How many times have you read or heard someone assert that if there were no guns, there would be no crime or violence? Of course, this outlook is deluded and patently false. People are stabbed, beaten, run over by cars, and killed or injured in a myriad of other ways besides being shot every day. What having no guns would accomplish is ensuring that the strong and violent would dominate the weak and mild. Women, the elderly, and the mild-mannered would be defenseless victims of the strong and violent on a daily basis. But this entire discussion is a moot point, because Americans are never going to give up their guns. Before we examine the reasons behind that, let’s look at the landscape surrounding gun ownership.
Gun Ownership Does Not Cause Crime
It is estimated that roughly 84 million Americans own just under 400 million firearms of all types in the United States. That means if the anti-2A types’ assertion that guns kill people were accurate, those 400 million guns would go out and kill the entire population of the United States within a few weeks. I suppose the number might be a bit lower given that some guns are confined in gun safes, but if they ever escaped, there would be mayhem. Even if we toned that down to the assertion that everyone who owns a gun is a potential killer, that would be some 84 million deaths in short order.
Unfortunately for the gun control crowd’s agenda, the facts are a bit different. The CDC reported that there were 46,728 firearm-related deaths in 2023. Of these, 27,300, or 58% were suicides, 463 were accidental, and 604 were police shootings. Of the 17,927, or 38% that were classified as homicides, around 2,000, or 13% of those, were gang-related, and, according to the FBI, just under 400 were classified as justifiable self-defense shootings. Whatever is left were the actions of criminals and crazies. That means that 99% of guns and gun owners were not directly involved in fatalities in 2023.
While it would be preferable that the overall number were zero, it is hardly the epidemic that people like Everytown make it out to be. Compared to the 178,000 deaths annually that are attributable to alcohol abuse, including 12,429 drunk driving deaths, it becomes evident that there are other issues social crusaders should be putting effort into.
Why People Own Guns
I grew up with guns and honestly cannot ever imagine myself not owning one, or several. I’ve owned them for hunting, collecting, casual fun, competition, and protection. It’s just in my blood. However, not everyone grew up with guns, and there are millions of people buying their first gun every year. A few of these are buying guns for hunting or sport shooting, but the vast majority buy a gun for personal protection. In fact, 72% of all American gun owners list protection as the major reason they own a gun.
Why Americans Will Never Give Up Their Guns
Now that we have examined the actual statistics of deaths related to someone using a gun, and to the reasons people own guns, let’s look at why Americans will never give up their guns.
Heritage
The possession and use of guns for protection, hunting, and ensuring freedom is an American heritage that is deeply embedded in our culture. Without guns, the country would never have been settled, nor would the United States have achieved and preserved its independence from England in the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812. Firearms are part of the American identity and always will be. Of the 195 sovereign nations on Earth, only four (the United States, Mexico, Guatemala, and Haiti) include the right to keep arms as part of their constitution, and of those, only the United States legitimately practices it. Two other countries, the Czech Republic and Switzerland, do not include it in their constitution but do formalize it elsewhere in their laws.
In my opinion, Americans are the greatest individualists in the world, and as such, the right to keep and bear arms is a sacred trust enshrined in our very roots as a nation. So much so that our founding fathers included it as a safeguard to counter our own government should it become the same kind of tyranny England was, and if you are keeping up on current events, it is once again becoming. As such, it is in the blood of every true American to have the right to be armed if they so choose, and people will not willingly turn their backs on that heritage and right.
Safety
Human beings, like all living beings, want to feel safe. We want to be able to sit in our homes, walk down the street, go to a movie with our families, and live our lives without fear that we will be attacked and possibly killed at any moment. Unfortunately, that is not the case. Society is not as polite and civilized as it should be, and there are forces and attitudes at work that not only do not hold criminals accountable for their actions but also encourage and enable forms of mental illness and substance abuse that make people dangerous and unpredictable. This is especially true in cities and regions where liberal politicians and prosecutors allow criminals to escape justice while hobbling law enforcement and making it difficult for law-abiding citizens to protect themselves. That environment is what is driving so many people to become first-time gun owners.
Diverse Ownership
There was a time when the stereotype of the American gun owner was a middle-aged white guy. That is no longer the case as Americans begin to realize that they are their own first responders. Currently, in what is being termed Gun Culture 2.0, some studies indicate that 1 in every 4 Black Americans, 1 in every 5 Latinos, and 1 in every 4 women personally own a gun, most often for self-defense. A full 20% and growing of all gun owners consider themselves liberals. People from all walks of life, income groups, races, religions, gender identities, and professions are arming themselves for self-defense. That kind of diversity is a big hit to the anti-2A crowd. It’s hard to negatively stereotype gun owners when firearms ownership is so diverse across groups, all of whom vote and demand representation. If you research the earliest gun control laws, they were racist in nature and were intended to limit gun ownership by Black Americans, and modern gun control laws continue to adversely affect minorities and low-income families.
Gun Control Does Not Prevent Crime
This is a no-brainer. All one has to do is look at the statistics to see that the cities with the strictest gun control, like Chicago, Baltimore, and New York, still have high crime rates. Research has also indicated that violent crime decreases in places where people can easily carry a firearm for self-defense. It is also statistically evident that most mass shooting incidents occur in gun-free zones, and people know this. As I mentioned at the beginning of this article, even if criminals obey gun laws, which they don’t, just because a violent predator doesn’t have a gun doesn’t mean you are safe. People understand this even if liberal politicians do not want to admit it.
Summary
No matter how you approach it, Americans will never give up their guns. This becomes truer every year as gun ownership becomes more diverse. The right to keep and bear arms is so entrenched in the American cultural identity that any attempt to get people to turn their guns in would fail, and any attempt to confiscate them would lead to a second revolution.
