Advocates of gun control may argue that “America is such a violent country” or “the UK bans guns and they have almost no homicides.” What they may not tell you about are the 21,603 murders that occurred in Russia, which has ten times less guns in circulation than America, while America has half the number of murders and ten times more guns. They would also leave out Chicago, which has the strictest gun laws and the highest crime rate in the United States. Point being, gun control is a shortsighted view of how we can fix crime problems in the United States.

An issue that gun grabbers don’t seem to comprehend is the fact that making something illegal does not make it vanish or fix the problem. Murder is a crime, yet it still happens, and they would still get through law enforcement if they were banned. Remember the alcohol prohibition? The only difference is that instead of guns being freely purchased by law-abiding citizens, guns would be smuggled by cartels and sold on black markets where they would be used to kill innocent people. This time though, when criminals enter your house in an attempt to kill your family, you won’t be able to defend yourself. So, “Why not call the police?” You might ask. Well, the police response time in the United States is ten minutes, much slower than the speed of that bullet passing through your aorta; calling the police will have you picked up in a body bag and allow a criminal to run free. Liberals may argue that law-abiding citizens may use a gun to commit a murder in the heat of the moment, like spouses in a heated argument, but once again the left-wing perception differs from reality. A study conducted by Harvard Law School states: “[This] [Argument] appear to rest on no evidence and actually contradict facts.” The study continues to say that there are virtually no murders carried out by law-abiding citizens.

The United Kingdom is a prime example of the failed policy that is gun control. In the year 1997, the U.K. instituted a ban on handguns. After the ban, homicide rates became extremely volatile, increasing as high as 50 percent and never decreasing below pre-handgun ban levels except for the year 2010.

As seen time and time again, banning guns does not make you safer, it makes you vulnerable. Vulnerable enough that when tyranny comes to your door, you will have no means to defend yourself. Many governments in history effectively banned guns as a means of control. The German Nazis in Germany passed the Regulations Against Jews' Possession of Weapons, which, as the name states, disarmed Jews of almost all weapons, and you know what happened afterward. When the Communist Party took over China, heavy gun control restrictions were put into place and only government bodies and hunters could have guns, and even then hunters had to leave guns at hunting grounds.

As Americans we should be proud to have certain rights that protect us from bureaucratic tyranny, and we should utilize these rights to their full potential. I strongly believe in the Constitution, the second amendment, and all that it stands for. The founding fathers gave us these rights for a reason and it is time America realizes this because if we do not soon these freedoms will be gone.