Ten Arguments Gun Advocates Make, and Why They're Wrong

There has been yet another mass shooting, something that now seems to occur on a monthly basis. Every time another tragedy like this occurs, gun advocates make the same arguments about why we can't possibly do anything to restrict the weaponization of our culture. Here's a guide to what they'll be saying in the coming days:

1. Now isn't the time to talk about guns.

We're going to hear this over and over, and not just from gun advocates; Jay Carney said it to White House reporters today. But if we're not going to talk about it now, when are we going to talk about it? After Sandy hit the East Coast, no one said, "Now isn't the time to talk about disaster preparedness; best leave that until it doesn't seem so urgent." When there's a terrorist attack, no one says, "Now isn't the time to talk about terrorism." Now is exactly the time.

2. Guns don't kill people, people kill people.

Maybe, but people with guns kill many, many more people than they would if they didn't have guns, and guns designed to kill as many people as possible. We don't know if the murderer in Newtown was suffering from a suicidal depression, but many mass shooters in the past were. And guess what? People suffer from suicidal depression everywhere in the world. People get angry and upset everywhere in the world. But there aren't mass shootings every few weeks in England or Costa Rica or Japan, and the reason is that people in those places who have these impulses don't have an easy way to access lethal weapons and unlimited ammunition. But if you want to kill large numbers of people and you happen to be an American, you'll find it easy to do.

3. If only everybody around was armed, an ordinary civilian could take out a mass killer before he got too far.

If that were true, then how come it never happens? The truth is that in a chaotic situation, even highly trained police officers often kill bystanders. The idea that some accountant who spent a few hours at the range would suddenly turn into Jason Bourne and take out the killer without doing more harm than good has no basis in reality.

4. We don't need more laws, we just need to enforce the laws we have.

The people who say this are the same ones who fight to make sure that existing laws are as weak and ineffectual as possible. Our current gun laws are riddled with loopholes and allow people to amass enormous arsenals of military-style weapons with virtually no restrictions.

5. Criminals will always find a way to get guns no matter what measures we take, so what's the point?

The question isn't whether we could snap our fingers and make every gun disappear. It's whether we can make it harder for criminals to get guns, and harder for an unbalanced person with murderous intent to kill so many people. The goal is to reduce violence as much as possible. There's no other problem for which we'd say if we can't solve it completely and forever we shouldn't even try.

6. The Constitution says I have a right to own guns.

Yes it does, but for some reason gun advocates think that the right to bear arms is the only constitutional right that is virtually without limit. You have the right to practice your religion, but not if your religion involves human sacrifice. You have the right to free speech, but you can still be prosecuted for incitement or conspiracy, and you can be sued for libel. Every right is subject to limitation when it begins to threaten others, and the Supreme Court has affirmed that even though there is an individual right to gun ownership, the government can put reasonable restrictions on that right.

And we all know that if this shooter turns out to have a Muslim name, plenty of Americans, including plenty of gun owners, will be more than happy to give up all kinds of rights in the name of fighting terrorism. Have the government read my email? Have my cell phone company turn over my call records? Check which books I'm taking out of the library? Make me take my shoes off before getting on a plane, just because some idiot tried to blow up his sneakers? Sure, do what you've got to do. But don't make it harder to buy thousands of rounds of ammunition, because if we couldn't do that we'd no longer be free.

7. Widespread gun ownership is a guarantee against tyranny.

If that had anything to do with contemporary life, then mature democracies would be constantly overthrown by despots. But they aren't. We shouldn't write laws based on the fantasies of conspiracy theorists.

8. Guns are a part of American culture.

Indeed they are, but so are a lot of things, and that tells us nothing about whether they're good or bad and how we want to treat them going forward. Slavery was a part of American culture for a couple of hundred years, but eventually we decided it had to go.

9. The American people don't want more gun control.

The truth is that when public opinion polls have asked Americans about specific measures, the public is in favor of a much more restrictive gun regime than we have now. Significant majorities would like to see the assault weapons ban reinstated, mandatory licensing and training for all gun owners, significant waiting periods for purchases, and host of other restrictions (there are more details here). In many cases, gun owners themselves support more restrictions than we currently have.

10. Having movie theaters and schools full of kids periodically shot up is just a price we should be willing to pay if it means I get to play with guns and pretend I'm Wyatt Earp.

OK, that's actually an argument gun advocates don't make. But it's the truth that lies beneath all their other arguments. All that we suffer because of the proliferation of guns—these horrifying tragedies, the 30,000 Americans who are killed every year with guns—for gun advocates, it's unfortunate, but it's a price they're willing to pay. If only they'd have the guts to say it.

