Gun Control (s The Wrong Solution

The most recent push for gun control is perhaps the worst one I can remember.  The gun grabbers smell blood in the waters, and they are determined to finally write finished onto the Second Amendment.  Between "universal background checks," "red flag laws" and something new Trump is considering, the so called "SafeHome Act" which is being lobbied by former NBC Chairman Robert Wright.  What all of these ideas have in common, indeed, what the gun grabbers have been after for at least the last 100 years is that blame is placed on the instrument, rather than on the people wielding those instruments.

The theory is that the  gun somehow causes the crimes, that the crimes would not have happened except that a gun caused it.  Thus if you take away guns, then nobody will be able to kill another.  Looked at within the theory, it makes sense.  But the problem is that this theory is another example of Bastiat's seen and unseen.  What is seen, and indeed, is magnified by the press is a shooting of multiple people.  What is unseen is the estimated 300 million guns that did not cause the law abiding people who own them to shoot anyone.  What then is the difference between the guns own by the law abiding and those possessed by the shooter?

The answer to that question is that there is no difference whatsoever.  Guns are inanimate objects.  They have no will of their own, and can not motivate anyone to do anything.  They are literally tools used in some very specific circumstances, and like other tools, will prove useless in others.  So, if the problem is not the guns themselves, what might be? The answer to that question is given in an article by Fletsch Daniels entitled Gun Control: Wrong Solution to Wrong Problem

But gun control is the wrong solution to the wrong problem. The actual problem is the growth of mental illness in American society. So the real question that must be answered before any realistic solution can be proposed is why mental illness is trending so noticeably upward.

One measure that shows this increase in mental illness is the significant rise in the number of suicides, which have been steadily climbing for the last couple decades. There were over 47,000 U.S. suicides in 2017, and it is only getting worse.

The explosion in mental illness is a manifestation of cultural rot. Liberals gleefully turned America's culture into a death-celebrating cesspool and, in Saul Alinsky-like fashion, indicated that the only solution is the shredding of the Second Amendment, something they have always wanted to do.

Please go read the entire article, because it discusses multiple areas of culture that have changed, and which have led to more mental illness that leads to more shootings. What Daniels discusses used to be just common sense to most Americans. The Bible tells us that human life is sacred, different from all the other animals.  We are told that human beings are created in the image of the Creator.  If someone takes these lessons to heart, one will be much more reluctant to killing others.

When liberals spend years telling people that life isn't sacred, should they really be surprised that more people treat life as not being sacred? There have been more than 61 million abortions since Roe v. Wade in 1973. Every single Democrat candidate in contention is applying the Pete Buttigieg "breath" standard, meaning they all support abortion up to, and perhaps beyond, birth. When you make an effort to devalue life in the interest of political expedience, people will be affected in tragic, horrible, and surprising ways.

...snip...

It is also worth noting that the mass shootings, even within this cultural climate, are far less common than most people realize. The Washington Post ran the names of every victim of a mass shooting in American since 1966 in an attempt to pressure Republicans. There were about 1,200 names. They needed a 53-year time period to get that. While each of those 1,200 names represents a terrible tragedy and many lives turned upside-down, that is a relatively small number — about 23 people killed per year.

For comparison's sake, we average about 40,000 automobile fatalities in the United States a year and are approaching 50,000 suicides annually. Planned Parenthood, our nation's most efficient killing machine, kills over 330,000 babies in a year.

The bottom line is that if you really want to make progress addressing the issues that are growing out of the mental illness crisis, it is not wise to turn to the same people who created that crisis. That's like going to Harvey Weinstein for dating advice.

I know many even among the gun rights community don't want to hear it, but we all need to repent to turn our thinking around, and return to God's plan for us.