Reality can be a difficult thing for some people.
To be fair, at one time or another, reality has been difficult for all of us (like the reality of how hard the pavement was when I tripped the other day).
There are a couple of different ways that people tend to try to deal with reality, though. One way is to deny that it exists and to try to make the world conform to what they would like to happen. This type of fantasy thinking seems to be especially common among those on the political left, which is where anti-2A activists tend to live.
The other way to deal with reality is to acknowledge it, and, knowing about reality and keeping it in mind, work with it to make life the way that you would like it to be.
This difference in how people handle reality is what I really think is driving the disagreement between honest anti-2A activists (those who want gun control because they think that it will save lives, not because they’re looking for an excuse to run your life) and pro-2A people.
What do I mean? It’s simple, really. If you understand what really reduces gun violence and overall violence, then you need to do those things if you want to reduce violence.
And what actually reduces gun violence? Well, John Lott has an answer for that. Lott writes,
The survey [commissioned by the Crime Prevention Research Center] is the latest evidence challenging claims linking firearms and violent crime. As data show both the number of firearms and the percentage of people carrying them is increasing, preliminary estimates show the U.S. murder rate is likely to hit a record low in 2025—at least 10 percent below the previous record low.
“It doesn’t surprise me that while the country is experiencing record-low murder and violent crime rates, we are also experiencing a record high number of people legally carrying concealed handguns for self-protection,” Alan Gottlieb, the executive vice president and founder of the Second Amendment Foundation, told RCI.
Bradford County, Fla., Sheriff Gordon Smith said lowering crime rates “isn’t rocket science.” He told RCI, “You reduce crime by putting more cops on the street, increasing arrest and conviction rates, and imposing meaningful prison sentences. But you also cut crime by empowering law-abiding citizens to defend themselves and their families through constitutional carry.”
And this is where we run into the reality problem with anti-2A activists. In spite of the reality that more legal gun owners carrying regularly reduces murder rates, anti-2A zealots keep pushing for gun control.
Which has the effect of those activists continually (if indirectly) pushing for higher rates of violence in society. And we’re supposed to think that those people really want to reduce violence?
No, you simply have to conclude that anti-2A activists, in general, don’t want to reduce violence in our society. They want gun control for other reasons.
And all of those reasons are terrible reasons. You can see the outcome of disarming the populace throughout history, and it never helps the people. Ever.
