The principal argument against gun control in the U.S. is that it doesn't work — in fact, cannot work. Some years ago I did some research and found that at the time, according to one estimate, there were as many as 200 million illegal hand guns circulating in this country. I am certain, were I to get in touch with some of the friends in low places I used to have, should they still be around, I could get a hand gun by tomorrow, if not this afternoon, and all without paying any attention to the gun laws.
There is also the fact that the right to bear arms in this country is precisely that: a Constitutional right. Citizens of other lands and posturing politicians may not like it, but the Second Amendment is not about to be repealed anytime soon. I myself don't want to live in a country where the government and criminals have guns and law-abiding citizens do not.
The UK, I believe, has draconian gun laws, and yet, according to this three-year-old article, it also has a Culture of violence: Gun crime goes up by 89% in a decade.
It is also worth noting that those parts of this country where guns are readily available also have correspondingly lower rates of crime. There is a professor in Florida who has compiled some pretty impressive data showing how many crimes have been prevented because the intended victims were armed.
I believe that Norway has some pretty tough gun laws, but they didn't prevent what happened there last year. There simply is no easy solution to the sort of ghastly thing that happened in Connecticut yesterday. Blind faith in the power of legislation to prevent disaster strikes me as, at best, naïve.
That said, the NRA too often does come off as recalcitrant in many ways. There are reasonable steps that can be taken. No one, for instance, should be allowed to purchase a gun who has not been certified as competent to use one. A license to have a gun should be like the license to drive a car.
I pretty much agree with this assessment: What Can We Do to Stop Massacres?
See also: Gun-free zones provide false sense of security.
I pretty much agree with this assessment: What Can We Do to Stop Massacres?
See also: Gun-free zones provide false sense of security.
Hi Frank, I am with you on this but there is another angle to the debate. If you look at hardened criminals, the one who are in the "game", a system of checks and balances will probably be able to prevent guns from landing in their hands, but will still not prevent men such as the Connecticut shooter to get guns. The idea of mentally unstable people getting guns does not seem to have a proper solution.
ReplyDeleteI am afraid, Vikram, that you are tragically correct.
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