I recently tweeted something (ok, it was under a silly anonymous Twitter account; sorry folks, someday I’ll share it…) about Americans’ right to bear arms. It wasn’t meant to be pro-gun or anti-gun. Just the facts of the case as it exists today. Literally, just referencing that Americans have the right to bear arms.
Someone replied to my tweet saying that “99% of gun owners follow the law”.
That was it. No context, not answering anything I was saying, just defending the fact that apparently most gun owners are not criminals.
Who even knows if that 99% figure is true or not. It’s probably just some made-up bullshit thrown out there by a gun rights supporter. And that’s ok. Maybe it’s true. It’s certainly sounds reassuring on the surface.
Then I dug into it.
Because that’s what I do.
If 99% of gun owners are following the law, that means 1% are not. There are an estimated 80 million gun owners in America so if 1% of them are running around breaking the law that’s 800,000 criminals with guns.
There are only 20,000 cities and towns in the United States. This means, on average, there are 40 criminals in every single city and town in America RIGHT NOW just living outside the law, totin’ their guns around.
40 people. Doesn’t sound like a lot compared to the 330 million people who live in America, but how many does it take to cause a problem? How many does it take to threaten someone? To steal something at gunpoint?
How many people does it take to pull a trigger and kill someone?
What if all 40 of them did it? What if each one killed multiple people?
In every city and town in America?
40 streets, 40 crowded intersections, 40 gas stations, liquor stores, banks.
Schools. Malls. Churches and temples and mosques. Workplaces and bars and entertainment districts. High rise hotels and single-family residences. Strangers killing strangers. Black-on-black crime. Racial hate crimes. Domestic violence. Organized crime. Gang bangers. Mentally ill. Random bullying. All of the above.
Adults, children, elderly injured and killed.
Every city and town in America.
Are we still happy with 99% of gun owners following the law?
Don’t play numbers games with me. Get your shit together, America, or someone will eventually take the guns away. (If you don’t think it’s a real possibility, pay attention to the other individual choices and freedoms that are being taken away from women these days.)
It’s just that simple. Like children, we’ll have to take them away because you can’t use them properly.
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Author’s note: While I’m not a gun owner, I do defend and respect people’s rights to own guns to defend themselves, for sport/hunting purposes, or just to collect. However I’m also a realist and recognize that sometimes rules have to change in order to protect people from themselves. This is the path I see us having to potentially walk.