Gun Control Debate: Crime Victims Should Blame Government for Being Left Defenseless

Impact

After years of being stripped of gun rights, faced with onerous restrictions on the use and ownership of guns, and being left defenseless in the face of rampant lawlessness, it is time to hold politicians and gun control advocates accountable.

Sandy Hook has provided gun control advocates with what they wanted: an opportunity to further restrict the Second Amendment rights of citizens around the country. While gun control zealots would like to implement a complete ban on the private ownership of guns and confiscate all guns currently held by private citizens (except, of course, members of Congress), they will be satisfied with making a few small gains here and there. Ban a few more types of guns because they look scary, cut down on the size of magazines in some locales, it really doesn’t matter as long as they make progress towards their ultimate goal.  A defenseless society totally dependent upon government for their safety and protection. 

And, you have to hand it to them, they have been at it a long time and have made quite a bit of progress. Instead of the Second Amendment being inviolate, “the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed,” it has turned into a conditional right, dependent upon the locale in which you live and the whims of the political class under which you are ruled. In the name of “protecting the public,” many members of the public have been rendered defenseless and each day brings more murders, rapes, assaults, and robberies of law abiding citizens who, if not for gun controls, would have been able to protect themselves and their families. 

It is time to put an end to this travesty and start the hard work of restoring our Constitutionally protected rights. 

Each time a person is killed, raped, assaulted, or robbed, a lawsuit should be filed naming the unit of government with jurisdictional control over local gun laws. If a person is denied gun ownership by the city, the city fails to protect them and they are later killed, then the family should sue the city for deliberate endangerment and complicity to commit murder.  If a young lady is raped, she should drag the "City fathers" into court and hold them responsible for her damages and force them to justify what they put her through.

And the lawsuits should include those who “helped” promote those gun restrictions as well. After all, if these groups and individuals are going to use the police power of the state to force their agenda on others, then those others should have the right to hold them responsible for the grievous damages resulting from their deliberate endangerment of the public. 

Now, it is true that most government units have written laws to protect themselves from such lawsuits, but as the evidence mounts that gun control is an actual contributor to crime and violence, it becomes less a matter of governance and more one of deliberate endangerment by government officials, and that may be adjudicated in a court of law. 

Chicago alone had more than 500 homicides in 2012. If those 500 families were to band together, joined with some rape victims and those who had been severely beaten and maimed, all they would have to do is find the right attorney and the City of Chicago would be the focus of a major class action lawsuit. And if those victims demanded a jury trial, the entire ideological agenda of gun control could be exposed as Chicago’s ruling elite try and justify their onerous gun restrictions and explain how leaving law abiding citizens defenseless is part of their official responsibilities. 

Even if the first case isn’t won, every year that Chicago, New York, Atlanta, or the entire state of California leaves their gun laws in place will provide a whole new batch of victims and even more evidence that the ideological agenda for gun control is at fault. 

Gun control advocates filed hundreds of cases until they found the right judge and jury to get the ruling they wanted and then they expanded that ruling to other cities and states.  Those who value their Second Amendment rights need to be willing to do the same, and restore the meaning and intent of the Second Amendment: the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.