Two weeks ago, I shared my response to the awful school shooting in Texas. The topic of gun control came up once again in a new episode of the Square Circle.
Regarding my comments, it’s no surprise that I have a new reason to dislike Justin Trudeau. He’s a typical, empty-suit, posturing politician.
But the more relevant point from the discussion is that there has been a huge increase in gun ownership in the United States in recent decades. And that increase in gun ownership has coincided with a big drop in violent crime.
You could argue that crime has dropped because more law-abiding people are now armed.
There certainly is a case to be made for that point of view. But as I said in the discussion, I think demographics deserve most of the credit.
You’ll also notice that part of the discussion revolved around Australia’s so-called gun buyback.
I’m certainly not an expert on that topic, but I think we can safely conclude it was a failure since writers for both the New York Times and the Washington Post admit it hasn’t been successful (and the same is true for New Zealand).
Here’s the bottom line: criminals will get guns no matter how much gun control politicians impose on a nation (just like people got booze during prohibition and they get illegal drugs today).
So the only effect of buybacks, bans, and other anti-gun policies is that bad guys will be better-armed than their victims.
Call me crazy, but that doesn’t seem like a good idea.
Especially since we can’t trust the police to protect us when things go sideways.
P.S. Watch this video from Reason to see why gun control is impossible in the United States.
P.P.S. One of my cats, Itchy, made a cameo appearance during the interview.
P.P.P.S. Always remember that gun control has a very unsavory history in the United States.