|
While it isn't possible to get rid of guns completely, I don't agree at all that the murder rate would be the same or even nearly as high without them. To kill somone with a gun, you press a button. It takes a lot more will and effort to kill someone with a knife, a baseball bat, or what have you.
Like it or not, the easier guns are to obtain, the higher the gun-related death rate will be.
Furthermore, if the argument that we need guns to protect ourselves from criminals with guns keeps being taken so far, eventually escalation is going to be a huge problem. Once small semiautomatics become as widely owned as handguns, homeowners will need weapons at least as powerful to guard their families. Once the criminals' are converted to full autos in response, well, we'll have to compete with those. Gun ownership as a protection from or deterrent to crime has always seemed self defeating to me.
|