Does the presence of guns cause crime? :: 07/05/2022

Does the presence of guns cause crime? That is what the Left would have us to believe.

Everyone knows about Switzerland and true military weapons kept in many Swiss homes yet with very low rates of gun crimes. Where would we find the highest concentration of guns? A war zone, of course. In such a place, the soldiers are heavily armed with actual military rifles, virtually unlimited ammunition, and many more even deadlier weapons of war, and are trained and conditioned to kill. If the availability and presence of guns were truly the cause of crime and with virtually 100% of everyone there armed and deadly, every base of operations should be a killing field. Yet this isn’t the case.

Similarly, our police departments are full of armed people 24/7, yet the homicide rate amongst them is virtually nonexistent.

Looking at some of our cities, as of 2012, “...according to the Department of Defense and FBI data, the number of Chicagoans murdered was two and a half times U.S. soldiers killed in Afghanistan since 2001.” This is pretty telling when one considers that in Afghanistan virtually all American soldiers were heavily armed with true weapons of war as well as an equally armed enemy trying to kill them; conversely, Chicago has some of if not the strictest gun ownership laws in the country. Nevertheless, the criminal element in Chicago committed 2 ½ times more murders than soldiers were killed in an actual war zone. In 2016 alone, there were 3,550 shootings in Chicago and 762 murders. Those gun control laws do little or nothing to keep guns out of the hands of the very people that shouldn’t have them

ABC reported that in 2021, 12 cities set new record homicide rates. “It’s just crazy,” they said. These cities were Rochester, NY, Philadelphia,  Pennsylvania; Toledo, Ohio; Columbus, Ohio; Baton Rouge, Louisiana; Austin, Texas; Louisville, Kentucky; St. Paul, Minnesota; Portland, Oregon; Tucson, Arizona; Albuquerque, New Mexico. These cities all had Democrat mayors. Many of them claim that the guns largely come from outside the cities and/or states. In other words, they are illegally obtained. Gun laws mean nothing to the criminal element. In fact, the majority of guns used in crimes are obtained illegally. Further, if guns were the cause of crime and guns were obtained from states with laxer gun laws, why are those latter states not inundated with gun crimes? Logic and common sense do not support the Left’s position.

So what is the difference in these scenarios? Why is Chicago, as an example, more deadly than an actual war zone? If all soldiers are armed, why isn’t there a high rate of shootings and murders among them? They often have to live in conditions far worse than the slums of America.

The reason is the people behind the guns. The military and the police have strong discipline. They respect the laws of our country. They know when using a gun against another human being is appropriate and when it is not, and they act accordingly. 

The criminal element in our inner cities have none of these virtues and could care less. Today’s woke schools preach victimhood, hatred of others who think differently, you can ignore what’s in your underwear, and contempt for the civics and history lessons of old. There is little or no discipline taught anymore. Efforts continue to break down our American families where discipline can be learned.

Moving on to the cities in question, Robert Boyce, retired Chief of Detectives in NYC said “Nobody’s getting arrested anymore," Boyce said. "People are getting picked up for gun possession and they're just let out over and over again." The so-called woke prosecutors pushed and elected by the alleged progressives are failing to enforce our laws, i.e., failing to maintain or teach discipline. San Francisco, of all places, actually recalled their prosecutor for being soft on crime.

Punishment deters bad behavior. Anyone who believes the shootings and murders in our cities can be resolved by counselors on the scene is really “stretching the blanket.” When seconds matter, the police are only minutes away. How fast would these counselors be? It’s time for government gravel factories for some offenders, making little rocks out of big rocks. It’s also time to enforce the plethora of gun laws already on the books. Start locking up every single gun crime perpetrator, and then let’s see where we are.

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2022/07/does_the_presence_of_guns_cause_crime.html