2003
Volume 2
A World without Guns
By Peter Moss
A world without
guns is a world without violence, cry the gun control advocates.
What is the
evidence? The world prior to the invention of guns was not without violence
and those places where firearms are restricted are not without violence
either.
Giving up
guns today does not translate into a non-violent world and those guns
removed or confiscated can be replaced in short time by theft from the
state, illegal imports or home made.
What will
not have been removed are the factors causing the violence in the first
place. In fact, a great deal of time, effort and money will have been
wasted on removing guns and absolutely nothing will have been done about
the root causes of violence that the gun removal was promised to cure.
Britain, Jamaica,
Brazil and Australia (recent attempts by governments to reduce crime and
illegal use of guns by criminals and the deranged by confiscation or restriction)
have produced what can be expected - an imbalance of power between citizens
and criminals. An imbalance that criminals are most grateful for and very
keen to exploit by acquiring guns to induce fear and compliance in their
victims and protect their turf. There is little risk in crime when victims
come with a government backed guarantee of being unarmed and defenceless.
Unfortunately, Government has chosen to ignore crime and put needed money
and effort into ensuring law abiding citizens are the focus of attention.
There are
many problems with gun control. Perhaps the foremost of these is the simple
fact that, to achieve an objective by control, there must be a relationship
between the two. As yet, nobody has shown or demonstrated a causal relationship
between levels of gun ownership and crime. Guns do not cause crime.
Thus control
of one is not control of the other. This however does not mean that there
is not an inverse relationship if guns are removed from society. (Crime
will remain unchanged. The empirical evidence that is ignored by government
and gun control advocates is that levels of crime will increase as shown
by every attempt to control crime or the supply of guns to criminals since
the invention of the gun. The explosive crime rate increases of Britain,
Jamaica, Brazil and Australia are not just accidents or the exception
to the rule, they are the result of deliberately ignoring known results.
Government
and gun control advocates tout the Firearms Control Act as a measure to
control crime and reduce the supply of guns to criminals. The preamble
of the Act states this as the reason for the Act. The statement is a complete
and utter fabrication that has no basis of truth in any research anywhere
in the world. Should ministers or the ANC government disagree, let them
present their evidence to the world and rightfully claim honour and prestige
for South Africa for this world first. That they have not done so already
is an indication of their deceit and the lie regarding the intentions
of the Firearms Control Act, an act government is determined without valid
reason, to implement.
South Africa,
with a crime rate near the highest in the world and a depleted police
force, simply cannot afford the increase in crime implementing gun control
legislation is most likely to create. Nor should the R2.18 billion (estimated)
be wasted on implementation or upkeep. This concentration of effort will
not place one criminal behind bars or deny them guns. Much needed officers
must not be taken off the beat to police and control this act. They should
be attending to crime and the protection of citizens. While violence and
criminality increase due to this wasted effort, citizens will suffer due
to an uncaring government.
A world without
guns will never be a world without crime or violence because guns cause
neither. It would be incredibly naive to suggest that making the criminal's
workplace safer (giving them a government backed guarantee that victims
are not armed) will reduce crime or violence. Or that criminals would
not take advantage of unarmed victims. Suggesting that criminals will
reciprocate and toss their guns away is simply foolish beyond belief.
Peter Moss
is the Moderator of the SA Firearm Forum.To join the Forum, send a blank
message to:
SAFirearmForum-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
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