Myth #1. Gun Free Zones make us safer and reduce crime. It should be obvious by now that gun free zones don’t make us safer. Any time you hear this argument, ask the person who makes it if they have “gun free zone” stickers on their cars to stop carjackings, “gun free zone” signs in their yards to stop home invasions, and wear “gun free zone” shirts and hats to stop muggings, robberies, rapes, etc.

If they balk, remind them that “Change starts with me” and that they should “Be the change you want to see.”

If “gun free” zones make us safer, suggest that they tell that to the Secret Service and the State Department’s Bureau of Diplomatic Security. I’m sure they’ll change how they protect people right away.

The fact that “gun free zone” signs don’t exist in large numbers is a tacit admission that gun haters and people who are ignorant about guns KNOW, at some level, that gun free zones don’t work.

Equally silly is the thought that gun free zones reduce crime…they simply change the location.

First off, someone who intends on murdering large numbers of people will commit 5 or more misdemeanors and/or felonies in the process of firing their first shot. Do you really think that someone intent on murdering innocent people cares about breaking 1 additional law? Do you really think that someone who intends on killing themselves or committing suicide by cop cares about additional penalties from a judge? Of course not.

Next, gun free zones don’t reduce crime because they change the behavior of moral and ethical people who carry guns more than the behavior of murderers.

Concealed carry permit holders tend to be law abiding citizens…both because it’s their general nature and it’s kind of a requirement to get the permit. As a result, a higher percentage of concealed carry permit holders obey gun free zone signs and laws than murdering psychopaths.

And, in case you’re fuzzy on that one, more bad guys with guns and fewer good guys with guns would be “bad.”

Finally, gun free zones don’t reduce crime because they attract murdering psychopaths who want to rack up body counts and they repel responsible law abiding citizens who have taken responsibility for their own safety and who are the best equipped to stop a murdering psychopath.

Myth #2. Common sense laws will stop mass shootings. We have more than 20,000 gun laws on the books in the US. What’s the magic next law that will make all of the bad people stop doing bad things?

What kind of narcissist could possibly think that their 1 amazing piece of legislation will be more effective than the 20,000 ineffective ones that came before it.  That’s like eating 20,000 calories and thinking that having a Tic-Tac will make a difference.

The only thing that would take care of gun crime would be to eliminate guns. By definition, a country with zero (not even 1 gun) guns would have zero gun crime.

We’ve got more than 300 million guns in the US. They’re not going away. If they’re outlawed, then the law would disproportionately affect law abiding citizens. (remember, murderers don’t care about laws or the consequences of breaking them.)

But if we look at how this has worked out in DC, Chicago, Australia, the UK, and other places with strict gun laws, we see that it doesn’t work out well for law enforcement or the general public.

It DOES work out great for criminals.  There have been 600 homicides in Chicago–a model city for gun control–so far this year despite the fact that there is a 90%+ chance of surviving a gunshot wound if you’re still conscious when the ambulance arrives.

Gun laws didn’t work out well for Jews in Germany in the 30s, or minorities in ANY country throughout history that has been disarmed.

Look at Austria…one recent Muslim extremist mass murderer ran his car into a crowd and then got out and started stabbing the survivors.

Look at China…in the last few years, they’ve seen almost a dozen mass school stabbings and hammer attacks, including one where the attacker beat preschoolers in the head with a hammer and then lit himself on fire. Within 24 hours of the Sandy Hook attacks, one murderer stabbed 22 children in an attack in China. In another attack, 4 Muslim extremists used knives to kill 29 civilians and injure 140 others at the Kunming railway station.

Look at Northern Ireland…when gun ownership was prohibited for certain groups, those groups became targets of violence from the groups who could still own guns. Explosives, knives, rocks, and deadly modifications to potato guns took their place to fill the role of the gun. Violence didn’t go away with gun confiscation.

When someone thinks that gun laws will solve the problem of mass shootings, they need to ask themselves what the point is, to protect innocent people or convict guilty people more harshly after they’re dead?

Additional laws only allow for harsher penalties to be enforced, after the fact, on a murdering psychopath who’s comfortable dying.

If you want to protect innocent people from murdering psychopaths who are comfortable breaking laws, you need to look to another solution than more laws. A solution like the most effective way to STOP the attacker.

Myth #4. Locking doors, hiding, throwing cans, and pleading/begging are effective strategies for stopping threats.

We live in a time where we can find out an amazing amount of detail about EVERY active shooter situation that has happened in the US in recent history. We can see where these strategies were all tried and the outcome. None of them STOP the threat. They may delay death, reduce the number of innocent deaths, change who dies, or change the location of deaths, but they don’t stop the threat.

Myth #5. Civilians With Guns Make Everyone Unsafe.

I get the rational for this line of thinking.  If a gunman enters a church and 20 people open fire on him, there’s a really good chance that innocent people will get hurt.

You know what?

Life’s not simple, clean, or neat.  It’s messy and complicated.  But historically we can see that good guys with guns shoot more bad guys than they shoot innocents.

And in a mass shooting situation a good guy with a gun MIGHT accidentally shoot in innocent bystander in the process of stopping the bad guy.  Law enforcement MIGHT accidentally shoot an innocent bystander in the process of stopping the bad guy.  But we know, without a doubt, that if the bad guy isn’t stopped, he’ll keep shooting innocent people until he’s stopped.

The reality of a chaotic life and death shooting situation is that misses happen.

As a responsible gun owner, what you need to do is do everything in your power to minimize your misses through training…training your mind to handle stress, training your eyes to see more and see quicker, and training your technique so that your reflexive performance level is as high as possible.

You see, when you’ve got time to think through the process, it’s easy to make accurate shots at close range with a pistol.

But when you’re shooting at a speed where you can’t think through all of the details, you’re going to rely on neural pathways (muscle memory) and your performance is going to depend on the quality of your practice up to that point.

That’s why it’s SO important to do a few minutes of dry fire practice, at least a few days a week.

 

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