Pro gun control arguments. Here are several pro-gun-control arguments and some responses to them:
They said they want additional laws.
The Columbine teens broke 19 laws. Where were the police? In 1998, of all the gun convictions in this country, almost none went to prison: 8 in San Francisco, 14 in NJ, 9 in Pittsburgh, 2 in Washington, D.C. Half a million felons were denied firearms purchases through NICS, but almost none were arrested, prosecuted and imprisoned for the attempt. It's already illegal for a child to own a gun. It's already illegal for a parent to leave a loaded gun where a child can find one. It's already illegal to shoot someone. It's already illegal to buy a gun for someone else who isn't allowed to have one. It's already illegal for felons to own guns.
They say that 13 children per day die by handguns.
This is worse than misinformation -- it's disinformation. This number includes "children" 19 years old who are gang members and drug dealers. The number for children 14 and under is 1.7 per day, and if you take out suicides (if someone is determined to kill themselves, they'll do it without a gun, in a much nastier way), it's 1.3 per day.
The top five killers of children in this country are: motor vehicle accidents, fires, choking, poisoning, and drowning. Gun deaths are nowhere near the top. The fact is, guns are safe when used responsibly. According to the CDC's latest statistics, 0-14 year old mortality is: auto (2,608), drowning (1010), pedestrian (675), bicycle (201), and gun accidents (142). Gun homicides in the same age group totaled 346, and that includes legal intervention and self defense.
Based on US Consumer Product Safety Commision data:
Most Common Reasons for Emergency Room Visits
Baseball/softball 404,000
Dog bites 334,000
Playground 267, 000
ATV's, mopeds 125, 000
Volleyball 98, 000
In-line skating 76, 000
Horseback riding 71, 000
Baby walkers 28, 000
Skateboards 25, 000
They say that guns need safety inspections.
Guns are not subject to the same kinds of consumer safety checks as other products. They aren't used by children, so they don't need to be checked as stringently (remember, it's illegal for a child to own a gun). They are some of the safest products around, in fact. Virtually no one is unintentionally injured by their own guns because of a defect in the gun. If you use your car incorrectly, you could be injured by that too.
They say we need mandatory safety instruction and testing for gunowners.
Who determines the course content? When is it given? Only once a year, 400 miles away from your home, and there's only room for 10 people? Oh well, you're out of luck. Oh, you got in, but you can't pay the $4000 it costs for the course? Oh, well, you're poor, so you're out of luck. What about the questions on the test? Who determines those? How many can you get wrong? You mean you don't know how many grains of powder are in a Federal Hydra-shok .45ACP cartridge? You fail.
They say they want licensing for guns like licensing for cars.
They want gun owners to register their guns the way people register cars, and they want gun owners to have licenses like they do for cars. There are a few problems with that. First, cars are not guns. Cars are more dangerous than guns. More people are killed in car accidents every year than with guns. There are 96,000 gun injuries per year, and 32,000 of those are fatal. There are 3,000,000 injuries and 41,000 deaths per year from car accidents. There are 60 million gun owners who own 230,000,000 guns in this country, and there are 210,000,000 registered vehicles. Those rates come out to: .00013 gun deaths per gun vs. .00019 car deaths per car.
Second, cars are not mentioned in the Constitution. Is this a pedantic argument? Perhaps, but the fact is that the Second Amendment was important enough to be included at the beginning, and any licensing and registration is unconstitutional. They say that if we didn't license cars, there'd be many more accidents. Who knows? I don't think that's necessarily the case. The fact is that *with* licensing and registration of cars, there are still many accidents, many injuries, many deaths. People speed all the time, they drive recklessly, they even drive after their licenses are taken away. Think about this: when was the last time you got angry or upset at a bad driver who cut you off?
I don't need a license to *buy* a car. I don't need a license to drive a car on my private property. I don't need to register my car unless I want to drive on public land. Once I do register, I can take my car anywhere I want to go, including from state to state. If I register my gun, can I do that?
They say we can't compare guns to cars because cars are useful.
What about the million-plus people a year who use guns to save their own lives, to defend themselves against muggers, rapists and murderers? In less than 1% of self-defense cases, the gun is fired; 99% of the time just showing a gun to a would-be assailant is enough to dissuade them from their action.
They say the Second Amendment refers to a collective body rather than an individual.
This can't hold, because it would require a restrictive reading of the other amendments, such as the First and Fourth. In fact, in 1876 the Supreme Court held in the Cruikshank case that a private individual who violated another's right to bear arms did not violate the Federal Civil Rights Act because the Second Amendment does not protect against private intereference. They went on to say that the First Amendment doesn't hold against private intereference, either. Also, in 1886 in the Presser case, they held that an armed assembly was not protected, but reaffirmed that individuals were (reaffirmed because a century earlier, in 1780, the Chief Magistrate in London ruled that the right to keep and bear arms individually is guaranteed under Common Law, but collectively it was limited by the principle of forestalling terror and alarm and treason).
Additionally, the Fourth Amendment forbids unreasonable search and seizure. According to the exclusionary evidence rule, evidence obtained through unreasonable means cannot be used as evidence. An appellate court judge has ruled that the Fourth Amendment must be suspended in order to perform mass searches for firearms, or else gun control would be unenforceable.
Also, forced registration of a thing lawfully to be kept in the home is unconstitutional as ruled by the Supreme Court in 1965, when they were asked to decide about registration of communist newspaper readers.
And, registration of firearms goes against the constitutional guarantee of presumption of innocence (Fifth Amendment). The Court has ruled that a criminal forced to register a gun has been forced to incriminate himself, so in fact criminals do not have to register their firearms at all!
They say we need gun control.
In 1929, the Soviet Union established gun control. From 1929 to 1953, about 20 million dissidents, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated.
In 1911, Turkey established gun control. From 1915 to 1917, 1.5 million Armenians, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated.
Germany established gun control in 1938 and from 1939 to 1945, 13 million Jews and others who were unable to defend themselves were rounded up and exterminated.
China established gun control in 1935. From 1948 to 1952, 20 million political dissidents, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated.
Guatemala established gun control in 1964. From 1964 to 1981, 100,000 Mayan Indians, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated.
Uganda established gun control in 1970. From 1971 to 1979, 300,000 Christians, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated.
Cambodia established gun control in 1956. From 1975 to 1977, one million 'educated' people, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated.
Defenseless people rounded up and exterminated in the 20th Century because of gun control: 56 million.
When the government is given the right to regulate, they're also given the right to ban.
Gun control leads to gun confiscation. Gun confiscation leads to extermination. It's that simple.
Pro gun control arguments
