Opinion
USA –-(Ammoland.com)- People who don’t like guns warned us of widespread and unprovoked violence once law abiding citizens were allowed to go armed.
The gun-phobes were wrong. They were wrong time after time. New and old gun owners prove them wrong every month. We know that gun-phobes are afraid of guns. But it still bothers me that gun-phobes are afraid of legally armed Americans.
Honest gun owners are supposed to hide so gun-phobes won’t be frightened.
Speaking as a licensed gun owner, it is not our obligation to calm their every anxiety. There are never enough “safe spaces” to calm the gun-phobes fears. Enough is enough. Let me remind you what it costs.
The gun-phobes said that our streets and shops would run with blood as more law abiding citizens got their permits and carried legally in public (now 10% of the total U.S. population). The opposite happened. We saw our homicide rates drop as the number of concealed permit holders soared. This is less remarkable than it seems. We’ve already lived with guns for a long time. We have many millions of man-years of experience with legal gun owners. We found out that licensed gun owners are probably the most law abiding segment of society.
First, you had to pass a background check if you bought your gun at a gun store or from a dealer at a gun show. You’ve had another background check when you received your concealed carry license. That license in your pocket means you had a clean criminal record as the FBI looked across the US and perhaps around the world. Your state probably ran a search to see if one of their license holders committed a crime out-of-state since the license was issued. That good-guy card in your wallet or purse says you’re a card carrying honest citizen.
That is only the beginning. Where we have data, licensed gun owners are many times more law abiding than the average person. Licensed gun owners are more law abiding than law enforcement, though both numbers are very small.
At first the gun-phobes said they want gun owners to get a license, but now they want to ignore the results.
- You’re a card carrying good guy or gal. Why should you need another background check to buy another gun or more ammunition. You’ve already been cleared.
- You’re a card carrying good guy or gal. Why can’t you carry your legally owned gun with you as you travel across the country? The FBI already examined your criminal record from coast to coast.
- You’re a card carrying good guy or gal. Why are you legally barred from some churches, public schools, public parks, public housing and public transportation? I thought we were past that sort of bigotry, but I was wrong.
- You’re a card carrying good guy or gal. Why are you told you can’t enter a restaurant that serves alcohol?
Maybe those regulations sounded like a good idea at the time. It is clear that the legislators were more interested in feeling good than in doing good. Honest gun owners pay the price for these crazy laws every day. I wish society were getting something in return for our sacrifice.
Please understand the insanity that politicians are selling. ‘These gun-free zones would keep us all safe if only criminals obeyed the law.’
The so called “safety regulations” are that crazy, and gun-phobes are becoming more anxious as their prohibitions fail. Pandering legislators shouldn’t tell us how to live. We shouldn’t pass bigoted laws to soothe baseless fears.
Legally armed Americans are great neighbors. Armed Americans don’t act like criminals, and criminals don’t obey gun laws and gun-free zones. Are the gun-phobes sane enough to recognize that criminals won’t respect their “safe spaces”?
That doesn’t explain why the gun-phobes are afraid of the rest of us. It isn’t possible to soothe their irrational anxieties. We shouldn’t try.
About Rob Morse
Rob Morse writes about gun rights at Ammoland, at Clash Daily and on his SlowFacts blog. He hosts the Self Defense Gun Stories Podcast and co-hosts the Polite Society Podcast. Rob is an NRA pistol instructor and combat handgun competitor.