Opinion: why the ban on firearms will not stop the mass shootings in the United States

In just one week, from 28 July to 3 August, our country survived three massacres - in Gilroy, California, El Paso, Texas and Dayton, Ohio. 34 people were killed and 53 wounded.

Фото: Depositphotos

Over the past 15 years, 20 such crimes have occurred, recalls Grigory Gurevich for “Continent". They happened in gun-free zones. People with firearms are prohibited in these areas. Criminals know that they will not be stopped in gun-free zones. From 1998 to July 2019, 89% of mass shootings occurred in these zones, according to the Crime Prevention Research Center (CPRC). And yet, the left insists on preserving them.

The massacres have again drawn the attention of politicians and journalists to the acute problem of combating crimes committed with the use of firearms. Some say that this weapon is to blame for everything. Others draw attention to the lax enforcement of existing gun laws and call for stricter sanity checks on gun owners. Most agree that extremist statements contribute to the desire to commit a crime. Mental handicapped firearm owners, political extremism, and laws governing the acquisition and possession of guns have existed before. If only they were the causes of mass killings, then it is likely that the murder rate would not change dramatically. But it's not. Since the late 90s, there has been a marked increase in mass killings. This is especially true in the last 12 years. Why?

Left-wing politicians claim that the US Constitution, which, in their opinion, is inhuman and racist, should be blamed for the massacres. Another culprit is a criminal tool, i.e. firearms. Leftists do not see or understand the influence of the environment in which the criminals were brought up on the formation of their moral values.

Over the past decades, there has been a moral decline in our country, which was actively promoted by the left. Everything that was once considered obscene and immoral is today glorified and encouraged by the left. Human life is so devalued that left-wing journalists, along with Democrats, approve of killing a child at the moment of its birth, because the mother "changed her mind." Supporters of such murders convince us that a woman at the time of the birth of a child has the right to his life. Virtually all Democrats approve of killing babies in the last stages of pregnancy. In 2015, 1743 babies died every day as a result of abortions. For leftists and Democrats, "women's rights activists", this killing of the most innocent and defenseless members of our society is legal and justified. By the way, the number of abortions in 2015 was the lowest in recent years.

American films, TV shows, and video games are filled with violent scenes that have a devastating effect on young people. In the left-wing media, in the name of “tolerance and openness”, hatred and violence is preached to those who do not share the point of view of the carriers of “tolerance and openness”. Decades of liberalism have made violence the only way to resolve disagreements.

Before committing massacres, the criminals left their manifestos in order to glorify their name and convince others of the correctness of their decision. The El Paso assassin's manifesto used some of Trump's tweets. This gave rise to opponents of the president to accuse him of having provoked this massacre. That this criminal had mental problems is ignored by the left.

The Dayton assassin is an established left-wing extremist. In his manifesto, he emphasized that his views on illegal immigration and other domestic issues in the United States were formed even before the Trump campaign in 2016. He also wrote: “I am putting this here because some people will blame the president for this attack. This is wrong. I know I will be called white supremacist anyway and blamed on Trump's rhetoric. The media is notorious for fake news. Their reaction to this attack will most likely confirm this.”

Dayton shooter Connor Betts and his sister, whom he killed during the execution. Photo: Facebook Moira Cofer Betts

The Dayton killer was right. All left-wing journalists and Democratic contenders for the presidency of the United States claim that Trump is also to blame for the mass shooting in Dayton. On Twitter, the Dayton assassin tweeted that he would “love to vote for Elizabeth Warren,” a far-left Democrat running for President of the United States, and that he was “disappointed by the results of the 2016 election.” He further added: "I want socialism and I won't wait for idiots to finally come to understand it."

On the subject: Trump wants to solve the problem of mass executions by building mental hospitals

Leftist extremism, not Trump's rhetoric, pushed the criminal from Dayton to commit a massacre. The left, of course, did not condemn the extremist ideology of this killer.

The left argues that a ban on gun ownership, or at least a drastic tightening of gun ownership regulations, will dramatically reduce crime rates and even eliminate gun crime. Leftists believe that if all firearms in American possession disappear, then violence will also disappear. But criminals can impose their will on others using a knife, a baseball bat, a brick, a hammer, and anything that can cause pain and suffering.

