June 20, 1999
by Ryan Lee Stollar
America has been struck with a tragedy in the town of Littleton, Colorado. Students have been killed and families have been ruined. With all the struggles, Congress believes it has found a solution to prevent further terror: add more laws. It has thought wrong. America does not need more legislation- America needs a change of heart.
The most significant proposal of Congress, to prevent situations like that in Littleton, is gun control. President Clinton has passed an Executive Order prohibiting foreign gun imports. Congress has made many other restrictions. They blatantly ignore the Second Amendment of the United States Constitution which states that "the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed." In its quest for domestic order, Congress is violating our Constitutional freedoms.
The Founding Fathers ensured that the American people would have the right to keep and bear arms. They said this right was "necessary to the security of a free state." It is truly vital that a free people is able to protect itself. Thomas Paine said in 1775 that "arms discourage and keep the invader and plunderer in awe, and preserve order in the world as well as property. Horrid mischief would ensue were the law-abiding deprived of the use of them." Thomas Jefferson said in 1776 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; they serve rather to encourage than to prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed man."
These words of wisdom have proven to be all to prophetic when Congress has passed gun control, crime has risen. The following crime data is from the FBI Uniform Crime Reports:
•Washington, D.C.'s ban on handgun sales took effect in 1977 and by the 1990s the city's homicide rate had tripled. During the years following the ban, most murders, and all firearm murders, in the city were committed with handguns.
•Chicago imposed handgun registration in 1968, and homicides with handguns continued to rise. Chicago imposed a D.C.-style handgun ban in 1982 and over the next decade the annual number of handgun-related homicides doubled.
•California increased its waiting period on retail and private sales of handguns from five to 15 days in 1975 (reduced to 10 days in 1996), outlawed "assault weapons" in 1989, and subjected rifles and shotguns to the waiting period in 1990. Yet since 1975, the state's annual homicide rate has averaged 34% higher than the rate for the rest of the country.
•Maryland has imposed a waiting period and a gun purchase limit, banned several small handguns, restricted "assault weapons," and regulated private transfers of firearms even between family members and friends, yet its homicide rate is 46% higher than the rate for the rest of the country.
A society with guns is a safer society than one without them. Laws are not the solution. What then does America need to prevent situations like Littleton? It needs a change of heart. For years, discipline and religion have been beaten out of the educational process. The result? A rebellious, dangerous, and immoral generation has been created.
Proverbs 19:19-20 states that "A man of great anger shall bear the penalty, for if you rescue him, you will only have to do it again. Listen to counsel and accept discipline, that you may be wise the rest of your days." A society without discipline is a society without direction, heading only towards destruction. Laws will not change that path- only a change of heart will.
Ryan Lee Stollar is the President of the Center for American Freedom
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