I’ve had the pleasure of reading the Spinnaker over the last two years I’ve been at UNF. Over this time, there have been many articles I’ve enjoyed, as well as an equal number of editorials I’ve strongly disagreed with. Your last editorial on gun control was one I found riddled with flaws. It’s been proven that gun control laws actually increase crime due to disarming law-abiding citizens. If someone intends to commit a crime with a gun do they really care what the law is on carrying a gun in a certain area? Are they going to follow proper procedures and regulations to obtain a gun? Of course not. The only people who obey gun laws are those who would never commit a crime with one. You claim the mugging at UNF last week would’ve been a massacre if the victims had been armed. If these students had been armed the mugging may very well have never happened in the first place. A criminal will always go after the easy victim if they have a weapon and know nobody else does because they would have nothing to fear. However, if they don’t know whether or not their victim is armed it decreases the incentive for them to harm innocent people. You also made the implication that it’s better for an innocent to lose things than for an aggressor to be killed. And I ask you, what kind of society is that, where the aggressor’s well being takes priority over the victims? We cannot make ourselves defenseless for fear of harming those who seek to harm us.
Jonathan Ragsdale, Criminal Justice Major
Jonathan,
I see your point. It is a very understandable point. However, it’s shortsighted. If we are ever going to rid the world of madmen with guns, we must first rid the world of guns. Any other notion is self-indulgent and unproductive. These battles between the people who want guns versus the people who need guns go hand-in-hand. There are nearly 300 million guns in America, and the public owns roughly 100 million of them. This is the highest concentration of gun ownership in the world. Not surprisingly, the U.S. has the highest gun homicide rate of any industrialized country. As was mentioned in the editorial, the benefit of citizens owning guns simply isn’t helpful enough, often enough. Honestly, it’s part of the problem. Ideas are what pull the trigger; it is instinct that loads the gun.
Chance Ryan