The ban on the sale of any popular product always leads to the emergence of a black market controlled by criminal leaders. The black market enriches them. So it was with a ban on the sale of alcohol and drugs. The same thing happens with firearms. In those places where very strict anti-weapons rules exist, there is a black arms market. The ban on firearms will not lead to its disappearance.

The left does not understand that firearms equate physically weak people with physically stronger criminals. Hardly a month goes by without a report on the Internet that elderly people with a gun stopped a criminal who tried to rob them, or how a simple American with a firearm prevented a criminal from trying to rob a bar or store. It is not true that the world would be safer without weapons. In such a world, the power that comes from criminals rules. This truth is proved by the increase in crime in cities where the most stringent anti-gun laws are passed.

On the subject: Run away, hide, attack: how schoolchildren and students in the USA are trained in case of mass shooting

Patrick Crusius, shooter from El Paso. Photo: Law Enforcement Source

In Chicago, Detroit and Baltimore, which have been led by Democrats for many years, there are very strict laws that limit the ability to purchase and possess weapons. It is these cities that lead the United States in terms of murders per 100 population. For example, Baltimore was ahead of Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala in this indicator. Chicago is hard at work this year to rank first in the US in terms of gun casualties.

Here is a chronicle of recent weeks. From July 26 to July 28, 8 people were killed, 48 were wounded; from August 2 to 4, 7 people were killed, 46 were wounded; from August 9 to 11, 5 people were killed, 47 were wounded. A total of 20 killed and 141 wounded. From the beginning of this year to the first half of August, 309 people have already been killed in Chicago. This is 55 more people than in the same period last year (during the first weekend of September in Chicago, 8 more people were killed and 35 injured - ForumDaily's note).

But this year is not over yet. All left-wing media outlets, like all Democratic candidates for the post of US president, stubbornly ignore these terrible facts. Why? Because Trump cannot be blamed for this bloody massacre.
The ban on possession of firearms does not stop criminals. London clearly proves this. This city has had a law in place for several years that virtually bans the possession of firearms. As a result, the number of murders with knives has risen sharply. “Knife crimes” have become a national scourge. Between April 2017 and March 2018, 285 people were killed in knife attacks in London. The murder rate in London in 2018 surpassed that in New York.

In August, the 2019 Center for Disease Control and Preventation (CDC) published a report on the causes of gun violence in the United States. Causes such as mental illness, political activity, marital status, cultural heritage, existing weapons laws, and video games were examined.

It turned out that the main reason for committing violence is the presence of political opponents. For this reason, people are killed 3,5–16 times more than for other reasons. The study covered the period from 1966 to 2019. The authors of the study believe that it is necessary to make crowded places (shopping centers, catering places, schools, etc.) less accessible to the criminal, to tighten control over the possession of weapons by people in critical condition, to make it difficult to search on the Internet for potential like-minded criminals and block opportunities dissemination of materials inciting hatred on the Internet. The report notes that virtually all would-be assassins communicate their plans ahead of time. Today, law enforcement agencies practically do not pay attention to this.

On the subject: Many mass shooters in the US talked about their plans on a site designed to counter censorship

In his address to the American people after the massacres in El Paso and Dayton, Trump said the administration is considering several steps to prevent such killings. Namely:

- identification of dangerous persons and threats emanating from them;

- toughening laws on the control of mentally unhealthy people who own firearms;

- tightening control over video games and TV shows.

Democrats are pushing for the practical disarmament of law-abiding American citizens. They Democrats ignore the obvious fact that weapons are inanimate objects, and depending on whose hands they are in, they can be used for different purposes. Both our American experience and the experience of foreign countries show that any anti-gun laws do not apply to criminals. The implementation of such laws leaves law-abiding citizens defenseless in the face of an armed criminal. In addition, the disarmament of citizens is the first step towards the emergence of totalitarian power against the people.

Recent massacres have led to the politicization of the search for ways to reduce the level of crime with firearms. Such politicization sharply divides people and makes it very difficult to find solutions to this pressing problem.

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Read also on ForumDaily:

Many mass shooters in the US talked about their plans on a site designed to counter censorship

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