Comments

jared.reynolds1986

Fri, 2013-01-25 06:25

Number 10 is really the truth. I asked a friend who loves guns, what if it turns out, hypothetically, that instituting a ban on assault weapons, handguns, and having universal background checks saved 15,000 lives a year, would you agree? First he said, not possible, then I could tell he wanted to say no but saw the trap, In a round about way, he said no, it's my second amendment. Gun owners talk a big game about defense and safety, but its all bullshit. If all that turned out to be false they would still want their guns and not give them up. All I want to hear an intense gun owner say is, "it's worth the deaths for me to play with my toy." I would respect that person more than all of the rhetoric they spew about caring for the greater good of society.

prosper1

Tue, 2013-03-05 01:27

let's keep this balanced. most gun deaths are suicides. In 2009, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, 66.9% of all homicides in the United States were perpetrated using a firearm.[5] There were 52,447 deliberate and 23,237 accidental non-fatal gunshot injuries in the United States during 2000.[6] Two-thirds of all gun-related deaths in the United States are suicides. In 2010, there were 19,392 firearm-related suicide deaths, and 11,078 firearm-related homicide deaths in the United States.[7]

nicolette.paulina1

Thu, 2013-03-14 06:40

The line that some bureaucrat who spent a few hours at the ambit would short separate into Jason Goal and head out the somebody without doing author hurt than nifty has no base in actuality
http://www.realexamguide.com/N10-005.html

demarspeed199

Fri, 2013-03-22 13:14

Anti-gun arguments are very weak...Okay, let me ask you guys something, why have dictators or totalitarian nations in the past and today have taken the guns and disarmed the public? To make it safer for the people? No, to gain more control over the society. And that is something that a powerful govnt like the U.S would be able to do if all of our guns were taken away (but that will never happen, sorry anti-gunners). How many people die from drunk driving accidents? Alot, but do they go to the motor companies and tell them to stop making those 2,000 pound cars that can go put to 100 mph because people are killing others with them? Nope.
Also, did you anti-gunners even look up the statistics of gun violence? The gun-free zones have the highest slaughter rates and yet the areas where guns are avialable have the lowest...strange huh? What roll of the dice would you prefer? To be unarmed when there is a maniac harming you? Because the police wont save you the police show up when the crime is over..Remember that..
You guys don't even know what an assualt rifle actually is. Also, the whole "the founding fathers could not have imagined todays weapons"..Uhh yes they could have, because they themselves saw the drastic change of weaponry in their own lifetime, they saw from the first muskets to rifles that was a 22 shooter, dont remember the name of it all I know is that it was French. So to say that they could not have seen advance in guns is retarded. Thats like saying we today can't see anything past the AK-47. Go figure.
2nd amedment was not there hunting because back than if you didnt hunt you did not eat..It was for defense and to protect from oppressive govnt which is certainly what we need to be aware of here in Corporate America. Your arguments are weak and are laughable..Just saying

demarspeed199

Fri, 2013-03-22 13:27

And your slavery arguent is silly, yeah, slavery had to go, because they were people under control and were even worked to death. This is about people (with decent backgrounds) owning a gun, not slaves. A weapon you can defend yourself with, not a human being you own and works for you in horrible conditions. Pathetic argument. They enforce every gun law there is, the whole "we need to enforce more" is retarded, both the left and right wingers talk this crap. They enforece it all, try going to a gun owner and buy a gun without proper ID and license, not happeneing. Gun owners dont want to go to jail the rest of their lives if you didn't know. And also, in England for example, have a much less population, we have over 300 million people here, yeah theres going to be more shootings and over 75% of them are gang related.

gden519

Tue, 2013-03-26 23:55

Ok so instead of leaving a pile of my brain dead absolutely worthless opinion in the form of words I'm just going to post facts. 1- this country was based on conservative republicanism, not a democracy or libertarian. If you do not know the actual base meanings of these forms of government, you should not be speaking on the subject. This country was based on our beliefs as gun owners not yours. Go live in china, or England where these laws that you want already exist. Stop pushing them on us in the land of the "free."
2- who cares what someone does in their own religion. If someone wants to sacrifice themselves to their god, why should I stop them. Again, land of the "free"
3. Learn the definition of assault rifle.
4. The 2nd amendment is there to protect us from government as well as intruders. If you think an armed populace can't fight a modern army, just go ask the cave people how it's working for them. Holding us off for ten years now. Oh wait that war is just for oil and is based off a lie. Better keep listening to the goverment.
5- if Background checks are the best you can come up with as an alternative to simply stripping an amendment, then I wonder how long this country will actually last. Sorry that was an opinion.
6- 80% of the entire worlds prison population with over 100,000 proven innocent people behind bars to this day. Land of the "free." not relavent, butit this is the judicial system your willing to put your rights in the hands of.
7- Its not the issue of people being able to stop an armed mad man, its the mindset of the mad man knowing he's walking into a place that could have dozens of armed citizens inside. Ever notice how the mass shootings only happen in gun free zones? Now, how many of the "assault rifle" owners do you think will give up their guns when a ban comes into play? Then the govt starts kicking in doors, people start dying, a civil war ensues. And you want to be the one to encite that? Who is the crazy gun nut?

z.weathersby

Sat, 2013-04-06 15:05

1. How come gun grabbers don't like to talk about the gun control laws that are already in place that don't serve their purpose, such as the Federal Gun Free School Zone act of 1995? The truth is gun grabbing liberals don't want to talk about it either. They just want to shove their propaganda and lies down everone's throat evertime a tragedy such as Newtown occurs.

