Gun control advocates like to believe that passing laws banning guns will keep those guns out of the hands of criminals. This idea defies logic, since by definition criminals are people who don’t obey the law. A recent case from Oakland, CA makes this point rather clear:
Lovell Mixon, a 26 year old criminal, was on parole from a 2002 conviction for assault with a deadly weapon. On February 21, 2009, he invaded a home in Modesto, CA, ransacking the house, pistol whipping a man, and assaulting a woman. In the months leading up to March 2009, Mixon is believed to have committed as many as 5 rapes, holding the victims at gunpoint during the attacks. DNA evidence indicates that one of these rapes committed by Mixon was of a 12 year old girl. DNA evidence also shows that on the morning of March 21, 2009, Mixon raped two women. Later that day, he was pulled over by police, who then noticed irregularities with his driver’s license. They were preparing to arrest him, when Mixon fatally shot both officers. Mixon then fled to his sister’s apartment, where he barricaded himself inside. When the SWAT team stormed the apartment, Mixon managed to fatally shoot two more cops with a so-called “assault rifle,” before he himself was fatally shot by police.
Here we have a criminal who broke just about every law in the book, including some of the most severely punished gun control laws in the country. Mixon was a convicted felon in possession of a firearm, which is a felony at the Federal level. By having a gun, Mixon also committed a felony at the state level, as California prohibits convicted felons from having guns too. Rape, obviously, is illegal too. Similarly, Mixon’s home invasion, pistol whipping, and assault therein were serious felonies as well. I’m sure it goes without saying that murdering four cops is a felony too. Next, Mixon was in possession of a so-called “assault rifle,” which is another felony in California. Finally, Mixon was on parole, and his parole terms certainly included prohibitions against possessing firearms, committing rapes, invading the homes of innocent people, or murdering cops.
Not one of these felony laws stopped Mixon from going on a crime spree that took 4 lives and ruined many others. Yet those opposed to gun rights seem to think that passing more laws will effect people who, by definition, do not conform their behavior to the law. The fact is that criminals who want guns will get them, whether they buy their guns on the black market, or smuggle guns into the country, or steal them from the police, or make their own guns – just as criminals who want illegal drugs have no problem getting those too.
The net result of so-called “reasonable gun restrictions” is that instead of being able to successfully defend themselves like many people have done, law abiding citizens are left vulnerable against the still-armed criminals. Indeed, even in cases when criminals don’t have guns, they are usually able to overpower their victims, since violent criminals tend to be young men who intentionally prey upon physically weaker victims.
In sum, gun control is a flawed and wrong-headed idea, based upon ignorance and racism, and as such is not in the best interest of society. Please join the NRA, and help put an end to the infringement of the Second Amendment.