By Cade Webb
Managing Editor
cwebb26@jccc.edu
There is a common argument that states “Criminals, one way or another, are going to get their hands on a gun because they are criminals.” This common statement gets conservative, anti-gun control activists a lot of grief. For what reason, I’m not sure. This statement is absolutely true. Criminals, by definition, are breaking the law. When these individuals decide that they are going to carry out a mass shooting, they are already content with breaking the law.
There is a narrative in this country that insists on guns being the problem and the root of the mass shootings that seem to be taking place more frequently of late. I would argue that this country does not have a gun problem, but rather, a heart problem. Guns, like anything else, require an ill intent to be able to carry out a mass shooting like we saw in Oregon last week. People kill others with knives, rocks, baseball bats and cars, among other things. Are we going to outlaw those too because “anybody can get their hands on one”?
Common gun-control plans include smaller magazines and strict background-check enforcement. I do not think those are going to make a difference. The only thing that a background check does is notify arms dealers of a history of violent crimes on their record. Obviously, having a history of violent crimes is not a prerequisite to carrying out a mass shooting, as we saw last week. The shooter who carried out the Umpqua Community College shooting in Oregon had no history of violent crimes and purchased his weapons legally.
Because this is the case, the only feasible answer to stopping gun violence in the country is to confiscate every individual’s weapons in this country. Could you imagine the blowback that the president and law enforcement would receive? According to dosomething.org, there are over 270 million legally owned firearms in the United States. The resources it would take to even carry out an operation to retrieve those weapons is incomprehensible.
The bottom line is that the current gun control theory is unattainable. The only way gun control could be achieved is by confiscation, and that would be violating the Second Amendment of the Constitution of the United States. Our founding fathers wrote the Constitution as a guideline that this country must follow, and to brush it aside is unconstitutional. As United States citizens, we have been granted the right to bear arms and to protect ourselves and our loved ones with these firearms. The day that the government attempts to take weapons back is the day that the United States takes the power away from the people, and isn’t power to the people what this country was built on?
Very well written Cade!