Want to disrupt an argument? Just ask both sides what the goal is. Why do we need gun control? What is the goal? If we don’t know what the goal is and how to measure improvement, it is impossible to determine success.
I started this series on gun control by looking at the 2nd Amendment. The second amendment was not about owning guns for hunting. It was about personal protection and protecting individual freedom from tyranny.
The second post was an overview of guns for people who have no idea. I covered handguns, rifles and shotguns. There is a lot of detail and overlap that I did not cover, but that post gives a great overview.
From that as a starting point, people who believe that government can become overreaching and take away personal liberty (become tyrannical) are likely against all forms of gun control. People who believe in an ever-expanding government that determines the public good and forces individuals to give up their freedom for the good of everyone likely see no need for guns and near total ban would be wonderful.
What is the goal? In this post I’ll look at the following possibilities.
The goal is to win elections.
The goal is to save lives.
The goal is government domination without fear of an armed citizenry.
The first goal may be the most frequently used. Politicians really don’t care about anything other than winning elections and they say whatever will get them votes. One side incites fear of an overreaching government and claims the other side will take away guns to subject us all to their will. The other side incites fear of guns killing innocent citizens and government must come to their rescue and ban all guns. Neither side can seem to win an election with extreme positions. Something in the middle must be negotiated.
The second goal is to save lives. In 2022, there were 283,400,986 registered vehicles in U.S. According to government statistics, about 40,000 people are killed every year in car crashes. I haven’t heard calls from any politician to outlaw cars. We do have legislation to make car transportation safer. Legislation includes efforts to improve autos and licensing of drivers. The big difference between guns and cars is utility. Nearly everyone believes cars are useful.
I brought up cars for a reason. It is estimated that there are over 500 million firearms in the U.S. That is nearly double the number of autos. According to government statistics, there were more than 48,000 firearm related deaths in the U.S. in 2022. More than half of that number, or more than 24,000 are suicides.
The number of people committing suicide has gotten so bad that I was required, as a Doctor of Chiropractic, to take a three-hour course on suicide prevention. I learned that guns are the method of choice for men and drugs are the method of choice for women committing suicide. I have personally known three men who committed suicide with a gun, including an uncle. The number committing suicide is unlikely to go down due to any form of gun control. Men will just use drugs.
According to the same source, 40% of firearm deaths are homicides. The FBI gave statistics for homicides from 2015-2019. It hasn’t been updated. In 2019, there were 13,927 homicides. Of that 10,258 were committed with firearms. Handguns accounted for 6,368. Rifles accounted for only 364. However, there were 3,281 where the type of gun was not stated. Knives and cutting instruments accounted for 1,476 deaths.
If we want to save lives and believe gun control to be the answer, handguns would be the choice. Even if all of the 3,281 firearms where the gun was not stated were rifles, the total would be less than 60% of the total for handguns.
The third goal is government domination without fear of an armed citizenry. I doubt that any politician will publicly admit that as a goal. However, that is a fear of those who believe guns help us protect our individual freedom.
They are especially suspect of those who claim to want to save lives by outlawing “assault rifles”. As pointed out, rifles are a small part of the homicide problem. Assault rifles are defined by the U.S. Army as, “A selective-fire rifle chambered for a cartridge of intermediate power. If applied to any semi-automatic firearm regardless of its cosmetic similarity to a true assault rifle, the term is incorrect.” Selective fire means to be able to fire as semi-automatic or full-automatic.
Is the AR-15 an assault rifle? AR stands for ArmaLite Rifle. It was named after the manufacturer that made it in the late 1950s. The company was acquired by Colt and the branding was maintained. The rifle is semi-automatic.
How many AR-15 style rifles have been sold in the US? According to the National Shooting Sports Federation, the number was 19.8 million as of 2020. During the Covid Pandemic, sales of all guns increased. The estimate is now 23 million.
If we add all of the rifle homicides to the unknown firearm homicides (3,645 deaths) and all were really AR-15 rifles the deaths per rifle is .000016. The problem is not the AR-15.
A problem arises because the AR-15 can be used as a tactical weapon, home defense. This is where those who are after goal 3 feel uncomfortable. There are courses to train people to use the rifles for defending their homes.
What makes sense for most of us?
Other than limiting gun sales, what can be done to make guns safer? Let’s use automobiles as an example. Like drivers’ licenses, I believe we should have mandatory gun training courses to get licenses to own a gun. That will rankle the people who are afraid of any form of control. I think it just makes sense. I took my first course while I was a boy scout. My sons took a course to get hunting licenses. Every gun owner should know basic gun safety. We should also take away licenses for people with a history of violence and/or mental health issues.
I find it difficult to imagine how registration of a gun prevents a homicide. It is really about law enforcement. Law enforcement is really about finding killers not stopping them. Perhaps finding a killer before thon kills again is prevention. The people who believe guns are a check against tyranny fear registered guns will be confiscated.
Automatic guns are already illegal in the U.S. There are devices that make semi-automatic guns automatic. The bump stock uses the recoil of the rifle to make it automatic. Attempts to make the bump stock illegal were overturned by the Supreme Court in 2024.
Politicians are confused. “Sen. Kamala Harris on Wednesday announced that, if she is elected president, she will ban the importation of all AR-15 style assault weapons by executive action if Congress fails to act in the first 100 days of her administration.” If she uses the Army definition of assault rifle, AR-15 is not included. I suspect she is trying to make the AR mean assault rifle.
However, Harris also claims to be a gun owner. “I have a Glock and I’ve had it for quite some time,” the 59-year-old Harris told CBS News correspondent Bill Whitaker. Glock semi-automatic pistols can be made automatic with a device.
Given that AR-15 rifles are not fully automatic, and neither is the Glock handgun, to determine which is more dangerous I would look at the statistics. As one of the guns in the handgun category, Harris’ gun is much more dangerous than the rifle.
That puts her in the number 1 goal category. She says whatever she thinks will get her elected.
We’ve already covered that assault rifles are automatic guns and are illegal. Both AR-15 rifles and Glock handguns are capable of being altered to be fully automatic.
What about limiting magazines? Magazines hold rounds for the gun to fire next. Shotguns are typically limited while hunting. Some states might allow six shells in the magazine while hunting quail but while hunting ducks a plug must be inserted to limit the magazine to two. That is an example of a restriction for hunting.
According to TheGunZone, the standard capacity of an AR-15 is 30 rounds. The maximum magazine capacity for an AR-15 is 100 rounds. The capacity of a Glock depends on the model and can vary from 10 to 33 rounds and at least one model supports a magazine capacity of 50 rounds.
Sensible gun control must start by recognizing the goal. It continues by looking truthfully at the issue and statistics. These posts were written to help you become a more informed voter.