Why Gun Control Is a Non-Starter Even Without Second Amendment
Let’s play a little game; a thought experiment, if you will. Let’s say that there were no Second Amendment, that while owning guns was accepted and normal for generations, it wasn’t considered sacrosanct and thus not preserved in the Bill of Rights. Yes, for the pedantic among us, that would mean the Second Amendment would still exist; it would just forbid the quartering of troops against people’s will. Let’s not get bogged down in the details.
So, with that in mind, and assuming that past gun control efforts hadn’t come to fruition any more than they have in our version of the world, would violent crime make me inclined to support gun control now?
It would seem a simple question, and as one who has talked a lot about our right to keep and bear arms, it’s easy to say that I’d still say no. Yes, even if I had no grounds to argue it was a right.
Why?
Because the people asking me to support it don’t seem to care all that much about so-called gun violence.
I’ve covered the shooting in Tucson with a couple of posts. It’s gotten a little lost following Seattle, but it still happened, and while Seattle has shown that Washington state’s gun control policies failed, Tucson shows us something different.
The attack wasn’t a “random act of gun violence.” According to a news report by the National Shooting Sports Foundation, the suspect, who was arrested and faces charges of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, aggravated assault with serious physical injury and discharging a firearm at a structure, should have been in jail at the time.
As NSSF pointed out, Pima County Attorney Laura Conover noted in an emailed statement that the suspect, 21-year-old David Leroy French, was previously charged for firing a weapon during an altercation, according to Arizona Family News. KOLD also reported that in October 2024, police said French fired a gun at the man and missed.
French could have gotten nine years — he got probation instead
While French could have faced up to nine years in prison, he did not serve any jail time. Instead, he was put on probation, and remained on probation at the time of the attack.
See, even without gun rights as a rallying cry, I would still see no reason to give up my guns when the problem is that so many of these incidents turn out to be criminals who should have been put in prison, but weren’t.
How are you going to tell me that lawfully obtained guns are the problem when you’re literally refusing to lock up those who criminally misuse a firearm? Just as I’d refuse to give up my car because of drunk drivers who won’t stop driving even without a license, I’m not going to give up my guns because of criminals who keep committing violent crimes when they should be worrying about not dropping the soap.
Luckily, the Second Amendment does exist. Gun rights do exist. The Second Amendment is the backbone of our defense of those gun rights.
Recently, I’ve been watching conspiracy theory videos for fun. The ideas of aliens from Atlantis building the pyramids, reptilians infiltrating the United States government, all sorts of things like that. No, I don’t believe in them, though the time since 2020 and Fauci’s diary might make me rethink some of this.
I bring this up because it’s harder and harder to tell myself that crap like this isn’t intentional. If you refuse to punish violent criminals, then use their violence to justify gun control, it’s hard not to see a connection there.
I’m not saying it’s on purpose. I will say, though, that if they were going to try and create more of a demand for gun control through increases in violent crime, I can’t think of anything I’d do differently.
