Now for the crucial question: Are you now, or have you ever considered committing homicide with a gun? Dumb question? Well, some people seem to think that question is not so inappropriate.
What’s that? You say you are a law-abiding citizen in good standing and would never even think about shooting another human being except in self-defense? Me too! But obviously, that doesn’t hold much water with those bent on controlling our lives. To those calling for strict federal and state gun control, we are prime suspects in the next homicide or mass murder.
Apparently, those calling for stricter gun controls are lumping you and me in with the .004% of the population that have committed homicide with a firearm. Yes, folks, we are guilty until… well, until when?
Are you offended at being lumped in with the likes of Larry Darnell Gordon, Micah Johnson, Omar Saddiqui Mateen, Syed Rizwan Farook and Tashfeen Malik, Adam Lanza, Major Nidal Hasan, and Dylan Roof among others? Well, you should be. These were some of the most heinous killers in recent history. They were psychotic murderers. But they were only a minuscule part of the gun owning population.
No one can possibly argue that gun-related carnage is not horribly despicable. It is something that should never happen to anther human. Then again, traffic deaths are no less tragic. Are homicides by knife or being bludgeoned to death with a baseball bat two-by-four, or golf club any less horrendous?
What is missing in this very loud shouting match is common sense. Whatever weapon is used in any killing is an inanimate object. Guns, knives, and baseball bats are only tools used by someone intent on committing murder. If you bash your finger with a hammer, you may curse the hammer, but is it really that tool’s fault?
We register and track possession of cars, but not drunks. When a drunk kills someone on the highway, is it the car’s fault? And there are many orders of magnitude more drunk driving deaths than gun homicides. Can we honestly say that vehicle registration has had any effect on the number of drunk driving fatalities?
Why then, could anyone ever believe that because a gun is registered that it won’t be used in a killing? And what about those black market guns. Oh yes, there are many. Just because a criminal can’t legally own a firearm does not mean they have any compunction about illegally obtaining one. It is a criminal act to murder someone; do you think that would make a killer think twice about illegally owning a gun?
Is there any logical way to define “assault weapon?” By reasonable definition, any weapon used in an assault would be considered an assault weapon. That would include any rifle, shotgun, cannon, handgun, knife, sword, baseball bat, golf club, or fork. Do the rounds of a rifle or pistol magazine make it any more of an assault weapon than, say, self-defense, hunting, or sport shooting weapon? It only takes one well-placed shot to kill. The most popular weapon carried in our Civil War was the Springfield Model 1861 single shot, rifled musket. That was considered a military assault weapon, yet no magazine or cartridge was even used.
It has been proven repeatedly that gun control does not reduce gun violence. People with violent and malevolent intent cause gun violence. Gun laws only make a new class of criminals, the formerly legal gun owners.
Gun control has nothing to do with guns or killing; it is all about control!
