Thursday, March 28, 2024

Gun Control Is Not The Panacea Democrats Expect

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The old saying ‘if the only tool in your toolbox is a hammer, you will begin to see every problem as a nail' is particularly true in the political world. Pollsters continually advise candidates that they need more polls; gurus argue more radio and television ads; direct mail consultants claim the key to victory is their message in every voter's mailbox. Social media experts dismiss all of the above as antiquated and inefficient.

However, few political or real-world problems are susceptible to one-size-fits-all solutions. The tendency to reach for the hammer is nowhere more apparent than in the progressive political approach to . Progressives are determined to define crime as a nail and their hammer is “.” They have managed to persuade themselves and each other that if there were no firearms in private hands there would be no crime.

If only it were so simple. Current firearms restrictions recognize that part of the problem may be susceptible to this hammer. Federal policy thus already restricts convicted felons, the potentially dangerously mentally ill and others deemed to be a threat to others, from buying or possessing firearms. While one can argue about whether these restrictions are too broad or narrow, they make logical sense. Armed robbers, gangbangers and the potentially violently mentally ill are not the sorts of people who should be running around with guns. That nail has been hammered.

Still, they want to keep hammering. Preventing those who have worked their way onto what is known as the “Prohibited List” from acquiring firearms is one thing, but taking the hammer to the rights of law-abiding citizens guaranteed by the constitution is quite another. But that is what they want to do. Any excuse to find ways to restrict firearms ownership seems sensible. A few years ago, I attended a conference at which former New York Mayor 's acolytes suggested that anyone arrested for driving while intoxicated should lose their firearms rights for ten years. This, they insisted loudly, would reduce mass shootings. When I asked if there was any empirical evidence that mass shooters are likely to have had a drunk driving arrest on their record or that those likely to shoot up a school or shopping mall tend to come from the ranks of such drivers, they dismissed the questions as beside the point. They sincerely believed they had found another nail that needed hammering.

Gun control advocates ignore the possibility that the growing violence with which we are living may stem from deeper causes than the availability of firearms. In an earlier day, high school students in rural communities often brought their rifles and shotguns to school, stored the gun in their lockers and went hunting after school. In the sixties, airlines allowed passengers to store their long guns in the overhead luggage bin while traveling. None of those students shot up their school and those passengers never hijacked planes or killed passengers. It was a different world.

Of course, in those days one could ride the New York subway without risking being pushed onto the tracks by a stranger or watch a parade with no fear that someone would deliberately drive a car or truck into the crowd. And there were no “flash mobs” terrorizing retail outlets and customers, and policemen did not just look on as people they are supposed to protect were beaten.

So why is today's world so different and so violent? Progressives will tell you “guns,” because gun control is the hammer they have, and they want to use it to “solve” a societal problem far more complicated than they are willing to admit.. They have convinced themselves that all problems from crime to climate change can be solved with their hammers, no further investigation needed.

This myopia was on full display as Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives Director testified before the House Judiciary Committee on April 26th. Texas Republican asked Dettelbach how many of the 155 “mass” shooters Dettelbach was discussing were on “medication” at the time of the shootings, how many were from single parent families, and how many were heavily into social media. Dettelbach had no idea. More than a few experts have suggested that some illicit and a wide range of new prescribed medications have severe psychotic side effects that could make those using them more prone to aggression and violence. The question of whether those who take up guns against their neighbors, co-workers or fellow students are on such drugs is both relevant and important. But not to Dettelbach.

In a sense, Dettelbach was correct when he responded that while Mr. Roy's questions might be worth looking into, they are not questions that has a responsibility to address or to investigate. Sadly, Mr. Dettelbach has only one tool in his toolbox and it's the gun control hammer that he believes or at least hopes is the right one.

Many experts believe the problem is not a nail. Taking criminals off the street and enforcing existing firearms laws work, but simply devoting time, energy and taxpayer money to pound on things that aren't nails clouds the search for real world solutions to real problems.

Mr. Dettelbach and his bosses in the White House need to come to the realization that they need more than a hammer in their toolboxes.

The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of American Liberty News.

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David A. Keene
David A. Keene
David Keene has been at the center of conservative politics for decades. He is a former Chairman of the Young Americans for Freedom and the American Conservative Union and has served as the elected President of the National Rifle Association. He worked as a campaign consultant, lobbyist and commentator. His writing has appeared in Human Events, National Review and many other conservative publications and remains Editor at Large for The Washington Times after more than four years as the paper’s Opinion Editor.

