Do Gun Controls Work?

Do Gun Controls Work? An honest look at gun controls from what works to what does not work in real life.

Phil Mickelson: The Two Terrorists Were Not Affected by Australia’s Stringent Gun Control

What Gun Control does do

We need to realize what gun control laws do do. Because they do affect society. What gun control laws do is that they restrict honest people from having access to guns. Criminals do not respect the law by definition, so they will obtain, use, and abuse firearms. This is the real problem. But we need to pin down the responsible parties in the problems of violence. People cause violence. They will use any means possible to do so. Taking away one specific weapon only causes them to turn to another weapon that is more easily available.

Actually I think England has a very tight set of gun control laws. Even their policemen do not carry guns. But so does that make England a paradise? In no way. Crooks still get a hold of guns illegally, or they make them. So this places the police at a distinct disadvantage over the criminals. The criminals can mortally wound or kill innocents and police, but the police are hard put to stop them. In many places in Europe, although there are strict gun laws in place, criminals who wish to harm others will use acid, knives, or even vehicles. If you plan on taking away absolutely every and anything that can be used to cause somebody harm, we will have a very difficult world under that thought. In fact, even if every weapon is prohibited, people will still just your their fists. So the answer here is that gun control laws only help the criminal.

What about accidents?

Yes, accidents do happen all the time. But notice that only where guns are allowed are there the kinds of training in how to properly use a gun that would prevent those kinds of accidents. So accidents will always happen, but where guns are allowed, there is also a culture that stresses safety around any dangerous thing.

How to Stop Violence

So what is the real problem, violence? Or the possibility of the citizenry revolting against abusive government? The government has the police and the military to defend them. Civilians only have their guns. Even that is really not very much considering that any citizen that takes a different take on some law, if he uses his gun, he ends up in jail. But what people would seem to proffer as the problem is violence against innocents. The answer here is the law. Only when the law protects the innocent, and that is followed throughout society with strict judges and a penal system that no criminal wants to be in, then there is a deterrent to crime. The police cannot be everywhere all the time. Deterrence is much more effective in the long run.

Romans 13:1 Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God. 2 Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God: and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation. 3 For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same: 4 for he is the minister of God to thee for good. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid; for he beareth not the sword in vain: for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil.

The principle laid down in the Bible is that the government is charged with justice.It “yields the sword” (violence) to punish those who do evil. That is a God given obligation laid on government. If government does not do that, they themselves are against God and are evil.

But the entire passage enforces the concept of deterrence. Because of fear of what happens when you do wrong, people will do wrong less. This is deterrence. It is biblical, and it works.

Self-Defense

In the Bible, the action of self-defense is instilled in the point that we have our bodies as a gift and stewardship from God. We are not to do anything to hurt our own bodies, and by the same token we should not allow others to harm our bodies either. Guns allow a person to defend themselves. When a person is imbalanced, then they may take any weapon available to them and turn aggressive against other people. That is wrong, but the key point in that is not the weapon but the person and his will. He wants to harm somebody, and he can simply feign to open a door for somebody and open it halfway and the person runs into it harming themselves. There are way too many things and ways that a person can get hurt in this world to take all of them away.

What is the answer?

The answer lies in my last sentence above. The mindset of the person has to be forced to not be aggressive. Just for a minute, think about politics. With the aggression and mud slinging going on all around in politics, it is no surprise that people get hurt or killed. So restricting free speech would seem to be another solution that falls flat as gun control does. Restricting free speech is not going to change anybody’s heart and attitude towards others. For example, blacks were persecuted in the past in our country (at least by their own testimony). So without arguing that point, let’s just accept it. When blacks were made equal, did that stop aggression against them? No. When blacks were given positive favoritism over other groups, did that stop aggression against them? When any group takes control and has power over others, does that stop aggression against them? No.

So what is the answer? The answer lies in the old forgotten concept of civilism.

a citizen’s dedication to their community’s well-being, encompassing good conduct, respect, tolerance, and active participation in public life, ensuring polite interaction and prioritizing societal interests over purely personal ones. – Google AI

Civility is the practice of getting along with others in society. You think of what your actions and words (or the lack of them) will affect other people. You always give the benefit of the doubt, the preference to others instead of yourself. It is essentially the opposite of narcisism, which is the worship of self.

So let’s look at some verses from the Bible that reflect on civilism.

Luke 6:31 And as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise.

This rule will set a lot of problems right. Will a person take a weapon and harm others and at the same time not want anyone to that to himself? If he lives by this principle, he will not.

Colossians 3:12 Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering;

If everybody focuses their life on living kindness, meekness, and longsuffering (putting up with other people for long time spans), then a lot of the violence in the world would stop.

1 Peter 3:8 Finally, be ye all of one mind, having compassion one of another, love as brethren, be pitiful, be courteous:

To have compassion for other people is to think what their life is like, and not making their life any worse by what you do, but rather to make their life a little better because you are touching that life. To be pitiful is to take pity on people, that is, to forgive and forget what they do wrong. The only time we see this in our society really is as a defense to always let the criminal and aggressor to keep on doing wrong. Courtesy is to help others so that they have a better life. To put their welfare above and before your own.

Colossians 4:6 Let your speech be alway with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man. Ephesians 4:29

Colossians 3:8 But now ye also put off all these; anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth.

Aggression is usually the product of an evil heart.

The Real Problem Behind Violence

The real problem behind violence is that the person is spiritually affected by sin. They are not right with God, so they are angry at God and everybody. This eventually works itself out with evil and harmful conduct, with or without weapons. So the real problem we are addressing is a spiritual one, one that cannot be solved by means of laws really.

Do Gun Controls Work?