May 09, 2005
Gun conrol debate
Abigail A. Kohn, an anthropologist trained at the University of California at San Francisco, bravely waded into the gun control battle with Shooters: Myths and Realities of America’s Gun Cultures (Oxford University Press). She has some pretty good insights into the gun control issue. I don't agree with all of her conclusions, but she has made a fair and honest assessment and provides a good starting point for discussion between the two sides.
I do feel that she doesn't adequately realize the utter intransegience of the GFW's ultimate goal of total confiscation of firearms, but maybe thats just my personal biases showing. I do agree that gun owners must show more public support for programs that have shown to be capable of reducing violent crime, and we as responsible gun owners have to do a better job in letting the public know that most gun owners do support more education/training in the shooting arts.
Most of us are NOT wild eyed radicals that believe that just because ownership is a right guarenteed to us by our Constitution, that that absolves us of providing/participating in the needed training to carry a weapon safely and in a socially responsible manner.
The problem is that the GFW's have used every opportunity to use any such program as a furtherance of their ultimate goal of the total banning and consfiscation of personal firearms. EVERY "compremise" made by responsible owners has led to furthur restrictions on their ability to own/carry a firearm, so is it any wonder that we look at any new compremises in rights vs restrictions with a suspicious eye? "Burned once, it's your fault, burned twice, and I have to take the blame" is the attitude, and it's a well founded fear, given past experience.
The programs, such as the Boston experiment mentioned, focused on the illegal side of the gun isssue, and thats where the focus SHOULD be.
The GFW's seem to want to focus much more on restricting the law abiding, knowing that they will only be successful in restricting the honest citizen, not the criminal. Unless and until they can honestly admit that fact, we can never have an honest and open debate.