Gun Control - 2023

Dr. Feelgood Rides Again!

One of today’s headlines is yet another example of what’s being pushed to the public over and over again as a part of the left-wing narrative. It’s as if they believe if they see it in print enough times it’ll somehow come true.

Georgia Dem lawmakers call for special session to pass gun safety laws after mass shootings

If the left were truly talking about gun safety the right would be right there with them but the term “safety” is a propaganda term - code-word if you will - for prohibition, registration, confiscation, and worse. There are three main problems with the premise that gun control equates to gun safety. 

One is that the U S Constitution stands solidly in the path of the gun grabbers. Over and over again Cities and States pass laws restricting the purchase and ownership of firearms only to spend lots of taxpayer money in the courts defending them and eventually having them overturned as unconstitutional. “... the right to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.” Perhaps a case can be made that certain reasonable restrictions do not meet the definition of “infringed” (private ownership of a hand grenade or a howitzer) but a semi-automatic rifle or handgun is so ubiquitous, and has been for so long, that even common sense precludes the application of “reasonable” to that debate.

Another reason gun control does not equate to gun safety is that history proves the point. Areas of the US with the strictest gun laws are not the safest places. Chicago, for example. The left will argue that nationwide gun control would overcome the reasons gun control laws don’t work on a local basis but nationwide alcohol prohibition didn’t work (ask Elliot Ness) and we don’t seem to be winning the Federal War on Drugs. When one recognizes just how many millions of firearms are in circulation it becomes clear that enormous amounts of time and money would be necessary to eliminate them all, even if it were possible to completely stop the flow of new ones.

Thirdly, and perhaps the most egregious problem with today’s gun grabbers is that they are misguided at best and many are knowingly gaslighting. Violation of the constitutional rights of the entire US population in exchange for an unproven and questionable sociological experiment is just not something we do. Not in a free society anyway. Totalitarian governments do this, which is the bedrock reason for the existence of our Second Amendment.

Gun control advocates proclaim a need to “feel safe” in our schools, shopping malls, and communities. Bulldozing the rights of law-abiding citizens is apparently justified in their minds to achieve this goal. Passage of new laws restricting the ability of law-abiding citizens to defend themselves is apparently justified to enable Politicians to claim they have done something to make us feel safe. Legislation with fancy titles that bear little resemblance to the actual effect of that legislation is another way politicians justify their frivolity.

But there’s more! Feel-good legislation that does nothing to actually increase public safety, legislation that serves only to bolster a politician’s image, or bills that sneak bad law in by misrepresenting its true intent is not just unproductive. The worse aspect of it is that we’ve trampled on all those constitutional rights and wasted all the money and effort instead of taking the admittedly harder path of finding actually productive ways to address the problem. 

Let's take all this gun-grabbing debate off the table for a time certain and appoint a bipartisan task force to study gun safety with the proviso that their recommendations must in no way infringe upon the rights afforded under the US Constitution. Let it hear from anyone who wants to come and make a proposal. There would be more of a chance at actual improvement of our society than what’s going on now.