THE ANSWER TO GUN VIOLENCE
Let’s imagine a gun control paradise where the Second Amendment is repealed, and all privately owned guns are outlawed, and all existing guns must be turned in.
What could possibly go wrong?
Plenty. Banning things doesn’t make them magically disappear. We created a drug control paradise by banning dangerous drugs since before most people were born. The drugs haven’t gone away.
In gun control paradise, few turn in their guns, and guns are traded on the black market, which becomes a violent big business for organized criminal gangs.
The black market does for the war on guns what it has done for the war on drugs: spectacular violent failure.
People who don’t want the expense, hassle, and risk of buying black-market guns make homemade guns. Making homemade guns isn’t rocket science. With a kit, they’re easy and cheap to make. Outlaw the kits and components, and people will mill guns out of blocks of metal, or they’ll make them easily and inexpensively with 3D printers. Of course, homemade guns are outlawed in gun control paradise, but the law is largely ignored.
In gun control paradise, gun violence is worse than ever. Criminals know their prey is likely unarmed. Gun smuggling is a violent business. Black market disputes are settled with violence.
Instead of a violent, rights-violating gun control paradise, what we need is freedom. End the drug war, which would likely cut the homicide rate by 25–75%. End gun-free zones, which is where 94% of public mass shooting since 1950 have occurred. Allow willing teachers, who have training, to carry a concealed handgun, because since Columbine, there have been no children shot in schools that permit teachers to carry. Grow the economy by freeing it from political controls — especially occupational licensure and minimum wage — because gun violence is highest in low-income areas.
Freedom — not authoritarian control — is the answer to gun
violence.
— Chuck Wright/Westminster
