Why Americans Are Buying Guns
PragerU
In the aftermath of every mass shooting, we hear calls for “commonsense gun control.” But how do you determine which gun laws are commonsense? Jason Riley, senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, explores this loaded question.
#guns #2ndamendment #gunrights
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Script:
“The issue we face is one of conscience and common sense.” So said President Joe Biden in a prime-time plea for more Second Amendment restrictions. The president is right on both counts—just not in the way that he and other gun-control enthusiasts imagine.
Many Americans have noticed that cities where shootings occur almost daily also have some of the strictest gun laws. Using common sense, they’ve concluded that more gun-control legislation isn’t the solution because criminals, by definition, don’t respect laws.
Many of the same people find it unconscionable that politicians would make it more difficult for law-abiding residents to arm themselves for protection.
Many of these law-abiding citizens happen to be black.
It’s worth noting that the past two landmark Supreme Court rulings on gun control were brought by black plaintiffs who simply wanted to defend their homes and their families.
Moreover, they hailed from cities controlled by Progressives who have done a poor job of protecting low-income minorities from criminals. In a 2008 case, District of Columbia v. Heller, the court affirmed that the Second Amendment right to bear arms is an individual right and that you don’t need to be part of a militia to exercise it.
One of the initial plaintiffs was Shelly Parker, a black computer-software designer who decided to challenge the district’s handgun ban in court after a neighborhood drug dealer tried to break into her home one evening and threatened to kill her.
“What I want is simply to be able to own a handgun in my home, in the confines of the walls of my home—nothing else,” she told National Public Radio.
Two years later, in McDonald v. Chicago,
