A majority of my adult life I carried a gun as part of my job. I carried it 40 hours a week for about 20 years and many, many more hours off duty. I wore it so much I felt like I had a permanent growth on my hip. Today, I have a license to carry a gun, however I rarely do.
Guns and ammunition are selling at record rates all across the country because many feel harsh gun control is right around the corner. Many say gun control would be good crime control. Some people including some police administrators say get them off the street and violent crime will get much better.
I live in a relatively rural county in Ohio and my educated estimate is that approximately three out of five households have firearms. The violent crime rate in my county is quite low and gun crime is extremely rare. In addition, criminals who are relatively astute, choose other areas to commit crimes. Criminals do not want to risk confronting an armed victim.
The ABC news program 20/20 did a show that talked about guns and crime. During one part, they interviewed some criminals in prison who talked about how they fear armed victims more than they fear the police. They also talked about if guns were illegal, they'd still get them. It is a short video segment, about five minutes:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qyoLuTjguJA I teach and work in some areas that have extremely high rates of firearm related crime. Some of the areas have the highest rates of robberies and murders in Ohio . Luckily, the people I deal with are great. They are going to college and doing whatever they can do to better themselves.
However, they tell me stories of the criminals in their neighborhoods and the fear they are causing to the good people living there. They tell me families have disintegrated. They say positive role models are far and few between. They say community based work and social programs are not plentiful. They tell me the mindset of solving conflicts or gaining respect is by using violence. Deanna Wilkinson, an Ohio State University associate professor of human development and family science says, "If you're growing up and every conflict you see is settled through violence, that's how you're likely to react."
If one were to take a semi truckload of guns to these neighborhoods and let people gain access to them, what we would eventually have is out of control violence. If you would take that same truck and open it up for the people, let us say in my county, what would you have? Would you have out of control violence? No, not even close.
Gun control is not the action needed. People control is the need. Better put, finding solutions needed for young people who simply have had little or no direction, no hope and who do not care about much other than breathing, eating and surviving. That is the control needed. Real workable initiatives anchored by strong leadership to help people live up to their human potential, and of course, to not abuse everyone around them.
In the meantime, people who chose to own or carry a firearm responsibly should have the right to do so.
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