Stemming Tide of Gun Violence A ‘Civil Right’?

If we’re going to rid the country of guns “because they kill people,” we’ll have to outlaw cars, knives and other sharp objects, baseball bats, and a host of other things. Guns, knives, and cars are tools that require operators to use them responsibly. No one would seriously argue that we should ban the sale, manufacture, or use of knives or cars, but guns are fair game. It’s ironic, considering that the right to keep and bear arms–not driving or knife-wielding–is part of our country’s founding document.

Enforcing “gun control” violates this fundamental right. Gun control also assumes individuals are incapable of deciding what’s best for themselves. Gun control won’t stop gun crimes, but it will stop law-abiding and responsible citizens from protecting themselves, their families, and their property. I doubt any criminal cares about licensing, registration, waiting periods, bans on certain guns, and any other idea lawmakers come up with.

Articles like this one in the Root feature typically unattributed language about “gun violence.” Oddly, the writer asserts that “stemming the tide” of gun violence is a civil rights issue.

In the 21st century, mass shootings have become stunningly common, their frequency corresponding with the availability of guns nationally. From suburban enclaves to inner cities, rural America to Midwestern prairies, shooting sprees have tragically scarred high schools and colleges; movie theaters and malls; churches, synagogues and mosques. The media obsession with high-profile mass shootings means that ordinary gun-related murder no longer merits national attention.

Yet every day, gun violence is also literally destroying parts of the black community in America. Cities such as Chicago, Boston and Newark, N.J., face an epidemic of gun-related homicides that are overwhelmingly affecting black men. Street shootings in urban areas where black men and women are the victims have become so commonplace that they rarely make the news at all. Father’s Day weekend in Chicago saw two new gun-related deaths, including the killing of a 17-year-old boy, marking the Windy City as ground zero in an epidemic of shootings that would otherwise be treated as a national crisis if white Americans were being murdered at similar rates to black Americans.

Note how the writer fails to acknowledge the responsible parties. Gun violence is destroying parts of the black community. How about young black men are destroying parts of the black community by killing other blacks with guns? Because young black men use guns to kill each other in disproportionate numbers, we should violate everyone else’s Second Amendment rights? A gun can’t discharge on its own.

The writer connects “gun violence” to racial disparities, asserting that “it’s easier to get access to guns than to a high-quality public school.” Whether true or false, so what? What do my Second Amendment rights have to do with someone’s access to so-called high-quality government schools? So my right to own a gun should be restricted based on a government school’s performance.

The writer says that we “[p]olitical conservatives hide behind the Constitution, brandishing a definition of the Second Amendment so broad as to suggest that every man, woman and child in the nation should carry a loaded 9 mm. From this perspective, the root cause of gun violence is not that too many Americans have guns but that not enough law-abiding citizens carry them. Certain states have bought into this warped logic, allowing patrons to bring loaded firearms into restaurants and public places.”

The U.S. Constitution is a restriction on the government, a shield that protects us from tyranny. In that sense, we are hiding behind it. It’s a good place to seek cover. No one has to justify the right to bear arms. The “root cause” of gun crimes are people who use guns to commit crimes. Taking guns away from Americans won’t stop gun crimes. FYI, violent crime rates are lower in states that allow concealed-carry permits than states that don’t. Look to Chicago.

Law-abiding black Americans should be the last group to advocate gun control, given its race-based history. United against gun control:

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