“No Guns Allowed”

Every time I walk into a post office or other government building I see signs or stickers letting me know that guns are not allowed on the premises. And every time I see those signs or stickers I just shake my head and wonder how the powers that be can be so clueless.

Let’s think for a moment just exactly what those “No Guns Allowed” emblems actually accomplish. First of all, they ensure that law-abiding citizens who obey the rules and have no intention of harming anyone will enter the building unarmed. A good thing you say? No, it really isn’t.

When law-abiding citizens leave their weapons at home or in their cars in order to comply with the law before heading into a building, that simply ensures that the only folks inside that building who are carrying a weapon are the very ones who would use it to injure or kill someone.

As a case in point, let’s consider the now infamous Virginia Tech shootings. If at least one of the law-abiding students or faculty members on the scene that day had been carrying a weapon, odds are that the death toll would have ended up being  two or three people instead of the better part of three dozen. The fact that everyone in those buildings except for the shooter  had obeyed the law that morning by leaving their weapons at home ended up costing 20-odd innocent lives. Likewise, the very presence of a sign banning guns in post offices ensures that someone intent on “going postal” will be able to do so in spectacular fashion.

More recently my home state of Virginia made it legal for people with concealed weapons permits to carry their weapons with them when they went into bars. Those opposed to the move predicted that murder and mayhem would rule the day once “guns and alcohol” were allowed to mix. Well, long story short, it didn’t. As a matter of fact, the number of violent altercations in bars actually decreased in the state during the year following the passage of the new law. Why? Because even someone who is drunk to the gills will think twice about starting something with someone who just might be carrying a gun to use in self-defense.

It’s really just a matter of common sense. Those who intend to use a gun to commit robbery or murder will simply ignore a sign stating “No Guns Allowed” and walk right in armed to the teeth with no fear of being stopped before the criminal act has been completed. After all, why should he have such a fear when he knows ahead of time that there will be nobody on the scene equipped to take him out once he starts shooting?

Emotionally, the idea of gun control makes perfect sense. After all, no one wants to see innocent people lose their lives at the hands of a deranged shooter. But logically it makes no sense whatsoever. The only proof we need is the simple fact that violent crimes always go up in a jurisdiction every time gun control laws are tightened while they decrease when similar laws are relaxed or abandoned altogether. Emotions deceive. Statistics don’t.