Part of this post was adapted from a column I wrote last year.
Citizens are walking around Virginia with unconcealed weapons. Apparently, this is how it happened. After the changes in the law, the murder rate in Virginia decreased dramatically. One is allowed to carry unconcealed weapons in VA, but you must apply for a permit to carry concealed.
For the record, in 2003, the homicide rate in Virginia, where guns are legal, was 5.52 per 100,000. The homicide rate in D.C., where guns are illegal, was 45.8 in 2002. The District’s gun laws do nothing to deter crime and everything to keep the homicide rate the highest in the nation.
In 1976, the visionaries on the D.C. Council passed a law prohibiting the sale of new guns. The laws also prohibit anyone from bringing a handgun into the District or transporting one through the city unless you’re a cop or federal officer.
This scheme was conjured up as a way to prevent criminals from getting guns. Since enactment of the law 28 years ago, the murder rate in the District has risen 134 percent.
According to the U.S. Constitution, Americans have an individual right, not a collective one, to keep and to bear arms. That right is a personal one and subject only to reasonable regulation. The District’s gun laws are an unreasonable and outright violation of the Second Amendment (annotated).
Reminiscent of the days of human bondage in America, black, law-abiding citizens are once again denied their constitutional right to bear arms. Can an argument be made that D.C. gun laws also violate the Thirteenth “Badges of Slavery” Amendment?
At one time or another in America’s history, blacks have been stripped of the freedom of movement, association and expression. Before the Civil War, they were prohibited from owning firearms for fear of slave rebellions, and because they were not citizens under the law. After the abolition of slavery in 1863, whites continued to make black ownership of firearms difficult by charging excessively high taxes.
The Black Codes, laws set up after the Civil War, continued to restrict the rights of newly freed slaves to own firearms, own or rent farmland, vote, sit on juries, testify against white men, sue and enter into contracts. As de facto slavery, the purpose of the Codes was to maintain the white hierarchy. Some things never die. What dies are the rights of people to protect themselves.
A study by John Lott, a Yale University professor, found that concealed carry laws deter violent crimes. Lott’s study also found that when states pass concealed handgun laws, the percentage of black crime victims decreases. Numerous other studies show that blacks are victims of violent crime at a disproportionate rate and the perpetrators are disproportionately black.
While the criminals in the District are violating their neighbors, potential victims would be outlaws if they tried to defend themselves. When people are allowed to defend themselves with guns, crime drops. To buy the liberal myth that guns cause crime is to be stripped of what might be the only chance for protection.
The D.C. Council bought the myth back in 1976 by failing to comprehend that criminals are criminals; they commit crimes. Council members apparently thought that, although laws against murder don’t deter criminals from committing murder, laws against possessing guns might deter them from possessing guns.
No gun law anywhere will ever prevent a thug from being a thug. Criminals are resourceful. They benefit the most from gun laws: fewer armed victims. The District’s gangbangers know that law-abiding citizens — prime targets — probably won’t be carrying guns. This is what happens when liberals run a city. The lunatics have free rein over the asylum.
SafeStreetsDC.com
“Defenseless in D.C.”
John Lott on international gun control
Virginia Citizens Defense League
GunCite.com (gun control – pro/con)
