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Martin Luther King Jr. said: “Rarely do we find men who willingly engage in hard, solid thinking. There is an almost universal quest for easy answers and half-baked solutions. Nothing pains some people more than having to think.”
We live in a world of easy solutions; nobody wants to think for longer than they have to. Over the last several decades, we have had numerous shootings in malls, schools, universities, and places of worship. There has been an extraordinary debate as to what we can do to prevent further mass-shootings.
Those on the Right believe that increasing concealed-carry laws would help to put a stop to future shootings. Liberals want to ban guns altogether. That is not what this article is about, however. This article is about the absurdity of “Gun Free Zones.”
First enacted as a law in the early 1990′s, the “Gun Free Zone” is meant to designate a location as—you guessed it—free of guns.
Every day, we see schools, stores, restaurants, universities, and numerous other establishments with ”Gun Free Zone” stickers in their windows. Apparently—and I didn’t know this before—a “Gun Free Zone” sign completely protects you and your business from gun crime. Who knew a piece of paper could do so much?
The apparent intent of the sign is to inform people that there are legal and financial consequences for bringing a gun into a “gun free” establishment. That’s a great idea if everyone who enters your business or school is a good, sane citizen, who is void of malice, and criminal ambitions. However, being that we don’t live in Pleasantville, the idea of established “Gun Free Zones” is idiotic.
Think about it logically:
1. A “Gun Free Zone” sign will generally prevent law-abiding citizens from bringing guns of any kind into the area that has been designated as the zone. So, regular folks will be unarmed.
2. A criminal will not hesitate to bring a gun into a “Gun Free Zone,” because criminals—by definition—have no reason to obey the law.
3. Those intent on committing mass-murder will most likely seek out “Gun Free Zones” as their target destinations, because they know that none of the law-abiding citizens there will be carrying firearms.
4. The death toll in these shootings becomes much worse because those being attacked have no means by which they can defend themselves.
According to John Lott, author of More Guns, Less Crime:
“With just one single exception, the attack on congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords in Tucson in 2011, every public shooting since at least 1950 in the U.S. in which more than three people have been killed has taken place where citizens are not allowed to carry guns.”
Most schools and universities are “Gun Free Zones.” This label does absolutely nothing to protect students and teachers from harm. More likely, it puts students and teachers at a higher risk of injury and death, because they have nothing with which to protect themselves against a shooter. Yet we have Liberals crying out for campus gun control on a regular basis. They have not put an ounce of critical thought into what they are saying.
In reality, “Gun Free Zones” do more harm than good. It is a half-baked and ultimately dangerous solution to a much more complex problem. We might as well blow fairy dust out of our hands, and chant in tongues. It would have the same effect—scratch that—we’d probably be safer.
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