Quite a few Americans believe gun control will protect theirfamilies from violence. These well-meaning people are sadly mistaken. Statisticsprove that gun control does not reduce the incidence of violent crime. Guncontrol does, however, violate the principles on which our nation wasfounded.

Guns are not responsible for the wave of violent crime that ispounding America. In fact, guns are used in relatively few violent crimes. Farmore are committed with knives or other objects. To curb violent crime, Americansmust insist that the government punish criminals. Violent felons need to stay inprison for their full sentence. Some Americans like to use firearms as ascapegoat. Rather than take on the responsibility of correcting societalproblems, they push for more gun-control laws. Experience shows that thislegislation does not work.

In recent years, Canada, Australia, and theUnited Kingdom have all created gun-control programs that have been extremelyunsuccessful. For example, in 1996 Australia spent 500 million dollars toconfiscate and destroy 640,000 firearms. After two years, the Australiangovernment found that the incidence of violent crime had increased dramatically.The number of armed robberies, for in-stance, had risen more than 70 percent. Thereason is simple: Criminals are more likely to attack someone they believe isunarmed. Americans should learn from their experience that the regulation ofprivate firearms leads to an increase in violent crime.

In addition tobeing ineffective, gun-control laws compromise the safety of democracy. TheSecond Amendment clearly asserts that the people have the right to "keep andbear arms." It also explicitly states that this right should not beinfringed upon. The men who created our nation included this right for a reason:"to prevent misconstruction or abuse of power." They realized thatunless the people had the power to depose tyrants, tyranny would eventuallyoccur. The Founding Fathers knew that the best way to safeguard freedom is tohave an armed citizenry. As politicians disregard the Second Amendment, thestrength of this safeguard weakens.

Gun control does absolutely nothing toprotect Americans, and actually increases the incidence of crime. If Americanswant to protect their personal safety and freedom, they must lobby against guncontrol. Gun control does not reduce crime, it merely weakens the control thepeople have on their government.