Reece Gardner: The truth about gun control

I want to revisit the issue of gun control, but I’d like to remind you early voting in the contest for U.S. Congress begins Wednesday, April 10, and runs through Friday, April 26.  

I will have more on this in next week's column. Now to gun control. 

We were all saddened by the mass shooting recently in New Zealand. It was horrific in every way, but we don't need to be misled into thinking that gun control or gun confiscation is the solution to this kind of tragedy. Evidence is abundant that such an approach is, at best, counterproductive. 

Just look at our southern neighbor Mexico, which has some of the most strict gun control laws in the world. Mexican drug cartels kill government officials with impunity, and beheaded and bullet-ridden corpses litter highways while respectable citizens cower in fear.

Here in the United States, Chicago, subject to some of the most stringent gun control laws in the nation, experiences numerous murders most every weekend. 

As these events demonstrate, strict gun control is a failure, precisely because it only affects the good guys who need guns to defend themselves against attacks by criminals who have access to guns regardless of gun control laws. One of my guests on my television show this week, N.C. House Majority Leader John Bell (R-Wayne), made it clear the N.C. Legislature is very strong in its support of the right to keep and bear arms. 

Here's how it is stated in the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution: “A well-regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.”  We need to remember in most cases gun control has very little to do with controlling guns and everything to do with controlling citizens.

Across the Atlantic, the failure of the United Kingdom's gun control program was displayed during recent riots when unarmed shopkeepers and homeowners were forced to watch gangs loot and destroy while overwhelmed police failed to contain the raging throng.

A few years ago, concealed carry policies were implemented on some U.S. college campuses and these policies led to a reduction in crime. 

For example, after Colorado enacted its concealed carry law, Colorado State University decided to allow certain approved school personnel to carry concealed weapons while the University of Colorado prohibited them. A Cato Institute report revealed a 60 percent decrease in crime occurred at CSU since this action, while the University of Colorado saw a 35 percent increase during the same period.

The report concluded: “It does not seem likely that a would-be robber would be deterred because of stickers on the doors announcing that armed robbery is severely frowned upon by the student code of conduct, but a campus that allows supervised concealed carry, and where even one student, professor, or even a member of the maintenance crew is armed, would present a much riskier target to criminals." 

There’s one conclusion: When guns are outlawed, only outlaws will have guns. 

Now to close on a humorous note: A woman had just returned to her home from an evening of church services when she was startled by an intruder.

She caught the man in the act of robbing her home of its valuables, and she yelled, "Stop! Acts 2:38!" (Repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus so that your sins may be forgiven). 

The robber stopped in his tracks. The woman calmly called the police and explained what she had done. As the officer cuffed the man to take him in, he asked the burglar, "Why did you just stand there? All the lady did was yell a scripture to you.." 

"Scripture?" asked the burglar. "She said she had an ax and two 38s!"

Have a wondrous day!