By Steve Long

The Otter Limits

Posted: July 24, 2012

EDMOND, Okla. -- The gun control debate has begun again. In light of recent events, everybody on the left and right are up in arms (pun intended) over gun control. The left claims that guns are bad and we need to get rid of them.

I have some news for them.

Despite what these people might think, guns are not bad. People that use guns for malicious are bad.

Guns do not commit crimes. People do.

Guns do not murder people. People do.

Guns are not the reason that a college student decides to walk into a crowded theater and begin opening fire on the audience.

Guns are not the reason that a former Marine decides to climb to the top of a building and starts shooting random people at the University of Texas in 1966.

Contrary to what seems to be a popular belief, guns are not the only way a person can kill another human being.

Was a gun the cause of death of 168 people in Oklahoma City in April 1995?

Was a gun the cause of death of nearly 3000 people in New York City in September 2001?

Was a gun the cause of death of the victims of such murderers as Albert Fish, Dennis Rader, Gary Ridgway, and Jeffrey Dahmer?

Guns did not kill these people. Evil men with violent tendencies and a head full of bad wiring killed these people.

Getting rid of the guns in this country will not put an end to violent crime any more than getting rid of alcohol in the 20s and 30s put an end to people drinking.

As cliché as it sounds, it is true that if guns are criminalized, only criminals will have guns.

You are not going to stop the purchase of handguns by signing a law stating that it is illegal to own, purchase, or sell a handgun. You are simply going to make it harder for law-abiding citizens to defend themselves and easier for law breakers to purchase them on the black market.

Unfortunately, there are some bad people in the world. They do bad things. They rob people. They rape people. They kill people. And yes, sometimes when they commit their crimes they are using a gun to commit that crime. But you cannot simply end crime in this world by attempting to take guns out of the equation. If a criminal can't find a gun, they will use some other means of creating victims.

Thomas Jefferson once said that “Laws that forbid the carrying of arms…disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes…Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants…”

History has shown that gun control simply does not work.

Instead of getting rid of the guns in our country by disarming law-abiding citizens, how about we get rid of the criminals by keeping them locked up and away from society.

Steve Long writes for The Otter Limits blog and lives in Edmond. He is also a contributor to Red Dirt Report.

Copyright 2012 Red Dirt Report