Banning guns: No One Learns From the Past

The recent shootings in public places, particularly schools has brought on a wave of interest, from the gun ban supporters to renew efforts to remove guns from society, and the gun ownership supporters, to keep fighting for their rights. The basic idea is that removing guns from society will solve crime and violence problems.

The first problem with this mentality is that bans, in general, fail in their purpose. Prohibition was huge proof of this. When alcahol was banned, it created a black market of boot leggers who made and sold large quantities of illicid moonshine and didnt solve anything. It just created a new market for thugs. A mob hit man once said in his biography that when you tell the public they cant have something you create a new business for him.

Drug bans are the same way, we now have a massive market for drugs and rich drug kingpins as well as drug wars and gang violence. A law written on a scrap of paper is only as good as its enforcement.

With guns the matter is very different. Guns are an inanimate object no better or worse than the hand holding them. Demanding that gun owners give up their rights demands they give up their security and protection, recreation, while it makes them responsible for the actions fo the criminals. Regular gun owners are regular people and they enjoy shooting sports, hunting, and they recognize that a violent criminal is a predator who must be met with equal force if his victim is to stand a chance of survival. Pepper spray, alarms, baseball bats, locks and keys, or a phone call to the police are weak, often useless defenses against a determined armed predator. A gun in the hand can prevent a rape, robbery, murder, etc. Gun owners will not stand silently as people demand those rights be taken away, making them helpless in the face of crime.

Shool shootings such as Columbine, church shootings, restraunt shootings such as Luby's, and theatres such as Aurora prove that when a sign goes up saying NO GUNS ALLOWED and law abiding citizens obey the sign while criminals do NOT, they become helpless targets at the mercy of the merciless. But the fight rages on, more signs go up, a piece of paper that cannot prevent crime, and more victims are buried. In the meantime it seems that terrified people continue their fight, being afraid of their neighbor or anyone who carries a gun.

The criminal's job is an affective, one, rule by fear, and be amused by inneffective laws. We have thousands of laws on the books right now and to date, the gun bans have not kept any public place safe. The police are there, to clean up after the fact. What bans prove is that a law affects no one but those not inclined to break the law in the first place.