In the wake of the sniper shootings, anti-gun advocates have been calling for more new gun control laws and a renewal of old gun control legislation.
They claim that if tougher gun control laws were in place then the sniper attacks would not have occurred.
What a load of crap!
New laws do not stop criminals from committing crimes. Lawbreakers by definition break the law. Gun control legislation does nothing but make it harder for law abiding citizens to get the means to protect themselves and their families.
Drugs are illegal, yet no one doubts that people who choose to ignore drug laws can obtain drugs.
Proponents of tougher gun control will often point to such “facts” as the number of children killed by guns and low violent crime rates of countries with strict gun legislation, like Japan. What they fail to say is that the “children” they mention includes anyone up to the age of 18.
They do this so they can include the deaths of gangbangers in their statistics.
Among children under 14, the National Center for Health Statistics repots that guns are responsible for only 2.7% of fatal accidents.
When gun control advocates leave out some very important facts. 1) Switzerland has a crime rate similar to Japan’s, but Switzerland has very loose gun laws. 2) Italy has some of the most restrictive gun laws in Europe yet its firearm murder rate is twice that of Switzerland’s. And 4) the homicide rate in Japan is similar to the homicide rate for Japanese-Americans, which implies that Japanese culture is responsible for Japan’s low homicide rate, not gun control.
The absence of guns does not lower crime, it raises it.
Great Britain has seen the number of firearm related homicides double since the implementation of handgun ban.
In 1976 Washington enacted a virtual ban on handguns, and, the Washington homicide rate rose 200% by 1991.
Guns in the hands of law abiding citizens saves lives. Americans use firearms to defend themselves from criminals about 760,000 times a year. If buying a gun to protect yourself is looked down upon and made illegal today, then what next?
Pepper Spray? Martial Arts?
Your home has a fire extinguisher in case there is a fire. Your electronics have surge protectors in case of lightning . You protect your possessions by arming them against things that might try to harm them…why not protect yourself?
Daniel Watkins, 19, is a sophomore computer information systems student from Augusta, Ga.