Gun Control Leads To More Violence Not Less

Gun control proponents wasted no time going after gun control measures after the Sandy Hook Elementary tragedy.  This is purely political as statistics and history show that gun control would lead to more crime, rapes, and murders.  More police officers, a lot more, would be needed to come remotely close to the positive effect of these unpaid, yet highly effective, armed citizens.  The success of gun control advocates would have one traumatic event turn into many more.

Americans should reflect on the original purpose of the Second Amendment before acting on their emotions.  The Founding Fathers protected the rights of citizens to bear arms in order to protect themselves from criminals, as well as from the tyranny of government, if it became necessary.  The United States would never have gained its independence from England without weapons comparable to that of their foe.  The citizen’s of this country should not have their right to carry comparable arms to their government infringed upon.  This is just one of the many checks and balances the founders instilled to protect democracy from unchecked power and its abuses.  The people must have the ability to rebel to maintain this check.

The same administration that preaches gun control to Americans provides arms to the Syrian rebels.  The rebels are rebelling against their government, the same protection we are guaranteed under the second amendment if the government becomes despotic.

Gun control advocates jumped at the first chance they could to enact legislation.  The Obama administration and many Democrats were already in favor of the United Nations (UN) Small Arms Treaty.  On March 23, 2013, our country came seven votes (53-46) away from the U.S. Senate giving our Constitutional rights over to the U.N.  Those in favor were 44 Democrats and 2 Independents, including Democrats Al Franken and Amy Klobuchar.  The treaty, championed by the Obama Administration, would have effectively placed a global ban on the import and export of small firearms.  The ban would have affected all private gun owners in the U.S., and had language that would have implemented an international gun registry on all private guns and ammunition.

Hours after U.S. President Barack Obama was re-elected, the U.S. backed a U.N. committee’s call on Wednesday to renew debate over a draft international treaty to regulate the $70 billion global conventional arms trade.  Despite its failure to succeed in Chicago, gun control remains a steadfast mission of Obama.  Day after day, Obama pitches gun control without discussing its ending result.

Obama's obsession for gun control resonates with his molding of ideas in ACORN.  ACORN intervened on behalf of Jersey City, New Jersey, in a 2006 lawsuit brought against the city challenging a local ordinance that limited individuals' handgun purchases to one gun a month.  The Hudson County Superior Court struck down the ordinance because it violated the New Jersey Constitution's Equal Protection clause, and a state statute prohibiting towns and municipalities from enacting firearms legislation.

We only have to look at the cities in the U.S. that enacted gun control measures to see the results.  When its handgun ban and trigger lock law was in effect, the Washington, D.C. murder rate averaged 73% higher than it was at the outset of the law, while the U.S. murder rate averaged 11% lower.

Chicago’s murder rate has averaged 17% lower than it was before the handgun law took effect, while the U.S. murder rate has averaged 25% lower.

Florida’s murder rate has averaged 36% lower than it was before the right-to-carry law took effect, while the U.S. murder rate has averaged 15% lower.

Texas’s murder rate has averaged 30% lower than it was before its right-to-carry law took effect, while the U.S. murder rate has averaged 28% lower.

One anomaly is Michigan where the murder rate has averaged 4% lower than it was before the law took effect, while the U.S. murder rate has averaged 2% lower.

In 1982, Kennesaw, Georgia passed a law requiring heads of households to keep at least one firearm in the house.  The residential burglary rate subsequently dropped 89% in Kennesaw, compared to just 10.4% drop in Georgia as a whole.  Today, the violent crime rate in Kennesaw is still 85% lower than Georgia's or the national average.

On an international scale, the results favor gun ownership for reducing violent crimes.  The U.S. has the highest gun ownership of 88% and one of the lowest international homicide rates per 100,000 residents at 4.8 (103rd out of 178 countries).

The other highest gun ownership rates are Yemen (54.8%), Switzerland (45.7%), and Finland (45.3%), 2nd through 4th, respectively.  They have murder rates of 4.2, 0.7, and 2.2 per 100,000 residents, respectively.

The highest international homicide rate per 100,000 residents is in Honduras (91.6), followed by El Salvador (69.2), Ivory Coast (56.9), and Jamaica (52.2).  They have gun ownership rates of 6.2%, 5.8%, 2.4%, and 8,1%, respectively.

By comparison, the U.S. has the most guns with 88%, and Honduras the least with just 6.2%.  The U.S. however has a homicide rate of 4.8 out 100,000 while Honduras has a rate of 91.6.

Overall, nations with strict gun control laws have substantially higher murder rates than those who do not in general.  A recent study published in the Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy concluded that there is a negative correlation between gun ownership and violent crime in countries internationally.  Statistics clearly show that more guns results in less crime and vice versa.  The bottom line is that gun control is a political scheme to serve an ideology, not one that serves the American people.