Rightwords... Prudent Conservatism

Yet another rush to ban guns from the public.

State and national representatives are ginning up another round of gun laws designed to make guns harder to own, carry, and shoot for ordinary citizens. They are using the events in Tucson as an illustration of the dangers of gun ownership, just as they have done after each shooting by crazed people. We do have too many shootings; one cannot deny that. But, is outlawing guns the right solution?

I say no. I say no for a number of cogent reasons:

1. It is a Constitutional Second Amendment right to own and use rifles, shotguns and handguns.

2. Guns of all types have been highly effective in preventing crimes--over three million criminal incidents in 2007 were prevented by gunowners from becoming tragedies, many of them potentially fatal to the victims. An estimated 3,000 of these incidents were destined to end in killings and rapes without strong intervention by the victims themselves. This number of gun related crime preventions completely outweighs the losses from crazed shootings and any other reason to deny handguns and rifles to the public.

3. Guns will be available to criminals regardless of the laws. It makes no sense to disarm the general public in the face of such threats as criminals pose today.

4. Most calls for help to the police take at least fifteen minutes before an officer or two arrives at the scene, and with the economic cuts on services we are receiving, perhaps a lot longer. That is a long enough time for major mayhem to take place in the home, on the family, and on the children. I cannot and will not stand by while intruders have their way with my family so long as I am able to respond effectively.

So, I say to all of the anti-gun people--come try to take my weapons!

Labels: Guns

# posted by Mannning @ 5:24 PM