A Good Guys With Gun In Chicago

People routinely have different priorities and different information, so it is no surprise we also have different opinions on what to do about gun violence in this country. I want to look at the good arguments and some of the dumb ones. Reasonable people who have different priorities can still debate the stronger arguments, so there’s no point in anyone wasting time on dumb arguments. People with no knowledge of guns seem to be clueless and always assume the media hype. The Other Countries argument suggests that because tight gun control works in other countries, we should expect it would work in the United States. That is a poor argument because the United States is different from every other country in more ways than can be listed. The better approach than looking at other countries would involve trying some changes in the law in a few states or cities in this country and tracking how much difference it makes compared to states or cities that are comparable. Gun control advocates often like to point out that private gun owners in this country would never be a match for a standing army, should we ever get to the point of some sort of dictator situation in which the military is turned on the public. But that isn’t the right question. The right question is whether the guns in this country would be sufficient to handle assassinations, kidnapping of family members of both the military and the rogue government, and economic disruption in general. For those tasks, citizens are already sufficiently armed. 

Let’s take a look at Chicago, one city that you always hear about on the news about gun violence. The intended point is that tighter gun restrictions do not reduce gun violence, because it isn’t working in Chicago. But the point ignores the obvious, that the places with the worst gun violence are likely to pass the strictest gun laws in response. We should expect that most if not all the places with the most gun violence have the most restrictive gun laws, or will soon. The Chicago example also ignores the fact we have no way of knowing how much more gun violence would have occurred without the current laws in place. Chicago passed a ban on handgun ownership in 1982. Those who'd already purchased and registered their handguns were allowed to keep them. In 2010, the ban was struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court, and in 2013, Illinois became the last state in the nation to approve concealed carry. They do however have the strictest laws than any other state about honoring ccw licenses from other states. Illinois is considered to have fairly tight gun laws. The state requires gun owners to obtain licenses and face background checks. It also imposes waiting periods on purchases. But unlike New York and California, Illinois, among other things, does not ban assault weapons or large-capacity magazines and does not require a state license for firearms dealers or one to sell ammunition, according to the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence. Suicides account for nearly two-thirds of the gun deaths in the U.S. each year. 

The mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida that killed 17 people propelled the debate over gun safety laws once again into the national spotlight. Here again with this, the media always takes into account pointing out all the bad things this individual did, and points out all the loop holes in the system. The media ALWAYS makes guns out to be the bad. How about when someone uses a gun to rightfully defend themselves or others? Rarely do you see this kind of stuff on the news. Just this week there was a woman in Florida who was 8 months pregnant who shot one of the 2 men that broke into her home and was beating her husband. If more gun success stories were posted and reported on, how would that make an effect on the publics perception? What if she didn't have access to her weapon? The police never would have made it in near enough time. They may have lost their lives. Remember usually when something bad happens you always call the good guys with a gun 🙂