10 COMMENTS

  1. This writer needs to get a grip on the truth that liberal gun control is only being sold as a safety measure. The real objective is to disarm the populous so as to make absolute control by Big Brother possible.

    • As a past President of the NRA, David Keene is quite aware that the ultimate goal the Progressives, Democrats and anti-gun folks have is to remove all means of defense from the populus. This particular article appears to be looking at one particular aspect of their methods, not the overall plan.

      Electing a conservative POTUS, more conservative Senators and Representatives, both at the Federal level and in State legislatures, and then nominating and approving a BATFE Director who actually has knowledge about firearms, accessories and crime and is willing to go after the actual criminals and causes rather than the tools and victims would go a long way toward decreasing the violence taking place these days and would also help to improve the reputation and usefulness of the BATFE. Right now, we have a Federal agency that is overbearing, that is making up and changing the rules mid-game and that has alienated everybody that it should be working WITH and FOR, not against. The swamp needs draining and BATFE is one of the first agencies that needs cleaning or removing entirely.

      As Mr. Keene said, the Powers That Be need to get more tools into their toolboxes. Hammers don’t work for every job and gun control is not the solution for every problem.

  2. They can pass all the laws they want, but a free society can always buy a 3D printer and make there own. So they better shut their mouths and leave it alone, we are better having guns being bought through dealers where background checks can be performed. Guns made on a 3D printer will never be tracked period.

  3. “So why is today’s world so different and so violent?“

    Godlessness and accompanying immorality. Both are primarily caused by leftists.

  4. Consider these facts: 1] We have gun laws in the states. 2] No state is delegated in its constitution the authority to impose any gun laws on its citizens. 3] Some state constitutions clearly forbid them. 4 ] We have federal gun laws in the states. 5] The fed gov is forbidden to impose any gun laws on the true citizens of the states.

    Since the states and fed gov are forbidden to impose any gun laws on the true citizens of the states, how does the gov get away with imposing gun laws on the true citizens of the states.

    To learn the truth, go to https://groups.io/g/LawTruth Subscribe: [email protected] I suggest by first reading the posts How Gov Works Today and The Oregon Criminal Code.

    The following rules apply to the states and their constitutions.

    “The Government of the United States, therefore, can claim no powers which are not granted to it by the Constitution, and the powers actually granted must be such as are expressly given, or given by necessary implication.” Buffington v. Day, 11 Wall. 113; 78 U.S. 122 (1871)

    “The government of the United States, as was well observed in the argument, is one of limited powers. It can exercise authority over no subjects except those which have been delegated to it. Congress cannot, by legislation, enlarge the federal jurisdiction, nor can it be enlarged under the treaty-making power.”
    New Orleans v. United States, 35 U.S. 10 Pet. 662 662 (1836)

  5. WOMEN AND SENIORS SHOULD TAKE A GUN SAFETY COURSE. THESE ARE VIOLENT TIMES AND THUGS SPARE NO ONE. I WATCHED GREG KELLY WHO SHOWED A HOODED MOB STOMP ONE GUY TO DEATH. AFTER THEY STOMPED HIM INTO A COMA THEY CAME BACK AND STOMPED HIM AGAIN. HE WAS BIG AND COULD HANDLE HIMSELF. BUT HE WAS OUTNUMBERED. HAD HE A PISTOL HE WOULD BE ALIVE. IT DOES NOT TAKE A BIG GUN TO SAVE YOUR LIFE. A COMPACT SIZE GUN WILL CHANGE A MURDERERS MIND.
    JOIN THE NRA IF ONLY FOR THE COURSE THAT WILL SAVE YOUR LIFE. IF YOU HAPPEN TO BE IN THE WRONG PLACE AT THE WRONG TIME AND FIVE GUYS ARE COMING TOWARDS YOU. THANK GOD YOU HAVE A PEACE MAKER. http://WWW.TICKEETOCKEE.COM

  6. The real answer is so simple it simply eludes the gun banners – criminals Do Not Obey Any Laws. Period.

  7. What are you believing that saving lives is their agenda, it is not, I don’t care what they say, it’s a lie. They must take all our guns away in order to force socialism on the American people. That is what gun control is all about. Remember, anyone wanting to take your guns away, is wanting to do something to you that you would not allow if you were armed.

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