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The recent shooting at a Littleton, Colorado high school
has the gun control advocates calling for more laws to "end the violence". The
mainstream media, ever so comfortable in their role of dutifully reciting the propaganda
of the anti-gun crowd, add little of substance to the dialog. True to form, much of the
commentary in the aftermath of Littleton is the usual hand-wringing and calls for more
laws to help "protect the children". Haven’t we had enough of that? How do we "end the violence"? Well, they
reason, guns are responsible for much of the violence in our society today, so a ban on
guns would reduce the violence. This logic is so tortuous as to be laughable—except
that people believe it. When I hear someone claim that "guns cause violence", I
imagine hundreds of guns—revolvers, semi-automatic pistols, rifles,
shotguns—sprouting little feet and hands, running around and pulling their own
triggers and "causing" violence. In the absence of guns, Bad Guys will choose
other means of expressing their violent rage, be it knives, bombs, cars, chopsticks, or
stones. Violence cannot be legislated away. Even if "gun control" were the answer, why
doesn’t all the gun control legislation at the federal level alone accomplish this
stated goal of protecting us? Despite all the laws that require background checks, waiting
periods, firearms training, or that simply prohibit firearms carry by private citizens,
more and more people are getting shot at in public places. Bad Guys know that places where
guns are prohibited provide a target-rich environment, and, more importantly, an
environment where it’s unlikely that they’ll be facing return fire. Public schools are especially attractive, in part because
of the ratio of young people to adults. Students in schools are under increasing
surveillance, including locker and vehicle searches, and metal detector checks upon
entering the school in some places. A young person who wants an education won’t risk
expulsion, so it’s highly unlikely that most kids will carry a weapon for protection.
Teachers and school administrators generally don’t have to go through that gauntlet,
but the laws apply to them as well. If they ignore the laws, they can be fired, and with
the horror of carrying a firearm to school on their record, it’s a foregone
conclusion that no other school district would hire such a monster. Schools have become
places where almost everyone is unarmed—in other words, the ideal place for a killing
spree. Is it any wonder that that’s what we see happening? In nature, life adjusts to the conditions of the
environment—in the desert, you find plants that don’t require much water, and
animals that are nocturnal to avoid the heat of the day. When laws create conditions that
make peaceful people easy prey, how can people fail to see that it’s the same
principle at work? Yet that’s what is happening with gun control laws. We "extremists" who support the Second
Amendment have a phrase that accurately describes gun control laws. They’re called
"victim disarmament laws". Law-abiding individuals who feel they have a
legitimate need for a handgun wait agonizing days for the background check and
"cooling off period" mandated by law—and run the risk of being shot because
the criminal doesn’t jump through the government’s hoops. They will not buy
automatic weapons—illegal simply because they do the job with greater
efficiency—while a criminal seeks out such weapons precisely for that reason. They
will obey the laws that limit where they may lawfully carry weapons, while criminals seek
out those places. Gun control laws create a disarmed class of citizens, and easy prey for
criminals. Victim disarmament is the tip of the
iceberg, though. The gun-grabbers are creating new victims for criminals. Every gun
that is taken out of a peaceful person’s hands is one less opportunity for the good
guys to fight back. Why do you think there are drive-by shootings in California, where gun
control is strict, and such crimes are unheard of in Vermont, which has unrestricted carry
for its law-abiding citizens? It isn’t because Vermont has no roads! Victims of Gun Control Rather than ending the violence, gun control laws are
increasing the likelihood of law-abiding citizens meeting an untimely, unnecessary end
while conducting routine business. Every person who has died or been injured at the
hands of someone spraying bullets in a public place is a victim created by the
gun-control crowd. By creating gun-free zones of the public schools, the
politicians are making especially easy targets of our youth. This fact is not lost on the
youth themselves, which is why we see kids killing their fellow schoolmates from Oregon to
Florida. Israel, despite being surrounded by hostile countries bent on destroying the
Jewish state, has virtually no schoolyard terrorism of this sort. Why? Educators and
parent-volunteers are encouraged to carry their firearms at school, and everyone knows
this. Disgruntled Israeli youth and Arab terrorists alike know that if they were to go
into an Israeli school on a killing spree, they would be easily thwarted. Try to get Dan
Rather to cover that story, though. Ain’t gonna happen. It’s sickening to see such a waste of young lives,
but even more revolting to hear the whining of the gun-grabbers after each incident,
calling for increased measures that will only result in more senseless death. Sure enough,
according to several reports published after the Littleton tragedy, Clinton is examining a
number of options to step up restrictions on guns. This is a classic example of the late
Robert LeFevre’s principle in action—"government is a disease masquerading
as its own cure". Seeing through the fallacy of gun control isn’t
rocket science. It isn’t even particularly challenging thinking. All it takes is for
people to start questioning the crap that’s being shoveled into their minds. How many
slaughters of their children will mainstream America witness before they realize that the
gun grabbers have sold them a pack of lies? At least many in the gun-grabber camp have an excuse:
they actually believe the twisted rhetoric and padded statistics they offer up as
evidence. For the people who can’t be bothered to think about both sides of the issue
and to critically examine the claims and arguments given by each, there is no excuse.
Their mental laziness allows the killing to continue, and makes them accessories to the
deaths that the gun-grabbers make possible by creating potential victims out of all of us. Is that harsh? So be it. I have friends and family
members, people whom I care a great deal about who fall into that category, and I refuse
to pardon them for their part in the folly of gun control. I have four children whom I am
trying to raise to be mature, responsible adults; one of them is my flesh-and-blood
son—something I thought I could never create. They are four reasons why I am a gun
owner. My firearms are my best means of defending my self and my loved ones, and anyone
who tries to tell me otherwise is not suffered gladly. I am increasingly weary of those
who accept at face value the claims of the politicians who say they know what’s best
for their subjects. As a song that’s been getting a lot of time in my CD player
lately puts it: Too damn bad if at the end of the day *Lyrics from "Disconnect" by
Rollins Band, on the CD Weight, 1994. Sunni Maravillosa is a psychologist and web
mistress for the Liberty Round Table (URL http://home.lrt.org/
). These days you can also find her in Freedom City ¾ part of another pro-freedom
activity she co-founded with Don L. Tiggre, The Freedom Channel (URL http://www.evanstonwy.com/freedom ). from The Laissez Faire City Times,
Vol 3, No 17, April 26, 1999 |
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