Gun Control

A Monopoly of Ownership

Gun control is a heated topic of discussion in the media in recent years. Debunking the mythology of gun control has been a central tenant since the foundation of Consensual Interaction and its accompanying YouTube channel. Emotions run high as people advocate for things that are impossible and inadvertently advocate violence. The media tries to divide the people by party lines, the presidential race always mentions it, the public cannot seem to stay away from it, and I am interested in telling all about it. America has a gun culture. The truth about gun control seems to be one that is far different from the mythology that surrounds it in modern politics.

Political parties are not philosophies. They are not even ideologies. At most, they are gangs of politicians who use the party as a vehicle to make it to office. This makes the official platform of the party on gun control meaningless, as it is not actually enforced on the politicians of those respective parties in any way whatsoever. But regardless, it is important to mention what the two major political parties in America have formally said regarding gun control in America. Here is a direct quote from the Democratic Party website. “We recognize that the individual right to bear arms is an important part of the American tradition, and we will preserve Americans' Second Amendment right to own and use firearms. We believe that the right to own firearms is subject to reasonable regulation. We understand the terrible consequences of gun violence; it serves as a reminder that life is fragile, and our time here is limited and precious. We believe in an honest, open national conversation about firearms. We can focus on effective enforcement of existing laws, especially strengthening our background check system, and we can work together to enact commonsense improvements--like reinstating the assault weapons ban and closing the gun show loophole--so that guns do not fall into the hands of those irresponsible, law-breaking few.” (2012 Democratic National Platform, 2012). I will now proceed to systematically break down the mental vortex of self-contradiction and victimhood known as liberal political speak. Sentence by sentence will work best in order to properly convey real meaning behind this garbage dump of self-proclaimed reasonable thinking. “We recognize that the individual right to bear arms is an important part of the American tradition, and we will preserve Americans' Second Amendment right to own and use firearms.” Okay this sentence makes sense from a political party that is sworn in under oath to protect the Constitution. “We believe that the right to own firearms is subject to reasonable regulation.” Unfortunately this statement completely nullifies the previous statement. These two sentences are literally opposites, but this is what is known to come from the modern Democratic Party, indecisiveness due to lack of principle. “We understand the terrible consequences of gun violence; it serves as a reminder that life is fragile, and our time here is limited and precious.” This sentence serves as the daily dose of Democratic Party logical fallacy of appeal to emotion. This is not an argument. “We can focus on effective enforcement of existing laws, especially strengthening our background check system, and we can work together to enact commonsense improvements--like reinstating the assault weapons ban and closing the gun show loophole--so that guns do not fall into the hands of those irresponsible, law-breaking few.” Now this is where the truth comes out. The democrats want what they have always wanted, statism. By enforcement of existing laws, they mean that they want to be the ones perpetrating the gun violence. Because after all, gun control is impossible without using guns. The Republican Party has a much more consistent and logical platform regarding gun control, even though it is irrelevant when its party members ignore it. “We uphold the right of individuals to keep and bear arms, a right which antedated the Constitution and was solemnly confirmed by the Second Amendment. We acknowledge, support, and defend the law-abiding citizen's God-given right of self-defense. We call for the protection of such fundamental individual rights recognized in the Supreme Court's decisions in District of Columbia v. Heller and McDonald v. Chicago affirming that right, and we recognize the individual responsibility to safely use and store firearms. This also includes the right to obtain and store ammunition without registration. We support the fundamental right to self-defense wherever a law-abiding citizen has a legal right to be, and we support federal legislation that would expand the exercise of that right by allowing those with state-issued carry permits to carry firearms in any state that issues such permits to its own residents.” (Republican Platform, 2012). But party platforms are not important when individuals do not abide by them. The 2012 presidential elections came down between two statists, Barack Obama and Mitt Romney. Each of them had their own delusional view of what gun control in America should be like. Due to the fact Barack Obama has proven his political philosophy is actually not a philosophy at all because it is not rooted in principle, I will only use statements he has said since he had started his reelection campaign, due to his changing opinion over the years. Barack Obama said in the second debate with Mitt Romney, “We're a nation that believes in the Second Amendment, and I believe in the Second Amendment. We've got a long tradition of hunting and sportsmen and people who want to make sure they can protect themselves. My belief is that we have to enforce the laws we've already got, make sure that we're keeping guns out of the hands of criminals, those who are mentally ill. We've done a much better job in terms of background checks, but we've got more to do when it comes to enforcement. But weapons that were designed for soldiers in war theaters don't belong on our streets. Part of it is seeing if we can get an assault weapons ban reintroduced.” (Obama Romney Second Debate, 2012). Based on this quote, Barack Obama follows the guidelines of his political party platform very well, say you are pro-gun, and then immediately contradict yourself and say something anti-gun. Barack Obama continues along party lines of appeal to emotion logical fallacy with this quote from the 2013 state of the union address. “Overwhelming majorities of Americans--Americans who believe in the 2nd Amendment--have come together around commonsense reform--like background checks that will make it harder for criminals to get their hands on a gun. Senators of both parties are working together on tough new laws to prevent anyone from buying guns for resale to criminals. Police chiefs are asking our help to get weapons of war and massive ammunition magazines off our streets.” (Remarks By The President In The State Of The Union Address, 2013). Mitt Romney is just as bad when it comes to gun control, due to his enormous amount of flip flopping and his inability to grasp principles but instead make decisions based on what is popular or what a lawyer would do. In fact, there is no need to elaborate upon Mitt Romney’s quotes because he is so confused on what he believes in that almost everything he has said he has later contradicted. This is of course an exception in issues that would actually reduce the size and scope of government. Mitt Romney supported both a ban on handguns and a ban on semi-automatic rifles (Scott, 2011). Of these two candidates, Barack Obama won, and seeing how their positions are almost identical, it would correlate that the American public has no idea if it wants gun control.

