GUN CONTROL WILL NEVER WORK

Tuesday Column

Open Your Eyes w/ Caleb Lawson

3/26/19

     As you know, the Left has been advocating for a ban on guns. They are saying that banning firearms will somehow stop mass shootings and will “decrease gun violence”. That actually couldn’t be further from the truth! In fact, violence and crime would substantially increase. Why is that? It’s because law abiding, gun owning American citizens would no longer be able to protect themselves and others from threats. Let me give you a good example. The United Kingdom banned handguns in 1997 but instead of a decrease in violence, like they were expecting, there was a substantial rise in murder, rape, and crime in general. 

     We also have many great examples of gun bans not working here in the United States. Look at extreme gun-controlled Chicago for instance. Chicago banned guns, but continues to have one of the highest murder and crime rates in the entire country! Baltimore has extremely strict gun laws but according to USA Today, Baltimore is the “most dangerous city in America." According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Vermont has the lowest violent crime rates in the United States while also having virtually no gun restrictions. These facts completely contradict what the Left always says about gun control reducing violence.

     The banning of guns would never be able to stop the criminals and murderers from obtaining firearms. The statistics clearly show that the vast majority of gun crime is committed by people who obtained their weapons illegally. According to Mother Jones Database, over 80% of mass shooters used an illegal firearm, which means that a gun ban wouldn’t have stopped any of those horrible shootings. There is no way that all of the criminals and murderers will just hand over their firearms if we ban guns. What a ridiculous notion. In truth, the only people that will abide by a mandatory gun ban would be the law abiding citizens! Follow me here; this means the only people who would have firearms are the criminals and murderers, so gun control would most definitely end in disaster!

     Here’s my question then: if the banning of guns won’t stop gun violence, then what will? In my opinion, here are 3 very effective ways to help eliminate gun violence here in the United States.

• 1. We need to have more highly trained armed security and/or officers at every single school in the country. Having armed security at every school will help deter school shootings and it will also ensure that a threat would be stopped as soon as possible.

• 2. We must end Gun Free Zones. According to the Crime Prevention Research Center, 98% of mass shootings happen in these “Gun Free Zones”. The reason for this is because in those specific zones there are no law-abiding gun owners to stop the shooter. There are only people without any effective way to protect themselves, which of course, would make Gun Free Zones easy targets for mass shooters, rapists, and other criminals. Therefore, the more law abiding gun owners there are, the less crime there is! Once we eliminate Gun Free Zones I believe that we will see a significant drop in violent crimes and mass shootings.

• 3. Building the Southern border wall. Here’s a crazy fact, according to CESOP, 2,000 undocumented guns come across the border from Mexico illegally every single day. Those guns are then bought illegally by criminals and potential mass shooters here in the United States. President Trump must build the wall to stop the constant flow of illegal weapons, which will greatly reduce gun violence and shootings. Like it’s been said before if we build the wall, crime will most definitely fall! 

     As we now know, gun control will never reduce gun violence in the United States. In fact, it would just make things much worse. Let’s instead look into the more effective ways that I listed above to help stop gun violence. Having a firearm to protect ourselves is a right and we must never let the Left take that God-given right away! 

     I hope this OPENS YOUR EYES.

Caleb Lawson is a weekly columnist for As a Matter of Fact.

You can follow with him on Twitter here.