But does it work?
Not only does research clearly prove that gun control is grossly ineffective in changing the behavior of violent criminals, but the law-abiding public responds to these deadly acts far differently than political leaders wish for them to.
Time and time again, criminal violence is followed by a massive surge in first-time gun purchases by citizens who clearly see the dangers of being defenseless. And while self-serving politicians and the mainstream media love to harp against the instrument, clear-thinking individuals know that it is the criminals themselves and not inanimate objects that must be prepared for.
An unarmed populace is threatened, while those who exercise their Second Amendment rights are prepared.
But still the gun control crusaders push for more restrictions. Legislation that does nothing to enhance safety is rammed through state houses and signed by governors eager to prove that they have done “something.”
What have they really done? The plain truth is their actions only increase the danger to those who are now rendered unable to defend themselves.
Stripping firearms from those who are properly trained and capable of resisting the purveyors of violence only emboldens those who prey on the innocent.
The reality is that gun control has the exact opposite effect on areas where restrictions are the tightest. Look no further than the recent report from the Crime Prevention Research Center for raw data to back up this argument.
Results from a 2021 PEW Research Center survey showed that rural homes in the U.S. are 79% more likely to have a firearm than urban households.. Further, suburban households are 37.9% more likely to be armed than their urban counterparts.
Using the logic employed by grandstanding politicians and their followers, rural and suburban America would be virtual shooting galleries with soaring rates of violent crime. But reality tells us that the opposite is in fact true. How true?
In 2020, 52% of U.S. counties recorded zero murders. None.
Placed on a map, these would be the mostly rural sections of the country that comprise 10% of the population. Despite having citizens who freely exercise their constitutional rights to keep and bear arms, they are by far the safest sections of the nation.
Further, 68% of U.S. counties experienced one murder at most in 2020. These accounted for roughly 18% of the population but only 2.6% of the murders. Again, with the nation’s highest gun ownership rates, these areas report the lowest per capita murders.
On the flip side, it is hardly news that cities such as Chicago, Baltimore, New York City and Los Angeles — to name only a few — have the most restrictive gun control statutes on the books. Yet the murder rates for these metropolitan areas dwarf the rest of the nation.
So much so that the worst 1% of counties, which are gun-control havens, are home to 21% of the population but 42% of the country’s murders. The worst 2% of counties, which total 62, have 31% of the nation’s people and are the sites of 52% of the homicides.
Remember, these are areas where city and state leaders trumpet the need for repressive gun control measures to ensure civilian safety. However, these are also the home for the vast majority of violent crime in the U.S.
It must be noted that gun control laws are not the only factors involved in producing high rates of murders and other violent crimes. However, evidence is strikingly clear that, whatever the intentions of gun control proponents are, the results are far from what they preach.
So much so, in fact, that they’d be better off pushing for more legal gun ownership backed up by safety training. Disarming the population that is most vulnerable to violent criminals flies in the face of logic, and evidence proves it is hardly a successful tactic.
