PA Bill Number: HB335
Title: In inchoate crimes, further providing for prohibited offensive weapons.
Description: In inchoate crimes, further providing for prohibited offensive weapons. ...
Last Action: Removed from table
Last Action Date: May 1, 2024
Thomas Lucente: U.S. doesn't have gun problem :: 08/31/2015
Another sensational murder, another clarion call from the leftist gun-grabbers. Extremists are so predictable.
The clarion call, though, is built on a myth, a myth that somehow the United States is a dangerous place and that guns are the main reason for it.
The truth is that the United States is one of the safest countries in the world.
While the United States has the largest number of guns per capita, it has a surprisingly low murder rate compared to the rest of the world. It is not in the top 10. It is not in the top 25. It is not in the top 50.
It is not even in the top 100.
Of the some 500,000 intentional homicides committed on the planet every year, only about 15,000 occur in the United States.
The United States is not unique in this. Switzerland, which has almost as many guns per capita as the United States, — one can’t remain neutral without being able to defend itself — has one of the lowest intentional homicide rates in the world.
Nor do you need high levels of gun ownership to have violence. Great Britain, which has very few guns, has more violent crime per capita than the United States.
That doesn’t stop leftists such as President Barack Obama from calling for stricter victim disarmament laws in order to “stop the gun violence.”
After the tragic shooting on live television of two reporters in Virginia, White House press secretary Josh Earnest called for “common sense” gun control.
“This is another example of gun violence that has become all-too-common in communities large and small,” he said. “There are some common sense things that only Congress can do that we know will have a tangible impact on reducing gun violence in this country. And Congress could take those steps in a way that will not infringe on the constitutional rights of law-abiding Americans.”
That is, of course, a blatant lie. Refer to the data above. They lie because gun control has nothing to do with reducing violence and everything to do with control. Additionally, any restriction on gun ownership is an infringement on the constitutional rights of law-abiding Americans. The Second Amendment is clear: “The right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall NOT be infringed.”
Unfortunately, there is a nation of leftists willing to buy into the false argument.
The leftist gun-grabbers turn a blind eye to the obvious truism that if you outlaw guns, only the outlaws will have guns. A person who is willing to murder will not obey laws against possessing a firearm.
Even if we believe there is too much violence in the United States, the answer is not fewer guns.
According to Dr. John R. Lott Jr., an economist who has written extensively on gun issues in the United States, someone legally uses a firearm to stop a crime 2 million times a year.
I will never understand why otherwise intelligent people imagine that the ability to dial 911 is all the protection they need.
However, the right to keep and bear arms, which is both a God-given natural right as well as a constitutional one, is only nominally about self-defense. The real reason the Founders wanted an armed populace was because they knew it was better for government to fear the people than for the people to fear the government.
That is, the gun was meant for self-defense from not only common criminals, but also from government oppression and foreign invaders; street thugs as well as government thugs.
Every one of the major genocides of the 20th century were preceded by strict gun control laws.
As Thomas Jefferson put it: “No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms. The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.”
As tragic as the shooting in Virginia was, allowing the government and the gun-grabbers to use the tragedy as an excuse to deprive the people of their last defense against a totalitarian state would be even more tragic.
Thomas J. Lucente Jr. is an Ohio attorney and night editor of The Lima News. Reach him by telephone at 567-242-0398, by email at tlucente@civitasmedia.com, or on Twitter @ThomasLucente.
http://limaohio.com/news/150154/thomas-lucente-u-s-doesnt-have-gun-problem
