Gun control group offers solutions in the absence of knowledge

A tweet from Smart Gun Laws, the Twitter account of the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, exposes the real intentions of gun control groups.  Regarding an increase in gun violence in a community south of Richmond, Smart Gun Laws commented, “Chesterfield Virginia may not know why gun violence is escalating, but we know how it can be helped #smartgunlaws.”

The Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence started out as the Legal Community Against Violence in the early 90s in the San Francisco area, expanding nationwide over the years since.  In 2016, the group merged with Americans for Responsible Solutions, the anti-gun organization founded by Gabby Giffords and Mark Kelly.  An alliance of this kind is an interesting move, considering the difficulty that such groups are having in matching donations received by those supporting gun rights—not including large infusions of cash from people like Michael Bloomberg.

Chesterfield County has enjoyed a general decline in overall crime, while gun violence has been on the rise over the last five years.  Singling out this one area puts a slant on the situation, since the national trend in gun crimes is downward, whether we’re talking about homicides or non-fatal acts of violence.  As of 2013, the rate of the latter type of crime was 175 per hundred thousand, down from 725 in 1993.

There has been a rise in murders committed in our largest cities in recent years, though as admitted by Smart Gun Laws, we don’t have a clear answer as to what is the cause.  Attempts at explanations abound.  Culture of violence in urban areas, joblessness in the same, drugs and gangs in the same—the list goes on.  Conflicts between police and other members of the community also come up in these discussions, as events from Ferguson to Dallas remind us.

Having a multiplicity of possible causes is difficult for many people to handle.  Especially in our quadrennial silly seasons, there is a demand for simple answers and no shortage of politicians pandering to that desire.  But for a solution to be plausible, it has to show some bearing on the causes of the problem.

Consider the practice of trepanation, taking a circular cutting tool to bore out a piece of the skull.  This has been done by many cultures throughout human history.  In some cases, this procedure is an answer to a specific problem, namely a depressed skull fracture.  But in many cases, it was done to release demons or something similar.  This illustrates what happens when we have no idea as to what is causing the perceived problem, while running madly down rabbit trails in pursuit of a means to make things better.

Gun violence is certainly a problem, and I understand the need to find solutions.  The Smart Gun Laws tweet, however, shows a lack of interest in doing effective work.  If the solution is offered in the absence of any knowledge about what caused the problem in the first place, what good could it be?  It’s a common assertion in the gun community that advocates of control aren’t seeking to reduce violence, but are instead merely determined to remove as many guns as possible from private hands, and what we see here only strengthens that claim.

There may be times when a hole in the head is exactly what is needed, but not as an accompaniment to histrionic foot stomping.  When these various gun control groups want to work on effective measures to reduce violence, I’ll be here, but they have yet to offer anything that qualifies.

The views and opinions expressed in this post are those of the author’s and do not necessarily reflect the position of Guns.com.

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