Firearms and Freedom
20th August 2023
The reductio ad absurdum notwithstanding, one need only visit a major European city to see how moot this point really is. London has earned a reputation for high crimes, yet Britain has some of the strictest gun laws in the world. Apparently, criminals find other ways to do harm to innocent people.
For many years now, Sweden has been plagued by a high rate of gun violence, despite it being practically impossible for law-abiding citizens to buy a firearm.
American states and cities with strict gun laws are also the ones with the highest rate of gun-related crimes. New York is a notorious example, but so is Baltimore in Maryland. California, which boasts some of the toughest gun laws in America, is home to endemic urban decay, including out-of-control crime.
The city of Washington, D.C., forces you to meet 23 different criteria in order to obtain a concealed carry permit, presumably to keep guns out of the hands of criminals. Yet that very same city is a cesspool of armed robberies, carjackings, and other gun violence.