Gun Control: A Criminal Coup

In the after math of the Sandy Hook Elementary Tragedy we are hearing “Tighter Gun Control” being shouted from the roof tops all over America. I am not a gun owner and I don’t ever care to have a gun in my home. However, I take serious issue with “tighter gun control’ laws. So I am going to throw my two cents into the heated political and social topic.

So…here goes….

Guns are not the problem….People are the problem…Our society is the problem…The break down of families is the problem…Kids who are left to their own devices while both parents work so they can afford the next bigger and better house, car, or purse is the problem. The lack of decent and plentiful mental health care programs is the problem. And most glaringly obvious…The narcissistic, sociopathic, and materialistic selfishness of the American Culture is the problem.

The only thing that “Gun Control” will do is create a money monopoly for the gangs and the criminals. Essentially what we are taking about here with “Gun Control” is a form of prohibition. Prohibition only serves the criminal element in American. Our history has demonstrated this repeatedly. For instance, the Prohibition of Alcohol was a failure for the law-abiding and for our government. However, it served Al Capone very well. In fact, his alcohol criminal monopoly during prohibition made Al Capone one of the richest criminals of all time.

Anyone ever heard of “the war on drugs”? Our country has wasted billions of dollars on the attempted prohibition of drugs and it has been an expensive and a dismal failure. In fact, the only thing it has achieved is providing gangs and criminals with a million dollar money-making enterprise! The formalization and power of a gang or any criminal enterprise is dependent on money…Does anyone really believe that the Crips or Bloods gained the money to fund their criminal enterprise by working at Mc. Donald’s?

The bottom line is that prohibition of alcohol didn’t work….The war on drugs didn’t work…In fact, all either did was create a money-making monopoly for criminals to fund their criminal activity. Tighter gun control will only prove to do the same. Criminal’s break the law. That is what makes them criminals..It is completely ignorant to think that criminals are going to abide by “gun control laws”…

Reality is and research shows that all that “tighter gun control” laws will achieve is to make it harder for law-abiding people to own a weapon to protect themselves, their loved ones, and their property. Gun control laws will only make the criminal more dangerous….the criminal richer….And the law-abiding less protected….Period

Statistics:

States such as California, Illinois, Nevada and South Carolina, which made devastating cuts to mental health services previously, have made further cuts for fiscal year (FY) 2012, putting tens of thousands of citizens at great risk. States have cut more than $1.6 billion in general funds from their state mental health agency budgets for mental health services since FY2009, a period during which demand for such services increased significantly. These cuts translate into loss of vital services such as housing, Assertive Community Treatment, access to psychiatric medications and crisis services( National Alliance on Mental Illness, 2012)

47% Percentage of Americans say they have a gun in their home or elsewhere on their property. According to the federal government, there are an estimated 310 million fire arms in the U.S, which includes 114 million handguns, 110 million rifles, and 86 million shotguns. (Sanburn, 2012)

According to the US Department of Justice, 900,000 criminally active gang members – a third of them juveniles(12) – in 20,000 street gangs, in over 2,500 cities, dominate the US drugs trade. (Counting The Cost, 2012)

Accurate figures for spending on drug law enforcement are hard to come by, but recent research suggests the US alone has spent, at a conservative estimate, $640 billion dollars
since President Richard Nixon declared a war on drugs with an initial budget of $100m in 1971. Globally, annual spend now certainly exceeds $100 billion. (Counting The Cost, 2012)

Through the criminal experience gained and the political connections established in gambling and prostitution rackets in the early 1900s, gangsters had become well prepared for the exploitation of Prohibition, which was ratified as the 18th Constitutional Amendment in 1919. Illegalizing the production, distribution, and consumption of alcoholic beverages – all of which were corollaries to the amendment – did not curb the desire of Chicagoans for liquor or beer. This great demand for and simultaneous illegalization of alcohol opened up a new illegal market for the gangster to develop and monopolize. As Al Capone put it, “All I do is to supply a public demand … somebody had to throw some liquor on that thirst. Why not me?” (Sullivan, 111).