That's News To Me!: Guns: The Not-So-Shocking Truth

Check out this Myspace user's profile: "GUNS DONT KILL PEOPLE DANGEROUS MINORITIES DO." With a glittery picture of the American flag and a glittery 18-wheeler shining on his web page, this 22-year-old who combines thirty-eight sentences into one long rambling curse, represents the heart of gun-toting America. Proudly quoting Charlton Heston, he loves to play video games, drive his blazer, and let out his anger with a "semi auto assault." This sweet man wants to meet a nice woman with "good goals," or "any stupid ass muther fucker that thinks he better than everyone so [he] can punch him in the mouth." He also thinks "reading sucks ass."
...And he liked Snakes on a Plane.

Though many gun enthusiasts are adamant about the protection of the second amendment, many are also ignorant about the ideas they promulgate.

Now, with the election of Barack Obama, many gun enthusiasts are once again fretting about their right to bear arms. They have compared President Obama to President Clinton who, while in office, enacted the Assault Weapons Ban in 1994, placing a 10 year ban on the production of all semiautomatic firearms considered assault weapons. This had the NRA up in arms. They believed their rights were being infringed upon, that by enacting gun control laws, a domino effect would take place, and soon the second amendment would be totally ignored.

This controversy caught my attention after reading an article entitled "Boy finds forgotten gun, accidentally shoots self in head." The article needs little explaining.

Accidental discharges are the topics of numerous articles everyday, including children who find guns and accidentally discharge, men who imitate shootings and then accidentally discharge, and even criminals who carry guns without the intention of using them, and then do.

Members of the NRA often dispute facts about guns and call them myths, but common knowledge should dictate that the greater the number of guns made available to the average citizen, the greater the number of shootings and deaths.

In the ten years following Clinton's ban, gun crimes involving assault weapons declined 17-72% across major cities. Though the number varies in range, it remains a dramatic decline nonetheless. The statistics are similar involving smaller hand-held firearms.

According to a study by the UC Davis School of Medicine, young adults (ages 21-25) with no previous criminal record who purchased small, inexpensive hand guns were 90% more likely to be charged with an offense involving violence or a weapon in the three years following their purchase than those who didn't.

These gun control laws do not take away second amendment rights, but grant those who may be affected by the lack of these laws the right to life.

Obama also respects the right to bear arms, but favors "common sense" gun laws and supports the ban on semiautomatic weapons, the same type of ban that helped drop the number of crimes committed with the use of assault weapons during the Clinton administration.

Conservatives often label gun control laws as leftist, liberal propaganda. I respond to this by quoting Dan Hoffman, a blogger for The Buffalo News, who compares gun control laws to Jim Crow laws, and states "Gun control is a policy Neville Chamberlain, Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin all believed in."

If this is the case, leftist propaganda, here I come.