As I slipped on my mesh thong, sat in a chair, and opened up a book (at Barnes and Noble), I realized something: I feel very strongly about gun control. While I’ve never shot a gun in my life, I believe they are an important part of America. Contrary to what many people think, I believe guns actually keep people safer.
If everybody had a gun, there would not be as many muggings or break-ins. The prospect of the man you’re mugging whipping out a firearm on you is trumped only by the constant fear that the owner of the house you’ve just broken into is waiting for you around the corner holding a shotgun. It’s a very unsettling feeling.
The ATF, which stands for Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (that makes me wonder why it’s not the ATFE, but that’s neither here nor there), is an agency that fiercely opposes the use of guns. This is their stance on guns (it was taken directly from their website, aft.gov): “ATF recognizes the role that firearms play in violent crimes and pursues an integrated regulatory and enforcement strategy.”
While I can’t deny that guns play a role in violence, it doesn’t explain why crime rates in most countries goes up when they begin clamping down on gun control. Like crime going up over 40% in the U.K. just four years after they imposed a ban on handguns. That’s over 25% a year (give or take. I’m not really that great at math). Or what about armed robberies going up in Australia by over 50% after they banned most guns? It just doesn’t make sense.
In my research, I found that countries that enforce strict laws on gun control will obviously see gun-related crimes decrease, but nearly every other weapon-related crime increases. Once guns are banned, knives become the deadliest weapons. In England, if a criminal is wielding a ten-inch blade in someone’s home, who is going to stop him? In America, if the homeowner has a Lugar, the knife waving man will be out of the house faster than an éclair disappears from Al Roker’s hand (and that’s fast).
I wouldn’t go so far as to say the ATF should be disbanded, but they need to get the “F” out—and the “A” and “T”, too. Last I checked, tobacco and alcohol are legal, so unless they’re busy convincing Michael Bloomberg that a 128% tax on cigarettes is too low, I don’t know what they could possibly be doing.
I’ll just leave you with a little story on the benefits of having a gun: A seventy-year-old woman in South Bend, Indiana heard some commotion outside her house. When she looked outside her window, she noticed a man trying to break in to her home. She grabbed her revolver, called 911, and waited nervously for the man. Eventually, the guy got inside, where he was met by a gun-toting grandma who held him at gunpoint until the police arrived.
Personally, I think the guy got off too easy. If it were my home, I’d have the guy cleaning my toilet bowl with his tongue. That’s not the point, though. The point is guns stop violence just as efficiently as they start it. Had it not been for a .38 caliber, this lady could have been robbed, seriously hurt, or worse.
So basically, it’s safe to say if you’re against guns, you hate defenseless women.