Criminals need to be the ones punished

In recent weeks, gun control has been a scorching-hot subject. A mass shooting at an elementary school, a theater shooting, the attempted assassination of a sitting congresswoman. All robust ingredients in the recipe to disarm the collective citizenry.

However, if the recipe is completed and the dish is served, may I warn of the long-lasting aftertaste? Hitler disarmed his followers. Look at the results. It is easy to figure out why he disarmed his followers. If you were a dictator trying to control your followers, would you want them to have the ability to resist with equal force?

Taking away our rights to own or possess firearms is a knee-jerk, flash in the pan, fancy-garnish reaction to something that won't stop anyway. Let's say all firearms, knives or any type of weapon is totally banned. We'll even take it to ridiculous extremes and say that even touching one will net an automatic life sentence in prison. We'll say that every law-abiding citizen immediately turns in everything, including the butter knives from their kitchens.

OK, cool, now the ban has worked! Yes! Now there will be no more violent crimes involving weapons, right?! Nope. I would predict that violent crime will in fact INCREASE. Why? Because criminals, like the ones who perpetrated the crimes against the movie patrons, Rep. Giffords and the innocent children of Sandy Hook know that their potential victims will be disarmed and the level of fear they can instill has just been given a boost, so now they can get more with less resistance.

May I point out that prior to 9/11, it was strictly against the law to hijack an airplane? It was also just as illegal to fly a plane into a building. Prior to the Oklahoma City bombing, it was illegal to plant explosives at a federal building. If you notice, the headlines did NOT read “Law-abiding citizen flies plane into WTC” or “Citizen of the year obliterates Murrah Building.” Why not? Because these were NOT law-abiding citizens who committed these crimes. They were criminals.

So my question is, how will disarming law-abiding citizens keep criminals from committing crimes? It won't. I know what the anti-gun crowd will say. “If the guns are banned, criminals won't have access to them.” Wrong. Cocaine is banned and you can still find it on the street. Banning guns with that reasoning is paramount to banning money so criminals won't have an incentive to rob a bank.

I have a great suggestion. Write legislation that deals with the criminal who commits the crime, not the tools he used to commit them. Implement mandatory death penalties for violent crime resulting in the death of the victim. Stop giving weak sentences for people convicted of taking the life of another person. If you were a career criminal, it would be no big deal to commit murder because you'd get to live, albeit in a prison, but you'd get to live ... unlike the victim. If you were a career criminal, would you risk killing someone if you knew that you will be given the death penalty for it? Punish the criminals, not the law-abiding citizens.

Matt Aguay

Yuma