After my travels this week, I never want to hear another anti-gun person comparing their wishes for more gun control laws with the laws we have in the US on vehicles. Nothing shows the failure of laws to regulate the use of firearms than the lack of obedience in following laws placed on vehicles and their use.
It is popular among the anti-gun crowd to compare their wishes for more gun control laws with the laws and regulations on vehicles.
Cars and trucks are dangerous, therefore:
- One must earn a license to drive.
- Cars must be registered, inspected, and maintained to certain levels.
- Cars require the owner to carry insurance to cover injury and damage to others.
While drivers of all types must, allegedly, earn a license to drive, it doesn’t show in their actions. The comparison to firearms is that if a person must go through an extensive training and licensing program, there would be fewer shootings. The counter is that criminals don’t obey laws; therefore, would skip the licensing and training, as do still a significant portion of drivers.
I see few people on the roads that actually drive correctly. The incidences of drivers watching their cellphones is astounding. While many do drive near the speed limit, the quantity that disobey speed limits boggles the mind. They disobey not by a few miles per hour, but can blow your door off when you are doing the limit of 70 mph!
It’s a limit, people! Does no one understand that? It’s not a suggestion. In calculus, a limit is a line or point that you never can touch, just approach. But, I digress.
Yes, we are all supposed to have our cars registered and inspected (which also means maintained), the quantity of unregistered cars and trucks is still high, including a business in false inspection stickers.
Nearly every state requires either vehicle liability insurance or proof of the ability to pay for damages in an accident. Yet, even in states requiring insurance, many do not carry insurance, and many that do have the minimum do so in such a manner as to make the insurance useless.
These failures to comply with state vehicle laws are not difficult to discover. If you are a driver, you probably see a great deal of disobedience to the laws no matter where you live. Statistics on compliance with vehicle laws are available on the Internet, easily. If there is this much disobedience in following the laws about vehicles, how can it be used as a comparison for additional gun control legislation?
It can’t. It completely exemplifies what most gun owners (and even some that don’t own guns) already know: criminals don’t obey laws. And, yes, failure to obey vehicle laws, no matter how minor one thinks they are, makes one a criminal. Because, you can’t legislate good behavior.
If someone wants to kill, maim, or destroy, he or she is going to find a way to do so. Lack of firearms access doesn’t make the violent less violent, it only diminishes the ability of others to defend themselves. This is part of why we have a second amendment in the Constitution. We all have a natural right to defend ourselves against violence, whether that is in the form of another person, a foreign invader, or oppression from our own government. I do hope we never need the last two measures, but the first is quite common.
Good, moral people with a solid ethic will obey the laws they are given. Lazy, indifferent, or violent people will disobey. That’s overly simplistic, but makes it easier to diagram. Our laws work post-event, to punish the one that disobeys. That’s how our system works and for good reason. It assumes we are moral people and will observe certain norms of behavior. The law assumes you are a good person and doesn’t infringe upon your right to be free.
Now, vehicles on the other hand. Sheesh!
Big Man Running 