Most people on the left believe that there is a gun problem in the U.S. They spread misinformation and lies such as, “There are 30,000 gun related deaths in the U.S. a year “We are the only country where this happens,” or “The 2nd Amendment only gives the right to own guns to militias.” The problem with all these statements and others is that they are untrue and made to convey a certain narrative on guns. The problem in the U.S. isn’t guns, it’s gun control.

There may be 30,000 gun related deaths in the U.S. every year; however, breaking down those deaths shows that this statement is misleading. Twenty-thousand of those deaths are suicides. The U.S. has a very normal suicide rate. It places 50th in the world. Most of the countries with high suicide rates do not allow citizens to arm themselves yet their suicide rates are much higher. This is because if someone wants to commit suicide they will they find different methods to do so. That leaves 10,000 deaths per year. Within those 10,000 deaths,  a large percentage are gang related and occur in inner cities. Most of which are run by democrats who have some of the strictest gun control in the country. Detroit, D.C, Chicago and Baltimore with gang related homicide rates as high as 80%  are only a few examples. Despite all the gun control within these cities, people are still able to obtain and abuse guns. This is because gang members don’t care about the law and will arm themselves whether there are laws in place or not. Eighty percent of guns used in gun crimes were obtained illegally, while gun control just prevents law abiding citizens from defending themselves. The remaining 2,000 includes justified shootings and accidental shootings.

Gun control advocates like to claim that this is the only country where mass shootings and killings occur. This is blatantly false. The largest mass shooting of all time occurred in Norway, when 85 people died. More recently, the Paris attack killed a few hundred. In Europe, with the increase of “refugees”, large scale knife attacks are becoming increasingly common. For example, on March 17, a father and son had their throats slits in broad daylight while in Paris with knifeman shouting “Allahu Akbar”. In the U.S, when mass shootings happen liberals like to blame “assault weapons” or “military style weapons”. These weapons are defined by the media by pretty much just being big black scary looking rifles; however, in reality, they are not fully automatic weapons. Automatic weapon manufacturing was banned in 1986 and ownership for people without a class 3 firearms license, this specific type of license is incredibly difficult to get and can take over a year and cost thousands of dollars to obtain. Automatic weapons are incredibly hard to come by and are insanely expensive with most costing over $10,000. There has never been a mass shooting with a legally bought automatic weapons.  The weapons liberals are afraid of are, in fact, just semi-automatic weapons, which are only used in a fraction of mass shootings and homicides in general. According to the FBI, only 241 people were murdered with rifles in 2014. The category of rifle here includes semi automatics like the AR-15 and bolt action rifles like the 30.6 hunting rifle. In the same year 670 people were murdered with hands and feet. Do liberals now want to ban body parts? Hopefully not.

The U.S. is not even highest in gun related deaths in the world. The most gun deaths occur in Honduras and in similar places where gun ownership is basically illegal like El Salvador, Venezuela and Uruguay. Liberals will then try to say that comparing the U.S to these countries is unfair because we are more developed than them. However this isn’t necessarily true. Most of these countries are OECD members and are considered developed yet they have a higher rate of gun deaths and murder rates than in America. Furthermore if we take the OECD countries and add more countries with similar UN Human develop index numbers we get a list that includes but is not limited to the Bahamas, Argentina, Costa Rica, Mexico, Venezuela and Uruguay. All of these countries have lower gun ownership and more gun control than the U.S yet all have a higher murder rate than the U.S. and most have a higher rate of gun related deaths. This shows that more gun ownership does not equal a higher murder rate or more gun related deaths.

Lastly when liberals have no facts left to argue with they try to spin a narrative that the 2nd amendment only applies to militias. They seem to forget that there is a comma separating the stanzas “a well regulated militia” and “being necessary to the security of a free state”. If basic grammar isn’t enough to prove that liberals are wrong it’s okay because there are plenty of quotes from our founding fathers that prove the militia is in fact referring to the people. Note the examples below:

“The laws that forbid the carrying of arms are laws of such a nature. They disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes…. Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants; they serve rather to encourage than to prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed man.” Thomas Jefferson, Commonplace Book (quoting 18th century criminologist Cesare Beccaria), 1774-1776

“A militia when properly formed are in fact the people themselves…and include, according to the past and general usage of the states, all men capable of bearing arms…  ” To preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of the people always possess arms, and be taught alike, especially when young, how to use them.” Richard Henry Lee, Federal Farmer No. 18, January 25, 1788″

“What, Sir, is the use of a militia? It is to prevent the establishment of a standing army, the bane of liberty …. Whenever Governments mean to invade the rights and liberties of the people, they always attempt to destroy the militia, in order to raise an army upon their ruins.” Rep. Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts, I Annals of Congress 750, August 17, 1789

The 2nd amendment was made to prevent the federal government from becoming tyrannical. We have seen time and time again what happens in countries that don’t guarantee a right to bear arms. Hitler, Mao Zedong, Ho Chi Minh, Pol Pot and Stalin all deprived citizens of their arms to ensure there dictatorships were not challenged. Even in today’s world we have countries such as Venezuela who are depriving the citizens of their arms and are now forcing them to work in the fields. One could argue that Australia implemented mass gun confiscation and its government did not turn tyrannical; however, violent crime, including gun crime, went up after the buyback program. Guns in the U.S. themselves are actually used more times by law abiding citizens for defense than by criminals using them for nefarious purposes. According to the CDC, every year guns are used 300,000 times criminally compared to 500,000- 3.5 million times to prevent crime.

Because the U.S does not have a gun problem it will be hard to solve the small amount of gun violence that does exist. However, there is one thing the U.S. can do to help: eliminate gun free zones. Like I mentioned earlier, the cities with the most gun control have the most gun crime, these cities themselves are basically gun free zones. All but three mass shootings since the 1950’s have occurred in a gun free zone. Even the concept of a gun free zone is ridiculous. Put up a magical sign that says no guns and all of your problems are solved. Wow, I wish we could do that for everything because criminals definitely follow laws and people don’t go above 55 mph on I 95. Gun free zones only keep guns out of the hands of law abiding citizens and into the hands of criminals. Countless times citizens have stopped mass shooters outside of gun free zones. A very memorable one was one week after the Islamic terrorist attack in Orlando. A conceal carry permit holder stopped a mass shooter outside a nightclub by shooting the man in the leg before he could kill anyone.  If liberals truly cared about gun violence, they would end gun free zones.

The issue of guns and the 2nd amendment in the U.S is not very complicated. Like with most things, liberals tend to only look at the surface and play on people’s emotions without hard evidence. However, when you look into the issue and start to get information and statistics the answer is clear. The 2nd amendment is extremely beneficial to the United States and it gives us a privilege most countries don’t have for their citizens. We should be proud we live in a country that gives us the right to arm ourselves whether it be for preventing the government from becoming tyrannical, for self defense, or for just being a plain, old, patriotic American.