Guns, Babies, and the USA

Alabama and Ohio have passed versions of constitutional carry.  That is a law that allows a lawful owner of a firearm to carry that firearm without additional governmental permission.  Georgia’s state House and Senate have both passed versions and a committee is set to reconcile differences. Georgia should have the law passed in the next week becoming the twenty-fourth state. Just last year Arkansas, Iowa, Montana, Tennessee, Texas, and Utah joined the list putting half of the nation under constitutional carry.  Indiana, Nebraska, and South Carolina are considering the measure.

Progressives like to say they want it as easy to vote in the United States as it is to buy a firearm.  Their bumper sticker slogan belies their ignorance of the issue.  A voter in the United States must register to vote once, then can participate at subsequent elections by showing up, usually showing their identification, and signing in to vote.

To buy a firearm in the United States, a person must fill out a multi-page document, hand over photo identification, and wait for a government clearance.  Then the person has to pay for the gun.  Progressives like to talk about “gun show loopholes,” which are not nearly as common as they believe.  Having purchased guns from gun shows on multiple occasions, I have never encountered this supposed loophole and have, instead, each time had to fill out the paperwork and wait for the government okay.

Twice, I have been gifted guns.  In both cases, the guns had to be sent to gun retailers in my home state.  I had to fill out the paperwork and wait for the government okay even though I was not buying the gun.  While the left believes it is far simpler to buy guns than it actually is, their problem is Americans are increasingly familiar with the actual process.  Though the nation has over 330 million people, there are estimated to be 393 million guns in the hands of private citizens, excluding law enforcement and the military.

The United States has roughly 120.5 guns for every 100 people, making the United States the country with the most private gun owners.  With just four percent of the world’s population, the United States makes up forty-six percent of the population of gun owners.  “American civilians own nearly 100 times as many firearms as the U.S. military and nearly 400 times as many as law enforcement,” according to gun expert Stephen Gutowski.

The last two years have set record levels of gun ownership in the United States.  Seemingly every month has seen record new gun purchases and women are increasingly the purchasers.  This comes as the media and gun control groups are in lockstep against gun ownership.  From CNN to the New York Times to Every Town For Gun Safety, the American left is adamant laws must be passed to curtail the right to keep guns.  But as the language gets more shrill, the funding more intense, and efforts more concrete, gun control groups and their friends in the media have failed miserably.  Even with a Democrat President and Democrat controlled Congress both during the Obama years and now, Democrats have failed to advance any sort of meaningful gun control efforts.  The most meaningful have come from, ironically, President Trump.

Not only has the well funded and media savvy gun control effort failed, but it has failed even as the National Rifle Association has become sclerotic.  The NRA is ineffective, embattled, and financially suspect.  It is not putting points on the board.  But gun owners and state-level gun groups are still scoring wins.  The NRA got to its state of decrepitude in large part because it was so successful.

There is a lesson here for the pro-life movement.  If the Supreme Court does end Roe v. Wade, pro-life groups will still have work to do for the culture of life.  But some may need to declare victory and wind down lest they drift into perpetual grift like some gun groups.  It would be bad for the credibility of the pro-life cause if it wound up like the NRA, a victim of its own success.