Day 182: Gun Control

Imagine a government, twenty years from now, who achieved the gun control laws that they were working towards.  No civilian is allowed to use a gun without a proper permit, which is very hard to obtain.  No more than one gun can be owned at a time.  There is a limit to how many bullets you can purchase at a time, and a waiting period until you can purchase more.  No household is allowed to have a gun if you have children under the age of eighteen.

The government, sitting smugly in their memory foam office chairs, toast each other to all the lives that would be saved now.  No more children accidentally getting shot at home because the father forgot to lock up the gun case one night.  No more family murder/suicides.  No more mall or school shootings.  Hundreds, no thousands, would be saved.

"But how are we supposed to hunt?" some fathers ask.

"You can rent a gun where you get hunting permits."

"But how do I protect my family against a home invasion?"

"That's for the police to handle.  And if someone breaks in, there are other weapons you can use, like a kitchen knife or a chair."

What the government does not remember is that when desperate people are motivated, they will go at great lengths to get done what they want.  In fact, it becomes like the Prohibition days again, except guns are the  objects  of desire.  Thieves devise ways to create their own guns or pay steep prices to acquire them in the black market.  The police are overwhelmed by the increase of robberies and murders as the struggle to acquire arms accelerates into a bloodbath.  The already small police force is stretched thin with the extra patrols and arrests that need made.  New gangs and illegal arms rings are present in every major town.

Now the law-abiding population lives in even more fear than they had when guns were legal.  Innocent people are getting hurt in the cross-fires of the gang wars, and families are afraid to be outside for very long.  Mass public shootings have been replaced by explosions from homemade bombs or knife fights.  Does the government expect to outlaw knives next?  What about baseball bats or rope?  Then more innocent people could be saved from attacks.  The government has nothing else better to do with its time and energy than focus on how to control the murderous and selfish tendencies of humans.  Watching finances in order to fix the country's debt and training troops for effective combat can wait.