Useless Gun Control Measures

Useless Gun Control Measures

Well over 200 years ago, our forefathers wrote our constitution to protect our fundamental human rights.

According to the Second Amendment, we as American citizens have the right to keep and bear arms. But today, our government is seeking to rescind this fundamental right from the law-abiding citizens who own gums for numerous reasons. Gun control has been a controversial issue almost as long as the second amendment has existed. Both sides of the controversy have many good reasons why their stand on the issue of gun control is the right one. But upon further research into the issue of gun control, it appears that of the 20,000 plus State and Federally enacted laws for gun control; none of these laws eliminate the problems that they are intended to solve. In the next few paragraphs, I'd like to point out how these gun control laws only prevent law abiding citizens from obtaining firearms, do not prevent criminals from obtaining guns, and that these laws only intensify the problems that they are meant to eliminate.

Let's first start by looking at gun registration. The registration of guns is the first step to the eventual confiscation of all guns, regardless of what type it may be. Anti-gun control advocates strongly oppose the registration, licensing and/or banning of any type of firearms. We do have the right to defend ourselves, families and property against any and all unwarranted threats on our freedoms, liberties, or pursuits of happiness as American citizens. Registering guns provides the government with lists of all legally purchased and owned firearms. The government can then later use these lists to confiscate these firearms. As a matter of fact, New York City has already used registration lists to confiscate guns from law-abiding citizens. Besides that issue of registration, the registration rolls could endanger legal firearms owners to burglary, robbery, or physical harm if these registration listings got into the wrong hands. Will criminals register and insure their guns according to the Law? I'd think not and, as quoted by Gary Rosen, in the article titled: "Comprising on Gun Control Can Reduce Gun Violence" he stated "in the words of one NRA brochure, criminals do not bother with the niceties of obeying laws--for a criminal is, by definition, someone who disobeys laws." The only thing that this type of gun control law does is serving as a further restriction on the law-abiding citizens to purchase a firearm. It does not affect or prevent criminals from obtains guns. This is just a part of the problems with gun control laws, so let's look at another problem.

There are many good reasons to own a gun, such as for recreational sporting, but gun control laws are trying to prevent the public from purchasing and owning a firearm. Purchasing and owning a gun also serves very well as a deterrent to crime and is associated with having security. As cited by Gary Rosen with the sharp increase in gun ownership recently, the rates of murder, robbery and assault have dropped dramatically. According to a study done by the National Center for Policy Analysis " Firearms are used a million times a year to ward off criminals." In most instances the presence of a firearm, prevents crimes in many cases without a shot being fired. A survey conducted by the National Institute of Justice stated that 56% of the felons they interviewed agreed that a criminal is not going to mess around with a potential victim he knows is armed with a gun. In response to another question, 74% of inmates stated "one reason burglars avoid houses when people are home is that they (the criminal) feared being shot." Statistics also showed that 38% of felons had been scared off, shot at, wounded or captured by an armed victim. Laws allowing concealed weapons by permit have shown in a study by John R. Lott, Jr. that it "keeps criminals uncertain as to whether a potential victim will be able to defend themselves with lethal force and that anyone might be carrying a gun makes attacking everyone less attractive." Evidence just shows that firearms in the hands of law-abiding citizens are used to repel crimes more often than criminals to perpetrate them. Preventing the public from obtaining firearms only makes them more prone to being attacked.

Even with the evidence thus far, gun control advocates still contend that legislating further gun control measures will cause a decrease in crime rates since more stringent laws would make it harder for criminals