2. Comparing the number of mass murders in the US to other countries like England and Japan may be a compelling argument, but it doesn't account for socio-economic factors either. Factors such as poverty and the treatment of mentally ill persons are not considered when comparing gun violence in the US and other countries. If gun control worked in the US, then places like Chicago and Washington DC would have virtually no gun crime. Chicago and DC have the most restrictive gun control in the nation and yet gun crime in those isolated areas is much higher than other places in the US.

3. Armed citizens prevent crimes all the time. A mass shooting at an oregon mall was stopped by a civilian with a concealed weapon. If you had done even 5 minutes worth of research on this argument, you would have discovered that 1 in 10 mass shootings are in fact stopped by armed civilians. There are statitistics that show as many as 800,000 violent crimes are stopped in the US by armed citizens.

4. There are over 20,000 laws restricting guns in the US. The majority of them are virtually unenforcable. How do you expect criminals, who by very definition, refuse to obey the laws of society to comply with gun control laws? Prohibiting narcotics has only created a monopoly for organized crime in the US and wasted billions of dollars of tax payer money fighting the war on drugs. How would the prohibition of firearms be any different?

5. Mass murders are not always commited by people with guns. Timothy McVeigh killed 168 people with a bomb made from fertilizer, racing fuel and a box truck. As I stated before, criminals do not follow laws. That's what makes them criminals. Law abiding citizens are the only ones punished by stricter gun control laws.

6. A tiny fraction of this argument is true. Most rights are subject to limitations. No one has the right to kill someone, and yet it happens all the time. However, the 2nd amendment is the only amendment in the bill of rights that has these 4 words: "shall not be infringed"
Nidal Hasan, the shooter at Fort Hood has a muslim name. What does that have to do with anything in this argument?

7. Arguing that widespread gun ownership would lead to democracies being overthrown by despots makes no sense at all and is your weakest argument by far. The US population has more guns than any other nation and the government has not been overthrown. (The US isn't a democracy either but that's anothe subject)One of the first things Hitler, Mal and Stalin did before commiting the largest mass genocides in the history of the planet was ban guns. History tells us that government tyranny is not a conspiracy theory.
"The beauty of the Second Amendment is that it will not be needed until they try to take it."
"No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms. The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government" Both of these are quotes from Thomas Jefferson

8. Guns and the right to own them isn't just a part of American culture. It is a cornerstone of the liberty of this land and what makes it so great. Slavery up until the 19th century was just as much a part of the entire worlds culture, not just the US. Slavery is still a big problem in many less fortunate countries, ironically in countries with strict gun laws like china and india. The progression of human rights is a good thing and the world has come a long way to put an end to slavery, but it's no excuse to infringe on the rights of free people to bear arms.

9. It is very easy to cite biased polls and journalism as proof that americans want more gun control especially after a tragedy like newtown tugging at the heart strings of american people.
The truth is, the general movement over the past two decades has been against greater gun control. Most americans do not believe that stricter gun control laws will prevent mass shootings.
Most americans are more concerned with the economy than anything else.
And let's not forget the huge spike in gun sales further invalidating the argument that americans want gun control.

10. Stereotyping gun rights advocates as a bunch of vigilantes playing cowboy and disregarding the safety of others couldn't be further from the truth. Mass shootings such as the one at the Aurora theater primarily occur in gun free zones. Most gun rights advocates do not want these things to happen and would do anything to prevent them if they could. The problem is, their hands are tied for the most part due to gun restrictions already in place.
How many mass shootings were there at schools before the Federal Gun Free School Zone Act Of 1995? This act has made it nearly impossible for ordinary citizens to defend themselves on school property. James Holmes specifically stated that he chose the AMC movie theater because of the restrictions against concealed carry.
As for the 30,000 gun related deaths in the US, the majority of those are suicides. This once again points to the lack of care for the mentally ill in the US. Once a person decides that they want to kill themselves, very little can be done to change that. Addressing the needs of the mentally ill in the US is a much bigger problem than gun violence.

