Does Banning Guns Solve the Problem? Part 4 in the Right to Protect Yourself

Does Banning guns solve the problem?
Does banning guns work to eliminate people's violence. The UK experience is instructive. Now Britain enforces a near-total ban on guns, the Telegraph reports that: "The United Kingdom is the violent crime capital of Europe and has one of the highest rates of violence in the world, worse even than America, according to the European Commission.*"

So beware of naïve belief in the power of governments. The skeptical and the more thoughtful first examine the evidence, ascertain which policies have been proven to work, and then advocate the most effective.

Does Banning Concealed Gun Carry Work?
In the 2012 Batman Movie Shooting in Aurora, the shooter went to the only cinema which did not allow carrying concealed guns, passing several nearer which had not negated Colorado's law. Cinemark Holdings has a strict "gun-free" policy at all of its 459 theaters, even for people with concealed carry permits. Does anyone doubt that their ban on individuals protecting themselves unnecessarily increased the death toll?

In the USA, gun controls today are far stricter than earlier. Yet counting only incidents with at least two casualties, there were 18 such crimes in the 1980s. In the 1990s, there were more at 54. In the 2000s, there were yet more at 87. If you count only such crimes in which five or more victims were killed, there were six in the 1980s and 19 in the 2000s.

Are the increasingly draconian US policies working?
Back in the mid 1960s, in most states, an adult could walk into a store and buy an AR-15 rifle, no questions asked. Today, firearms are the most heavily regulated consumer product in the United States.

Nowadays, if you want to purchase an AR-15 or any other firearm, the store must first get permission for the sale from the FBI or its state counterpart. Permission is denied if the buyer is in one of nine categories of "prohibited persons," including felons, domestic-violence misdemeanants, and persons who have been adjudicated mentally ill or alcoholic.

Since, half a century ago, "active shooters" were rare, what can account for the continued increase in these shootings? The data suggest that restrictions on the right of individuals to protect themselves do not work. Perhaps, counter-intuitively, could the cause be increasingly stringent gun controls, which disarm innocent victims while leaving criminals with illegal access to guns?

Does Harrold School District have the Solution?
At Sandy Hook school, the teachers and administrators were prevented from protecting themselves by government law. Would the massacre have killed so many if the school had followed the 2009 example of Harrold, Texas, where responsible teachers and staff members carry concealed weapons?

Says Harrold School District superintendent David Thweatt: “Would you stick a sign at a school that says, ‘No guns on this property’? Why wouldn’t you? It invites nasty people to come. That’s what you’ve done to every public school in the nation. That’s why there were no shootings until Columbine... Good guys with guns - good. Bad guys with guns - bad.**”

Nothing is 100 percent, says Thweatt, but hoping that (a tragedy) won’t happen makes for a terrible plan. In Harrold, the school district has had no shootings, and Thweatt doesn't expect any.

© Copyright worldwide Cris Baker, www.LifeStrategies.net All rights reserved. Republishing welcomed under Creative Commons noncommercial no derivatives license preserving all links intact, so please +1 and share this widely!

Food for Thought
"The ignorance of one voter in a democracy impairs the security of all."

- John F. Kennedy, 1917-1963, assassinated 35th President of the United States. The United States House Select Committee on Assassinations concluded that Kennedy was probably assassinated as the result of a conspiracy

* The report from the Telegraph is at:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/law-and-order/5712573/UK-is-viole...

** The quote from the Harrold School District superintendent is at:

http://www.reporternews.com/news/2009/aug/06/packed-for-school/