Note to Op-Ed Writers Everywhere: Gun Control Isn’t ‘Gun Violence Prevention’

Gun control is sold as a way to prevent violent crime.

It’s a ridiculous bit of marketing, too. After all, criminals have a profound tendency to not follow the law, which means gun control laws aren’t really going to make much of an impact on them.

Unfortunately, there are op-ed writers all around the nation who don’t seem to understand this basic fact. What’s more, they seem to think that “gun violence prevention” is synonymous with gun control as a whole.

he U.S. is at a crossroads concerning gun violence prevention.

President-elect Donald Trump has made day one promises that will upend gun violence prevention efforts nationwide. Appointments to critical federal agencies—including the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, the Department of Justice, the FBI, and the Attorney General’s Office—are likely to abandon promising violence prevention strategies, reinterpret existing gun laws, dismantle the newly established Office of Gun Violence Prevention, and gut the historic Bipartisan Safer Communities Act.

Historically, America’s approach to gun violence has never been great. But for the first time in American history, there is an opportunity to make it so—not through partisan warfare, but through pragmatic solutions that align with both conservative and progressive values.

Now, in fairness to the author, he does mention some efforts to combat violent crime that aren’t gun control.

However, those aren’t really on the chopping block in any meaningful way with Trump returning to the White House. It’s only the efforts that are geared toward gun control that are.

See, the problem we tend to run into with so many op-ed writers and other flavors of anti-gun activists is that they can’t seem to differentiate between some of these interventions and gun control. They can’t seem to recognize that if they took the stand of using violence intervention personnel to possibly prevent violent crime instead of focusing on our right to keep and bear arms so much, they might get a lot more support from this side of the fence.

The problem is that they don’t know how not to trip over their own junk.

They keep lumping in strategies that might well do some good with the same tired old anti-gun talking points, thus making it clear that they can’t separate one from the other.

So when they start talking about “gun violence prevention,” we know good and well that all we’re going to get is a new batch of gun control measures with some other interventions thrown in for flavor.

Criminals don’t buy guns from gun stores. Gun control isn’t the answer. It’s never been the answer.

Yet it’s still pushed so hard that we can’t even have a reasonable discussion about some of these other ideas. 

So to all the op-ed writers out there, if you want your piece to be taken seriously for a change by anyone other than your anti-gun buddies, stop pretending gun control is anything other than gun control. We’re getting sick of it. Then again, we’ve been sick of it for ages.

Instead, make the case for all the non-gun-control ideas. Make your case, share your evidence, and let’s talk.

As it stands, that’s the only thing we’re willing to talk about.