Guns: A Winning Issue

Over the last several decades our nation's moral compass has deteriorated. The prison population has steadily increased, drugs are more and more rampant, and, while there are some signs that the younger generations of Americans are increasingly likely to believe that abortion is morally wrong, abortions in America have not declined and are accepted by much of mainstream society. Conservatives have sought to stem America's cultural decline, but seem to be losing on many fronts. Yet there is one cultural issue that the right seems to be winning and winning big: the private ownership of guns.

Conservatives believe that allowing law-abiding citizens to own guns allows those same law-abiding citizens to protect themselves from criminals. Liberals, on the other hand believe a wholesale ban on all guns will make society safer. Yet, the highest gun murder rates in America can be found in those cities where guns, or at least handguns, are banned. Washington D.C.'s strict gun control ban did not keep it from becoming the murder capital of the world. Chicago and New York also have strict gun bans, but high murder rates. In fact crime has gotten so bad in Chicago that some leaders of that city have called for the national guard to come into the city and assist law enforcement. The relationship between Chicago's strict gun ban, put into place by Democrats and supported by liberals such as Chicago's own Barack Obama, and the high crime rate should be obvious; simply passing a law banning guns will strip law-abiding citizens of the right to protect themselves, while criminals, who could care less about the law, are able to arm themselves. In addition, criminals in places where guns are banned know that law abiding citizens will follow the law and disarm, making it safer for him to continue committing crimes.

The plight of many large American cities with gun bans is yet another example of the unintended consequences of liberal policies. The liberals that have been in charge of these big American cities for decades truly believe that if they ban guns, no one will have guns. Such a simplistic view does not take into account the reality that criminals ignore the laws of society. That is what makes them criminals. For instance, many drug dealers have to carry a gun regardless of what law is on the books in order to protect their product, their organization, and themselves. That calculation will not change whether or not some politicians have voted to ban guns altogether.

While the ineffectiveness of gun bans in large urbanized areas of America has continued for years, in the wake of Barack Obama's ascendancy to the presidency, gun ownership in America has skyrocketed. In fact, only until recently has the ammunition shortage seen in 2009 abated. This is clearly a reaction by a large percentage of the population concerned that Obama's policies will erode their Second Amendment rights. Fearing that Obama will try to restrict gun ownership and gun use as much as he can, many Americans are choosing to buy guns and ammunition now out of concern of what the future holds.

Yet politically, President Obama and other gun control advocates have seen some significant set-backs in recent years. The Supreme Court recently ruled that the Washington D.C. handgun ban was unconsitutional and popular opinion has steadly become more and more supportive of the idea that the populace has the right to arm themselves. While conservatives still have an uphill climb when it comes to reversing the decline of morality in America, the acceptance of the idea that the citizenry has a right to arm itself seems to have become more and more entrenched in the America psyche. This is a winning issue for conservatives in the long run and is a bright spot for conservatives in the ongoing war over America's soul.

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~ The Conservative Guy