Gun control, and why blanket prohibition will not work

The Second Amendment Foundation brings up a good point: (HT: PoliPundit)

A report from MSNBC Tuesday that "more officers are being killed in traffic accidents" than by guns leaves the Second Amendment Foundation (SAF) wondering, "Where's Ted Kennedy on this threat to the police?"

This is a very good question. Honestly, I'm disappointed by how much the SAF uses this to bash Kennedey rather than actually arguing their point.

"Ted Kennedy has proven himself to be somewhat an expert on the subject of national disgraces, as his own personal conduct over the years would attest," Gottlieb said. "He should be more careful throwing that term around, rather like the rock-throwing man who lives in a glass house.

"If he wants to save police lives," Gottlieb concluded, "Sen. Kennedy should forget about guns and bullets, and direct all of his attention to vehicle safety, and punishing criminals who used their cars as lethal weapons. The only thing Kennedy has to fear from gun owners is their long memories about his past."

If anybody doesn't know what the SAF means, they point out probably the worst thing on Kennedey's personal record:

"If anybody is an authority on lethal car crashes," Gottlieb said, "it would be Ted Kennedy, whose carelessness in July 1969 cost the life of Mary Jo Kopechne, a passenger in the car that Kennedy drove off of a bridge on Chappaquiddick Island. She drowned, and Kennedy fled the scene. It's no wonder why so many gun owners in this country have bumper stickers affixed to their cars and trucks declaring 'Ted Kennedy's car has killed more people than my gun'."

The SAF pretty much ground old Teddy into the ground, but they fail to really touch on the true issue: Gun control will not work in the long run. It's nothing more than a surface treatment that fails to address the real deep seeded problem.

The nation has tried prohibition, and found out what a miserable failure it is. Face it, this is the country that inspired the term "yank ingenuity", meaning that if presented with a problem, American will find some way through it or around it. You ban slavery, someone comes up with sharecropping. You ban alcohol, someone figures out how to sneak it in, and in the process gets people hooked on stronger liquors. You try to cut off outside sources of illicit drugs, and someone figures out who to cook up something worse at home or even in cars.

If you try to ban any kind of gun, someone will figure out a way around it. WE have already seen this in cases like the raid on the Branch Davidian Compound in Waco, Texas, when federal agents were met with hunting rifles modified for combat.

The real issue is not the weapons, but the people who use them. Anyone willing to fire on law enforcement or the public in general will, if determined and resourceful enough, find a way to make their own weapons. If you want proof of this, look at the current situation in Iraq, where the weapon of choice in atacks by insurgents are Improvised Explosive Devices. In a region nowhere near as developed as the U.S., with fewer resources, these people can muster enough resources to launch attacks on a regular basis against the strong military in the world.

The core truth is that to stop gun violence, the problem has to be addressed with the people. Children need to be taught from as early an age as possible what is right and wrong, something that sertain groups have tried and to a certain point have succeeded in ripping out of our schools. Children also need to learn responsibility and personal accountability, both of which have been lost by a great many thanks to rampant advertising and the ideas of instant gratification and self-centered thinking. The harsh truth is that the people that gun control is aimed at trying to stop are walking around thinking they can do whatever they want and can get results now, whether it's a couple of misguided kids making pipe bombs in their garage or an extremist religious group.

Simply trying to take their guns away, making their cars less dangerous, or trying to find them before they strike is not enough. This cancer has to be stopped at it's source: start teaching people that life is about far more than pleasing their own desires and that every action they take will have consequences for them. It's only a small portion of the population that has miss out on this, but even one person can have a huge impact on the world.

Unfortunately, their are many elements in American culturethat don't want to be told by anyone that are doing something wrong. They want to be able to do wahtever they want for themselves, get whatever they want, and have everything their way. "How dare our public schools try to teach my child that anything is wrong!"

Funny how close that is to becoming "How dare our public schools try to teach my child!" If you think that seems to be way out in "left field", realize the double entendre there.

-the Progressive Conservative

Technorati tags: gun control, Second Amendment, accountability

::Addendum::
Here's the AP story on SAF's release.