One of the biggest problems in reviewing any arguments for gun control is the overwhelming amount of ideological presumptions that have to be accepted for their arguments to make sense.
In other words, you have to “buy into” their underlying beliefs for their arguments for gun control to “make sense.”
For example, a common belief that many anti-2A people start from is that if gun control were implemented, then overall levels of violence will decrease in society because firearms are the primary weapon used for murders.
The problem with that is that it isn’t even remotely true. When firearms are removed from society, then only law enforcement (who can’t be everywhere at all times) and criminals have firearms. And even when gun deaths decrease due to laws being passed, overall murders increase.
Think I’m making that up? Simply read here and here to see that I’m not even remotely exaggerating.
In spite of their bad arguments “for” gun control, two anti-2A activists did make an interesting point that could be worth examining further. Julia Weber and Mallika Kaur write,
Nearly half of mass shootings in the U.S. are domestic violence-related.
Now, I question those statistics because they use Michael Bloomberg’s Everytown for Gun Safety as their data source. That’s like asking the driver of the getaway car who robbed the bank. You’re not likely to get unbiased information there.
Having said that, if there is even a small elevated risk of higher mass shootings from those who commit domestic violence attacks, then, it’s worth investigating that more so that we can learn what are the causes underlying them both.
Neither domestic violence nor mass shootings should happen, so if there is a common thread (and we know that guns isn’t it), then it’s worth knowing what underlying thinking and beliefs are driving that horrible behavior.
Because looking for the real causes of gun violence and mass shootings is worth pursuing so that we can minimize those horrible things. Blaming the weapon doesn’t even begin to solve those problems, though.