I’ve been ashamed of America’s gun culture for a long time now. I think I first became acutely aware of its impact when I traveled to Australia seven years ago and my students there asked me if I’d ever been in a drive-by shooting. In my travels it has become readily apparent that the outsider’s view of America is one of a country of unrestrained violence. Not only do our movies glorify violence, but our headlines are filled with examples of that violence pouring out into our everyday lives. The summer before I returned home from Turkmenistan, there seemed to be a new shooting in the news every week and I thought, “Is this my country? What am I coming home to?” I don’t know if such occurrences have increased recently or if I was just more attuned to them because I was living abroad. I do know I’m not alone in my experiences as an American living abroad, feeling like I have to defend my country to people I meet, yet knowing that some of the aspects of our culture are indefensible.
In the aftermath of the Connecticut massacre, chat rooms and social media pages on the internet blew up, as did talk “news” shows. Some people said, “now’s not the time to talk about gun control.” Really? When is the right time? It is only logical that when week after week, a group of people gets mowed down by a gunman, that gun control is fair game for discussion.
Here are some common anti-gun control arguments and why they’re fallacious.
“Guns don’t kill people; people kill people. A killer will just use something else like a knife.”
Knives, cars, fists, etc. can all be used to kill, but comparing them to guns is a case of apples and oranges. Guns are more deadly than other weapons and are made specifically for no other purpose than to kill. On the same day of the shooting in Connecticut, a madman in China attacked 20 school children with a knife. The difference is they all survived. Ask yourself, “would I rather be attacked by someone wielding a knife or someone wielding a gun?” I know which one I would choose. And while there are lots of people who are shot accidentally, you don’t hear of many people being accidentally stabbed to death.
Certainly, stricter gun regulations won’t eliminate all murder or even all gun related murders in our country. But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t take steps to lower the rates of gun violence. When I’m wearing my seatbelt, I could still get into a car accident that kills me, but I’m smart enough to realize that taking measures like wearing my seatbelt and driving cautiously greatly reduces my risk of dying in an accident. Likewise, closing the gun show loophole and making some types of weapons illegal will greatly decrease the amount of gun violence in our country.
“Criminals will always get their hands on guns, anyway. I need a gun to defend myself. If those kids had guns, they might still be alive today.”
Okay, I made that last sentence up, but we know there are people out there thinking it. There are a couple issues to address here. First is the argument that criminals will get guns anyway. That may be true for some criminals, but closing the gun show loophole would prevent many criminals from getting their hands on weapons. Second, if that loophole were closed and background checks were being performed, the way for criminals to get their hands on guns would be to steal them from their legal owners. If assault rifles, semi-automatic, and automatic weapons were removed from the picture, criminals wouldn't be able to steal them because citizens wouldn't have them to be stolen. This would limit the amount of damage a criminal with a gun can do, as he could only get off a few shots before having to reload. Furthermore, there is no reason for a citizen to own certain weapons like semi-automatics or AK-47s. They are not appropriate for hunting, and if you need to fire off twenty rounds of ammunition before reloading to defend yourself, you’re as good as dead anyway. A simple pistol with six or seven bullets should suffice for “defense” against intruders in your home.
But a fact that too many people ignore is that more often than not, guns in the home greatly increase the owner’s chances of being killed. This is why if I ever buy a gun, and I might because I would enjoy shooting, I would keep it locked up at the shooting range. On a personal level I was youth pastor to a teenager who was killed by a gun because his friend’s dad had it in the home. The two boys got it out and started fooling around with it. There wasn’t any evil intention on the part of the shooter, he was just stupid around guns and so was his father for not keeping it locked and inaccessible. There are exponentially more examples of that kind of tragedy of guns in the home than there are stories of guns being used to fend off an intruder. The shooter in Connecticut stole his guns from his mom, whom he killed first. My guess is she had those guns for protection. How did that work for her?
I wouldn’t dream of saying that people shouldn’t have guns at all, at least, not from a legal standpoint. From a religious standpoint, I think Jesus might have problems with any gun use outside of hunting for food. But after living in a dictatorship for two years where the citizens have little hope of change anytime soon, partly because they don’t have the resources for revolution, I understand the fear of government that underlies the 2nd amendment. Unfortunately, the leaders of the NRA have a tight control over their members through the use of illogical fear. Anytime gun control is brought up, lobbyists put out the idea that the government “wants to take your guns away” or “wants to get rid of the 2nd amendment.” This simply is not the case. There will always be guns in America. If you’re a sane, law-abiding citizen, you will always have the right to own a gun. But just as the forefathers couldn’t foresee the dangers of texting while driving, they couldn’t foresee the kind of weaponry available today. Smart legislators make laws addressing how new technologies should and should not be used in terms of the impact that use has on society and the people’s safety. Because, after all, the 2nd amendment states that our security depends on a “well regulated” militia. Some people would rather forget that part, but these days it appears to be the most important.