There is a gun culture in America. But gun control is impossible without guns, for the government would have to use guns in order to enforce gun laws. All there is, is private ownership and complete monopolization of gun ownership, and many genocides were initiated after gun control legislation is enacted. Also millions of crimes are respond to every year by private individuals with guns rather than the police. America has more guns in private ownership than Britain, which explains why the number of burglaries that happen when the homeowner is home is significantly lower in America in comparison to Britain (Molyneux, Gun Culture, 2012).

The statistics behind gun control are those that most people would find shocking. When reading the hard facts, most people could be left with a sense of having their previous paradigm collapsed because of how skewed the media and the culture has made this topic. About 46 percent of American households own firearms (Kleck, 2011). This includes over 320 million handguns, which accounts for about 36 percent of all guns. Of all of these guns, fewer than 100 thousand are used in violent crimes every year, and the ownership of guns correlates in areas where crime is the lowest. Guns are used in defense about 2.5 million times a year in America alone. This means that guns are use about seven times as much for defense as compared to the amount of times that they are used to initiate attacks. Statistics also show that those that defend themselves using guns are more likely to escape without injury and without property damage, and the protection that guns provide does not necessarily come from actually owning a gun, but the idea of a victim having a gun from a criminal’s point of view. (Molyneux, Truth About Gun Control, 2012). Criminals interviewed in prison back up the claim that they would be reluctant to perpetrate crime if they knew that victims could possibly be armed. Gun control has also shown to not affect the actual acquirement of the firearms themselves, this reigns true even for the mandatory background checks that are demanded by the Democratic platform. About one in three legally bought guns are purchased privately without a licensed dealer. From a criminal justice textbook, “Among 943 felon handgun owners, 44 percent had acquired their most recently acquired handgun through a purchase, usually from a source other than a dealer, 32 percent had stolen the gun, 9 percent rented or borrowed it, 8 per cent each obtained it in trade or as a gift. Only 16 per cent of the total had obtained their handgun by a purchase from a conventional retail dealer” (Kleck, 2011). Often times, hoplophobes will argue that America should adopt a system more like Britain to prevent violence, unknowing that Britain actually has more violent crime that America overall. There was actually less crime in Britain before gun controls were instated (Molyneux, Truth About Gun Control, 2012). After sixty years of adding gun controls, murder rates increased in Britain.

Gun control is a topic that is very important to me which is why I have written this text. This is a topic with so plentiful of sources and such a heated debate that I could rant for pages and pages and pages, but for consideration of the reader I will make this a quick one. I highly recommend checking out the listed sources for even more comprehensive information on the topic. We now know that partisan politics are irrelevant when it comes to gun control, both major parties say they are against gun control overall while trying to increase it overall. We know that America has a gun culture. That no matter what any politician does, there are currently over 320 million guns on the street in private hands (Kleck, 2011). The statistics are clear, gun control does not prevent violent crime and does not increase security. Gun control simply makes the job of a criminal safer. But most important of all, the only way gun control could ever be enforced, is through using guns to initiate force against gun owners who are not. So I ask as I always ask, to anyone who is for gun control, are you going to be the one to try and take mine away?

Works Cited
2012 Democratic National Platform. (2012, September 4). Retrieved from Democrats: http://www.democrats.org/democratic-national-platform
Kleck, G. (2011). Criminal Justice System (10th ed.). (G. Cole, & M. Wadsworth, Eds.) Tallahassee, Florida, America: College Of Criminology And Criminal Justice.
Molyneux, S. (2012, December 25). Gun Culture. (K. Lutz, Interviewer)
Molyneux, S. (2012). Truth About Gun Control. Free Domain Radio.
(2012). Obama Romney Second Debate.
Remarks By The President In The State Of The Union Address. (2013, February 12). Retrieved from White House: http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2013/02/12/remarks-president-state-union-address
Republican Platform. (2012, August 27). Retrieved from Grand Old Party: https://www.gop.com/platform/
Scott, R. (2011). Mitt Romney. Guilford: Lyons Press.