Amendment #2 - its importance

[rccar328]

I also fail to see how gun ownership would have helped tourists and a british activist... or even those women walking in the park. But then i don't have some deeply embeded cowboy complex in my collective psyche...

If you fail to see this, then you're blinding yourself to common sense. One of the most advantageous aspects of gun ownership is self defense. If that British activist, or those women walking in the park, had been carrying, they could have warned off their attackers, or even shot them before their attackers could attack. Unfortunately, though, liberals seem to believe that people should just let criminals attack, rob, and/or murder them instead of allowing people defend themselves in the most effective manner available.

 

On a side note, I found this interview with John Lott, author of the book More Guns, Less Crime: Understanding Crime and Gun Control Laws to be very revealing.

 

Also, on the topic of crime rates in England...

 

Personal ownership of handguns has been banned since 1997. Since that time, the murder rate has gone up by 35%, and "the number of rapes reported to the police has more than doubled." (Source)

 

The "number of offences recorded in which firearms were reported to have been used" was going down before the 1997 gun ban, but after the ban, cases actually increased. (Source)

 

What's more, instead of seeing that banning guns has not helped to solve anything, the UK government is instead passing even more restrictions, now looking to crack down on knives, and even toy guns. What they fail to see is that an armed citizenry can easily fend off criminals carrying knives or toy guns...but take the guns away from law-abiding citizens, and they are defenceless in the face of violent crime.

 

 

I'm not saying that gun ownership should be totally unrestricted. There should be laws banning the sale of guns to those with criminal records and the mentally handicapped...but to say that taking guns out of the hands of law-abiding citizens helps matters is ludicrous - this is especially evidenced by the fact that, in Washington DC, where gun ownership is severely restricted, 12 of the 14 victims that have been murdered in DC since July 1 were shot. Guns were banned, yet 92% (13 of 14) of the murders there so far this month involved guns in the hands of criminals (in the case of the British activist who was stabbed to death, one of the criminals had a gun).