Posted by
Steve on Monday, May 05, 2008 2:38:17 PM
Dr. Adams from UNCW is challenging all those that do not believe that owing a gun is a deterrence to put up or shut up. He asks that everyone that believes guns do not deter crime to put a sign on their home that the home is a gun free zone. He also asks that everyone who has a gun to advertise that they have a gun in the home. Then after one year, he will send both groups of people a survey about whether the home was involved in a crime. Dr. Adams and I expect that the homes with a gun to have a significantly lower crime level than those that advertise that they do not have a gun.
Criminals do not want to get hurt. One of the reasons they do not like to break into a home when people are present is that they are afraid that the people in the house own guns. If you take away the fear of the owner owning guns, the home should suffer significantly higher crime statistics.
Deterrence is effective in controlling crime. If people suspect that you own a weapon, they will be less likely to target you as a crime victim. If they know that you do not have a weapon, you will then be easy pickings for the criminal. If the criminal has little chance on being hurt, the criminal has a greater chance of attacking the house in question.
There have been a couple of small towns that have required all homeowners to own weapons. After the ordinance was enacted the crime rate went down to almost zero. In areas where gun ownership is restricted, crime rates go up because criminals are less likely to be injured in the commission of the crime. That is just human nature. Anyone with a third grade education should be able to figure out that one.
Growing up, I had little trouble with people giving me guff. I give credit to the fact that I was always big for my age. I ended up being 6’4”. That has kept me out of a lot of trouble. Friends of mine who were smaller always got into more fights than I did. People were afraid of what would happen if I hit them. I did get into one fight and won after landing one punch.
Countries are the same way. If a country thinks that you are weak, they will be more likely to test you. If they expect to be destroyed when they attack, they would not attack. People do not attack bigger stronger foes. Having a weapon makes you a bigger stronger foe.
Liberals are always talking about how deterrence does not work. Liberal professors talk about how deterrence does not work. If you look at how they treat their students, you will see that they do not practice what they preach. They frequently have tough penalties built in for infractions of the code. That is a way of providing deterrence in an academic setting.
Liberals think that everyone is good. If you just talk to them you can get them to agree to be better. A conservative thinks that there are evil people in the world and you have to plan to take them out. In small groups, liberal thinking can work because most people are basically good. Liberals problems come when they come into contact with the truly evil people. Truly evil people will promise anything and work to undermine that promise. The old communists were truly evil. The terrorists are truly evil. Liberals cannot come to grasp with the fact that truly evil people exist in the world. Conservatives expect that there are truly evil people and plan for that fact.