You don’t protect the law-abiding citizens by taking away their protection.
Earlier this week, a gunman shot and killed 10 and injured seven innocent people. This national tragedy inspired a wave of opinions regarding gun control: Could proper gun regulation have prevented this monstrosity?
President Barack Obama expressed his frustration towards these “regular” shootings. He believes harsher gun regulation would lower the frequency of homegrown acts of terrorism. Luckily, Obama will not remain in office long enough to press this point.
Gun regulation is a perfect solution in a perfect world. Unfortunately, we do not live in a perfect world. Criminals will continue to find guns through illegal means. Gun restriction hurts the honest citizens obtaining guns legally.
During the shooting at Umpqua Community College, when Chris Mintz heard shots, he did everything in his power to save the unprotected. He ran back into the building to warn others, pulling alarms and blocking the shooter’s path. Unfortunately, Mintz was shot seven times by the assailant, all on his child’s birthday.
Had Chris been carrying a a gun, he could have done more to stop the terrorist’s rampage. Concealed carrying of firearms should be encouraged to deter terrorists’ public attacks.
Criminals have a variety of ways to obtain firearms. One of the most common is a straw purchase, in which they get a friend to buy guns for them. Illegal transactions with unlicensed street dealers and gun thefts are other alternatives to bypass these pesky gun laws.
Celinez Nunez, an assistant special agent of the ATF, told reporters 13 weapons were confiscated from the Oregon shooter’s residence and site of the killing. All of the weapons were legally purchased by the shooter or members of his family.
ATF officials claim the majority of handguns used in crimes come from only about 8 percent of the nation’s guns dealers, implying certain licensed retailers are involved in illegal sales.
There are two main solutions to counteract these regular mass shootings — a crackdown on these illegal gun transactions or encouraging civilian concealed carrying.
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives can potentially monitor illegal transactions, but this is impractical. Criminals will not be limited by this any more than they would gun regulation legislation.
The most effective solution is promoting civilian concealed carrying. This makes every attempt at terrorism more risky; the more civilians with guns, the less chance terrorists have at killing innocent people with no way to defend themselves.
The Congressional Research Service claims the number of privately owned firearms increased drastically from 192 million in 1994 to 310 million in 2009. Coincidentally, the rate of firearm-related murder and nonnegligent homicide fell from 6.6 percent in 1993 to 3.2 percent in 2011.
There is an indirect relationship between the number of civilians with guns and the amount of gun-related crimes. With this knowledge, one would think to increase the number of civilians with guns — not limit them.
People believe that increasing the amount of guns amongst the population is a bad idea. This is understandable, as it seems statistically probable that increasing the amount of guns in the world will increase the amount of gun-related conflict. This is a fallacy.
The New York Times proved concealed carry license holders are five times less likely to kill someone compared to the average citizen.
Obama praised Great Britain and Australia’s complete bans on firearms. Australia confiscated over 650,000 guns in response to an act of terrorism similar to the Umpqua Community College shooting.
This policy would not work in America. The seizure of so many guns would be impractical, and above all, unconstitutional. Our Second Amendment prohibits such strict gun control, and for a good reason.
Private ownership of guns offers one protection against the terrors of criminals. The promotion of private ownership will hopefully deter criminals from committing such heinous crimes. In the event gun-related incidents still occur, civilians will still be able to defend themselves.
Gun control is a faux solution to terrorism. In today’s world, we must assume that criminals will always have access to guns. We must find different ways to combat this issue, and gun regulation is not the solution.
Kain Hingle is a 19-year-old psychology sophomore from Mandeville, Louisiana. You can reach him on Twitter @kain_hingle.