So, this is a topic I do not think I have discussed here: gun control, and why it will be the beginning of increased crimes. I think it is completely backwards no matter where you are, American Second Amendment aside. It only increases crime and decreases the ability of honest people to defend themselves against criminals.
Firstly, I do understand some regulation on guns. We obviously can't let maniacs and criminals get weapons. Gun licenses are in existence for this very reason. People need to be trained with firearms before they can buy them, for one, but background checks are always done when obtaining a gunning license. Reading the provisions of the act (in America), the provisions for getting a gun seem good on the surface: don't give guns to druggies, illegal aliens, and violent criminals. However, a previous act, the National Firearms Act, allowed for a federal control of the vague category of "any other weapons," or AOWs. This includes pen guns, Tasers, or anything else your oh-so-responsible leaders want to consider a "firearm."
To keep guns out of the hands of criminals, I can fully understand. Obviously, don't give guns to maniacs. But what about average citizens? What about the ones who want to be able to defend themselves if they get raped or if someone attacks them on the street? Most citizens are not criminals. It is completely unfair to limit the rights of these responsible people to keep and bear arms.
If gun possession is completely outlawed, then only criminals will have guns. And in the case of violent crimes, how is someone supposed to legally defend themselves against illegal activity if they cannot legally have guns? The answer: use your car keys? Really? If someone has a gun, I'm going to need a lot more than just a set of car keys to defend myself. I'm a woman, and I care about my own safety, as should most people. But women get sexually abused a lot more than men do. If someone tries to rape me, I think I'll be much safer if I can point my gun at him instead of scratching him with my car keys (which, by the way, is an ineffective method of self defense). If this is as far as gun control proponents wish to take things, teen pregnancy and abortions will increase just because of increased sexual assault rates.
Besides, gun control has only increased crime rates. It gives some criminals more motivation to do illegal activity if it made more of a challenge to obtain firearms, because many of them like challenges. It also changes the way crimes are classified; that is, people who have guns but have an old license can be fined or incarcerated. Oh, and check this out:
"In the U. K., after the introduction of tougher gun control and a prohibition of handguns in 1997, as well as the general repression of self-defence (victims who defend themselves against violent criminals often get more severe sentences than their aggressors), violent crimes have shot up. To control exploding crime, the British government is resorting to police-state surveillance and control measures, an astounding development in the cradle of Western liberty, and the cradle of our traditional right to keep and bear arms.
[...]
"In January 2002, two armed students of Appalachian Law School, in Virginia, stopped a mass killing in progress at the university by arresting the killer. Why don’t gun-control activists wonder why there have been no mass killings at the University of Utah, where students are allowed to carry guns? Could it be that madmen look for places where they can do more damage without being interrupted?"
Did anyone else catch that? Gun control, being oligarchic and anti-liberty in nature, increasing the use of fascist and oligarchic surveillance measures? No way. Simply not a possibility.
And the second quote, let me say that again: "MADMEN LOOK FOR PLACES WHERE THEY CAN DO MORE DAMAGE WITHOUT BEING INTERRUPTED." If criminals know that everyone around them has a gun to defend themselves, they are less likely to commit crimes. One example of this is a Darwin Award I read about once: a man tried to rob a firearms store, and was shot dead as soon as he announced the holdup.
Honestly, gun control is just ineffective as it is. It is a good idea to try to keep firearms away from criminals, but for god's sake, don't keep them out of the hands of responsible citizens.
I would tend to agree. Increased gun control would probably just lead to higher rates of organized crime to obtain weapons illegally. Just look at Prohibition; the nation tried to teetotal, but all that did was throw a bunch of brewers out of business and increase the incidence of organized crime.
~Violinstef