Anti-2A activists like to claim that their motivation in pushing gun control is to reduce gun violence (a reduction in overall violence is usually implied, too, though not often said). To be fair, some of those people may actually believe that.
What they don’t tell you is that pro-2A people want to reduce gun violence, too. The difference is their assumptions about how to best go about getting that result.
For anti-2A zealots, their answer is to violate your rights, take your guns, and keep you from getting more guns. They associate legal gun ownership with criminal activities involving guns, or they assume that legal gun ownership leads to criminal gun use.
Pro-2A people, on the other hand, seem to have a better understanding of how people and societies work. They know that legal gun ownership actually decreases overall levels of violence in a society.
They also know that what drives gun violence isn’t legal gun ownership. It’s criminal activity and criminals.
The FBI recently made that same point. Kimberly Hayek writes,
The Justice Department announced Friday the results of Operation Spring Cleaning, a nationwide FBI-led effort that resulted in more than 1,100 arrests and the seizure of nearly 1,000 illegal firearms and more than 2,700 pounds of narcotics over the course of three months.
The operation, which took place from March 1 to May 31, took aim at the illegal flow of firearms and drugs connected to gang activity in cities and towns across the country. Federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies worked together on nearly 600 search warrants, the DOJ said.
So, is the FBI saying that illegal guns are owned by people doing illegal things (like selling drugs and gang activities), and, therefore, gun violence is closely tied to people doing illegal things?
Yes, that’s exactly the point being made by example here.
The fact of the matter is that guns are not and have never been the problem when it comes to violence. Criminals are the problem. Get the criminals off the street, and you’ll reduce criminal activity (such as gun violence), too.
It’s simple, really.