Elizabeth Gorder

What regulatory measures should be placed on media reporting the news of the day? That question, without a doubt, would garner one answer and one answer only: No regulatory measures should be placed on the media reporting the news of the day. That question is no different than the one posed about gun control by The Collegian this week.

To place regulatory measures on owning, carrying and using guns is intrinsically wrong and wholly unconstitutional. Just because it is listed as the Second Amendment does not mean that it is less important than the Freedom of the Press or any other right. The Founding Fathers realized this when they put it in the Constitution.

Now before you go and brand me a right-wing nut-job, realize that there are laws on the books regulating handguns. The federal Gun Control Act of 1968, which is still in effect today, requires that all dealers be licensed, fill out forms detailing each trade and avoid selling to people prohibited from owning guns such as minors, ex-felons and drug users. Buyers must provide identification and sign waivers attesting to their ability to possess guns. The laws in place are good, and it is more of an issue of enforcing current laws rather than wasting time and precious tax money creating new laws and resolutions that are going to further infringe on our constitutional rights.

Look at South Dakota. It has the one of the lowest murder rates in the entire country and it also has one of the highest per capita gun ownership rates in the country. On the other hand, Washington, D.C., is the only area of the country to completely outlaw guns, but also had the highest murder rate in the country. This is not just a coincidence.

Guns save lives – it’s a fact. Americans use guns for defensive purposes 2.5 million times a year. It is estimated that if all states allowed citizens to carry concealed weapons, 1,500 murders, 4,000 rapes, 11,000 robberies and 60,000 aggravated assaults would be avoided yearly (Siegel, “Criminology: Theories, Patterns, and Typologies”).

More gun control legislation is never going to reduce the number of people who are shot each year, just like prohibition did not prevent the use of alcoholic beverages and laws do not eliminate prostitution, pornography or drugs. The only thing additional gun control would do is take the gun away from law-abiding citizens, leaving guns only in the hands of criminals.

#1.883411:319430123.jpg:gorder, elizabeth.jpg:Elizabeth Gorder, From the Right: