You Want to Eliminate Gun Crime? [View all]

[The Doctor.]

Then you'll have to do it the same way you'll get rid of abortion.


I love explaining this to wingnuts when they argue how 'evil' abortion is. They talk about pro-choicers with all the same vitriol, hatred, and hyperbole that the rabid anti-gun people use when describing RTBA people (that's 'Right To Bear Arms' if you're not keyed to this whole debate yet). So I say, "Well, you'll have as much success outlawing abortion as the liberals will have in outlawing guns." Then they go back to sputtering nonsense until I can bring them to the next sharp pointy point about how if they felt they needed a gun, wouldn't they get one despite the legality?

"Of course!"

"Well, why would that be different from someone feeling they need an abortion?"

More sputtering, a few insults, then they go back to just hurling epithet. They aren't usually the sharpest bulbs on the chandelier, but I love watching them get confused, turn red, and then frantically rationalize why "NO! THAT'S DIFFERENT!!!" (Which I'm sure we'll be hearing about in a bit here as well).

Peruse the pertinent areas of DU, and you will sure as shooting (oops) find gun ownership advocates referred to as 'wanabe killers', 'violent', 'murderers', 'death worshipers', 'fetishists', and 'having small penises'. (The women who own guns find that last one pretty amusing)

The wingnuts on pro-choicers?

"Baby killers", 'murderers', 'fetus-eaters' (yeah, some sick fuck actually said that on one of the sites I frequented), 'Death worshipers' (there's that one again), and a whole slew of other ridiculously over-the-top adjectives and expletives.

While I have considerably more respect for the folks who want to ban guns than the ones who want to ban abortion, the problem the two of them share is exactly the same: A stubborn unwillingness to acknowledge the greater reality we ALL have to live in.

Here's a couple indisputable truths that those who refuse to live in reality will nonetheless dispute:

1) Banning abortion will not prevent people from getting abortions.

2) Banning guns will not prevent people from getting guns.


Yes, I know... if you ban them, then there may indeed be fewer people getting them, but the people that will decide they don't need them are the people with enough security and resources (be that fiscal, mental, or otherwise) to accept the consequences of not getting one. Someone who finds themselves in a position where a gun would provide security and ward off a real possibility of threats could find other ways to compensate, just as someone who is in a position where an abortion would help them ward of poverty and adversity could find a way to do the same.

No, that's not the premise of this point. Guns and Abortions are NOT the same thing and I'm sure there are a billion of DUers just chomping at the bit as they read this to tell everyone how wrong such a premise is.

That, again, is not the premise.

The premise is this: Both the need for guns and abortion arises from insecurity of some kind. Whether that is financial, mental, or any other cause for trepidation, that is the bottom line. A person seeks one or the other because there is something about their circumstances that requires it... rational or not.

So, how then, if banning either will never eliminate them, do we eliminate them?

The three fundamental pursuits of a just and equal society: Universal Education, Prosperity, and Compassion.

When someone has enough understanding, resources, and support, they can raise a child without fear of being overburdened and having their plans and life derailed. When someone is educated, given opportunities, and those around them are also secure in their resources and mental health, then there is no need for anyone to carry around nasty weapons.

As a society, we will only reduce abortion through better education, the elimination of poverty, and careful enough attention to each and every one of our members (also an education issue) so that insecurity is virtually eliminated while understanding is maximized.

Funny thing will happen right around then: Gun crime will just about vanish too.