Gun Control Laws Are Missing the Target.

     Additional gun control laws are being deliberated now.  It is too soon to be making these decisions after recent tragedy. They would leave law-abiding citizens defenseless. Many new restrictions have come because the public misunderstands the meaning of “assault weapons.”

     Plenty of time needs to be taken when a decision is to be made that affects many people; in order to think it through to make sure it is the right thing to do. Acting out of emotion or on impulse can be detrimental, especially when it affects the entire country. The President is trying to get Congress to pass the law because of tragic events that have happened. The entire country is heartbroken over these tragedies but see different solutions. Just as in the time following personal tragedy it is advisable not to make any major decisions, these national tragedies have happened too recently to be deciding something of this proportion. The emotions involved are too effecting and can blur the truth of good reasoning.

     The President, and those in Congress who agree with him, strongly believe that controlling guns means that there will be fewer murders in the United States. Statistics show that murder rates actually tend to be higher in places with tight gun control laws. These laws disarm the good people who follow them. This leaves law-abiding citizens vulnerable and defenseless against criminals who have guns in spite of controlling laws, because for some weird reason, outlaws, by definition, don’t really follow laws. Where is there logic in trying to form laws to reign in those who are already outside of the law? Shouldn’t we instead more strongly enforce those we currently have by prosecuting the lawless? 

     Some people think that assault weapons are the same thing as automatic weapons. They would be wrong. For one thing, fully automatic weapons were banned decades ago! The press is often uninformed about the differences in guns. Then, they refer to both fully automatic and semiautomatic guns as fully automatic assault rifles. Fully automatic and semiautomatic guns work very differently. 

It seems to me that we are approaching this entire ordeal from the wrong angle, at the wrong time, and for the wrong reasons. Even if they did pass a stricter gun control law, it would not do much good, if any, in situations similar to the recent tragedies.