Many talk radio liberals in the past two weeks have been wracking their brains with the question, “how do we limit gun ownership in America?” Randi has asked. Rachel has asked. Thom has asked.
I want to ask, a different question – actually I want to ask a lot of questions, (Why are people obsessing about Cho Seung-Hui’s tool rather than his behavior? Why do we live in a society where liability is so high that VT officials couldn’t intervene with a comprehensive turnaround plan for their student before something happened on campus? Why when commentators bring up Columbine they forget that the attackers built and used illegal homemade propane bombs as much as they used firearms?) but these are questions to consider on another day. I have to stick to one question at a time. Today I want to focus on the hypothetical: “What would happen if we were actually to ban all civilian ownership of firearms in the United States?”
I think that we can all agree that people who set out to harm others don’t care a wit about the law, and have no qualms about using illegal weapons (note the question above that I’m not addressing in this post: Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold made illegal explosives even though we as a society all agree that illegal explosives should have been, and be, and stay, illegal.) If firearms become illegal, criminals will still want them, especially because the world will be their shooting gallery. No one will be there to stop them.
Where would illegal firearms come from in a country that doesn’t produce (let’s say this is made illegal as well), import, or sell firearms? Mexico and Canada, naturally.
Can you imagine Randi and Lou Dobbs paired up? “Tonight Randi and I will begin our Fence America Campaign stopping guns, illegals and methamphetamine in a single blow, except for the massive tunnels under the border.”
The fence will go up to the criminal’s delight – a disarmed population now fenced in, (unless we can find the tunnels and punch and kick our way through).
We all know I’m being facetious, but my point is this: illegalizing firearms will turn liberals against the policies they are currently for. Right now democrats are for fairly open borders and communication and trade across cultures. Illegalizing is the opposite of liberalism. Liberalism is about reaching across divides and communicating to reduce harm. Liberalism is about reducing crime through examining the factors that lead to crime and addressing those things in society. Gun ownership is not one of those criminogenic factors. Crime statistics indicate a downward trend in overall violent crimes, and there seems to be no statistical correlation between tight or loose gun control and crime.
Let's get together to discuss what factors reduce individual's reasons to perpetuate harm and to commit crime. To me that seems like an issue that Lou and Randi should put their heads together to support.