for passage of the U.S. Constitution, John Madison explains quite clearly the intent of the amendment.

The facts will show that taking away guns from the citizenship will not deter crime and in fact will cause the opposite effect. Controlling the sale of guns and putting unreasonable limitations on them also has no effect. Criminals who would use guns will always have and use them no matter whether our government bans them or not and statistics prove that crime goes down when the general population is armed.

The vast majority of gun owners are responsible law abiding citizens and they work hard for the safe use of those guns. Contrary to popular belief armed citizens to do irresponsibly kill would be intruders. Let’s put our efforts into insuring our own safety and work toward continued programs of education in the safe and proper use and care of firearms.