These are 10 reasons why articles like this are liberal gun grabbing propaganda.

josephmattcharles

Mon, 2013-04-08 23:27

1. It's not the time to make emotional decisions. A little logic goes a long way. They want to ban weapons for their cosmetics and larger magazines (can switch these out easy and quick). Is this the root cause of the issue?; I don't think so... Will it help?; I don't think so either.

2. The root cause is likely related to mental illness caused by a failing society. A society that sits more behind a keyboard, then goes out side and plays catch with their children. A society where reality TV teaches children its ok to cuss and poke-at other peoples' self confidence. I don't think anyone has clear metrics or picture on why other countries behave as they do. Their violent crimes I hear are higher, and their culture is different.

3. It does happen, but the media doesn't get their kicks from publishing it so wide-spread as they do with bad news.... In most states, you have to take a class to legally carry a gun....

4. In the media today, there is widespread confusion on what "military style" and "assault weapon" means... Some of the politicians are confused as well... 'we need a big red button'.... 'why?'.... 'because it will be easy to see'.... 'Yes, but why do you need a button at all?'.... 'Umm, ummm, blah blah......'

5. Criminals will find other means of killing, they always have, and do.

6. It's just a continual errosion of rights, regardless of their original intent. Some people stick up for the rights that are near-and-dear to their hearts...

7. Well, let's say in the future, there is an invading country... I'd rather have my fellow americans armed...

8. On a related note, so is Apple Pie and Cheeseburgers, but New York is starting to do something about that. lol

9. If you look at the polls, 2012 is the only year that the numbers really say that... I wonder why, recent events that we are emotionally responding to, yes.

10. Emotional banter....

Brandyl11283

Mon, 2013-04-22 07:24

We also have the right to life. We are the ones who have to protect the children. If we can save even one we should try. If we continue to consider only the rights of an individual an
not the welfare of many we will surely implode.

flenkereyes76

Wed, 2013-04-24 05:24

I think the government will do something about having guns in the homes of thousand citizens in our country, however this will guarantee that we will not use guns to protect our yard and homes from the infiltrators. But this one we should consider is the safety of our home and to keep our kids away from these weapons. Of course, above all is the criminal who always caught having a gun and also kill innocent lives.

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http://www.timmccallan.biz/

keele.chris75

Fri, 2013-05-03 14:30

The folks that say a gun advocate saying "guns don't kill people. people kill people" are saying that because it is simply true. If someone says "that phrase makes me want to puke", they are just as much part of the entire problem also. What both sides of this argument/scenario should understand is both sides have a point and there should be civilized conversations about what to do with these issues we have together! What makes me sick is a group of people trampling on the rights of someone else's simply because they don't believe it to be necessary. I don't abortion is necessary all the time either but the argument is "it's my choice". Well big f'n deal to your choice just like you say "big f'n deal' to my choice to be able to protect myself. And by that I mean protect myself how ever I see fit/necessary.

For the people that talk about "making more dangerous ammunition for assault weapons" clearly don't know what the hell they are trying to talk about because a simple, bolt action rifle can shoot a more deadly round than an assault rifle. The plain and simple difference between and AR-15 and a bolt action .223 rifle is the action; semi auto vs. bolt action. Oh and the scariness of it also.

If you want gun restrictions, restrict yourselves from them. It goes the same for a "Big Gulp" sold at a 7-11. If you think they are bad, then don't buy one!!! You rich, uninformed, liberal democrats that think the government should have a say in what you own or don't own should just go ahead and surrender yourselves to what you believe the greater good is and leave the everyone else alone. Besides, the people shooting up schools and movies theaters are from your own party in the first place!

If it weren't for the liberal softies that believe the death sentence is "too harsh", people (particularly criminals) just might have it in their minds there will be repercussions for committing these crimes in the first damn place! Oh no! That is just too harsh! We should let people live a life of ease while all the taxpayers pay for their cable bill, education, utilities, and court fees while they pay off a 10 year sentence for killing someone. When it's a family member of yours that gets taken from you, you'll get the reality check that has been coming to you! Trust me.

yomacdog

Tue, 2013-05-07 14:45

Enough with the "weapons of war" bullcrap. The second amendment guarantees us the right to own those weapons.

You need one of those to defend your bedroom?
Yes. I need that assualt rifle to defend my bedroom like...
- Rosa Parks NEEDED to ride at the front of the bus.
- Miranda NEEDED to be told his rights.
- Roe NEEDED to be able to obtain an abortion

It ain't about needs, it's about RIGHTS.
Telling me I don't NEED a pistol to defend my house (not bedroom) or telling me that I don't NEED an AR-15 to do the job is like telling Rosa Parks she can still ride at the back of the bus.

yomacdog

Tue, 2013-05-07 14:48

And these Gun Right/Gay Marrage is just to get the publics attention off the benghazi attacks.

jgateway

Tue, 2013-05-14 23:15

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