Gun control advocates (GCA) demand “common sense laws” to control gun violence. However, is not violence what we need to control? While there are many reasons and perpetrators of gun violence, it is imperative to consider the already alarming recidivism trend. In April 2014, The Bureau of Justice published the statistics on recidivism from 30 states. The research found that 68% of prisoners were arrested for a new crime within three years of release. We are talking about a little more than 275,000 criminals. Seventy-seven percent of them were arrested within five years.
Let us consider how gun control makes law-abiding citizens defenseless against the already dangerous recidivism trend in the US.
Gun control emboldens criminals and makes them more dangerous. It increases the number of victims as most citizens become defenseless. For instance, Chicago’s crime rate increased by 50% in 2020 despite leading the gun control movement since 1970 (Charles, 2020). As statistics suggest, many criminals leave jail or effectively help them become better citizens. You don’t have to be brilliant to understand that regardless of the existence of the law, the vast majority of criminals keep committing crimes, terrorizing law-abiding citizens like you and me.
GCA focuses on eliminating as many firearms as possible, ignoring that owning firearms is a Constitutional right that explicitly says that it shall not be infringed.
The government cannot contain the intent of someone to commit a crime. That is why they have to blame something else. They blame the object instead of the criminal, conveniently ignoring that the purpose of a criminal will not change because they do not have a firearm. In the UK, criminals realized that knives serve their purpose and that gun control does not prevent them from committing their crimes. It makes their job easier by keeping citizens defenseless.
What does make sense is to 1) keep violent criminals off the streets, 2) help ex-convicts be part of society, and 3) ensure the law is enforced regardless of race, ethnicity, or gender, to mention a few. These are long-lasting actions we can support to help reduce crime.
The idea of punishing millions of citizens in this country because of the actions of a few thousand is ridiculous. I grew up in Venezuela, and I know that gun control keeps law-abiding citizens defenseless and criminals armed.
References
Charles, S. (2020). After 3 years of progress, Chicago’s murder tally skyrocketed in 2020