The Blue Site

Guns Don't Kill People...

Wow...insanity, a total lack of historical understanding, and radical statements all packed into one quote.

Essay writer, Roger Rosenblatt of PBS' Newshour said the following on May 20, 1999:

"Get rid of the guns. We had the Second Amendment that

said you have the right to bear arms. I haven't seen the

British really coming by my house looking for it. And

besides, the right to bear arms is not sn absolute right

anyway...But I think if you took away the guns, and I mean

really take away the guns, not what Congress is doing now,

you would see that violent society diminish

considerably."

That statement is the very definition of radical, and it's wholly lacking in any common sense or context. First off- the 2nd Amendment was never in place simply to fight the British...if so, it would have been odd for the founding fathers to stick with it years after the British were defeated...and you'd think that at least one Supreme Court would say something to this extent. Next- he says the right was never absolute, which is nonsense...all the rights guaranteed Americans by the Constitution are absolute.

If you take away the guns, violence will go away? How do you gather? Do people murder other people for the simple reason that there are guns in existance? No. Did people murder others before the very first gun was invented? Yes. Do people act out in violent ways against others without using guns? Yes. Those three points and probably a hundred others you could come up with totally kill his argument that the violence would diminish considerably. It wouldn't. People would merely use other tools to kill other people, or to simply injur other people, or to vandalize properties. I'm sure that murder by kitchen knife and hacksaw would go up exponentially!

Violence isn't a part of society because of guns...and it wouldn't diminish or go away totally if there were no guns. Americans use guns to protect themselves all the time- so, we know that many Americans would be in danger without protection...we also know that the criminals would find a way to get guns, and it would create a huge black market underground for selling firearms...and that would be a new danger in itself. The criminals and law enforcement would have guns, and innocent civilians would be in their homes or on the street, banned from having these same weapons, and in time- the criminals would use this advantage.

I'm going to search for stats or anything...but, common sense tells us that people avoid committing crimes many times because they know that...there is no telling which one of these civilians in this bank is carrying a concealed weapon. They never know which house they break into will have a shotgun, and an owner willing to use it to protect his family and his property. They never know which citizen is going to witness a crime and use a firearm to save someone's life.

Guns aren't the problems...violence has been around, and at the same levels, longer than guns have, and it'll stay around even if guns WERE banned. Banning guns is clearly not the answer at all.

Posted by Josh at August 23, 2004 07:44 PM | TrackBack