We may not like guns in certain places - schools, churches, grocery stores, Doctors offices. But crime happens in these places too. And with increasing frequency:
A striking paradox is associated with mass shootings. They are much more likely to occur in areas that have been designated as gun free zones.
Post Offices were the first buildings associated by the media with mass shootings, in this case by disgruntled workers who were said to "go postal". The fact that guns were prohibited in Post Offices was well publicized.
Office buildings, hospitals, convenience stores, TV studios, chain restaurants and day care centers have all been targets of crazed killers intent on running up a large score of victims before they finally kill themselves. All of these enterprises prevent employees from arming themselves, even if they have a state-issued license granting them that right.
Schools became popular targets for young mass murderers in the mid 1990s, around the time that the Gun Free School Zones act of 1994 was enacted. This law and similar local laws were targeted at gang related violence, but had the unfortunate consequence of making schools a more attractive target for disturbed teens who wanted to end their own lives with a dramatic killing spree.
In 1999, John Lott and William Landes published an extensive statistical study of multiple shooting incidents. They showed that mass shootings occur less often in areas where responsible citizens are allowed permits to carry weapons discretely.
http://www.american-partisan.com/cols/brown/080800.htm
The truth is that such a paradise does not exist. It can not logically exist for long. Gun free zones only disarm the law-abiding, and leave them defenseless against the law breaking. Unless you intend to live in a state of martial law with a dozen soldiers on every block, then individual citizens deserve, and need to protect themselves. Gun free zones just create killing fields. Bad guys with guns + good guys without guns = bad scenario. This isn't the movies. The good guys loose.
In Feb 2008, at the Northern Illinois University, another maniac, with guns bristling all over him, walked into a "gun-free zone" and began picking off human beings as if they were ducks in a shooting gallery.
While scores of students were screaming and ducking for cover, the creature with the guns was certain he would get no resistance from his helpless targets. Since the killer knew it was a building in which guns were prohibited by law, and, since he intended to take his own worthless life anyway, all he needed to do was disregard the law and calmly walk up to the cowering figures and press the trigger. Before he was finished, 5 students were dead and at least 15 were wounded, many of them critically.
One sane person in that room with a firearm could have saved those lives. On the other hand, if it had not been designated a gun-free zone, it's unlikely that the coward would have chosen the place to act out his homicidal rage. I've heard all the reasons given by gun control advocates about the need to keep guns off the streets. Yet, the slogan that keeps resounding in my mind is: "If guns are outlawed, only outlaws will have guns."
http://www.americanthinker.com/2008/02/gun_free_zones_can_be_deadly.html
No comments:
Post a Comment