Here is a great pro-gun editorial.

/gun

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Despite atrocities, guns serve to keep Americans safe, free

Korwin
Gun rights advocate
May. 6, 2007 12:00 AM

Next time you agonize over a gun-fired atrocity celebrated incessantly on Page 1 by a heartless and immoral press, remember, guns save lives, too. Guns protect people. Guns stop crime. Guns are why America is still free.

If you think a gun's only purpose is to kill, you're mistaken - a victim of relentless propaganda. Guns save lives. When a maniac goes crazy, you send in people ... with guns. It's the right thing to do.

Folks who think "they should take away all the guns" are actually pro-gun without realizing it. They're suggesting "they," the police, should have them all. Such people intuitively (but not consciously) understand the overlooked, irreplaceable value of guns. Remember, not every Black American or German Jew trusts police so implicitly. Say what? Give all those dangerous guns to ... who exactly?

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The guns-save-lives part of the equation is universally and viciously excised by most "news" media and distorts your perspective, but never forget it. Earth is a difficult world of struggles between good and evil. Has been since Cain slew Abel. If guns went away, good guys would have to reinvent them. Paraphrasing George Orwell, you sleep peaceably at night because rough men stand ready to do violence in your behalf.

We now know well-intentioned gun-free-zone laws are a reckless fraud - disarming the innocent, empowering the ruthless. These laws protect criminals. Repeal them. Read the Gun-Free-Zone Liability Act at gunlaws.com, that is a rational approach: You should be free to create so-called gun-free zones but be liable for any harm they cause.

I'm a utopian pacifist. I pray for a planet steeped in peace, prosperity and enduring harmony, without weapons. But the four horseman of human havoc - angry, hungry, stupid and wicked - prevent this. We might solve hungry, but human nature must dissolve to banish the other three. That's not on the horizon. Until then, I say disarm everyone - bad guys first. When they're disarmed, talk to me.

Dimly realizing monsters aren't subject to legislation, politicians illogically target the innocent, instead. After an atrocity, they impotently lash out, seeking to disarm everyone who didn't do anything. That approach is hoplophobic: reflecting a morbid, irrational fear of weapons. Hoplophobes deny it.

If you could magically make all guns disappear, bad guys would make new ones. The Communist Chinese (who stole our A-bomb secrets) would make more and import them with the same ease drug runners keep our cities stocked. If you like the war on drugs, you're going to love the war on guns. Nations with gun bans suffer massacres, same as us.

A gun-free world is easy to imagine. Just look back in time. People used swords. That world was less stable and less safe than ours is today. Counterintuitive Man knows, "The more efficiently you can kill aggressors, even though they will rapidly adopt your tools, the safer everyone is."

Many lawmakers are clamoring for gun registration. At first blush, it seems marvelous. But how would writing your name (and mine) on a list help stop criminals? This focuses on the innocent instead of criminals. It commits resources away from the problem.

A database that large (80 million to 100 million honest gun owners), needs 22,000 updates daily just to follow people who move every 10 years. You need buildings filled with clerks tracking the innocent. It's no crime-fighting tool, it's a federal jobs program - and bureaucrats know that.

Here's why. Because the right to write (or own guns) - if you weren't on that official list - would automatically make you a criminal, without having done anything wrong. Politicians would control you regardless of your actions. And bureaucrats could refuse (or fail) to list you. It's not about crime control. It's about control. Canada learned, after wasting $2 billion, that gun registration lacks a crime-fighting component. Think: Does car registration stop criminal car use?

Governments, not street criminals, are the world's biggest murderers. The Notre Dame Law Review last May put the figure at 262 million last century alone ("Is resisting genocide a human right?").

That chilling statistic shocks Americans because "it could never happen here" (overlooking slavery, natives, early union riots). But the fact that most American homes are armed is why. Our arms restrain police and government in a way unknown in Uganda or Cambodia or Russia. We ignorantly take this for granted.

Toppling that balance by disarming ourselves is rolling the dice with your safety and the very fabric of our society. It's a terrible, anti-freedom, unconstitutional policy choice and should be rejected outright.

If America outlaws guns, the "officials" (and outlaws) remain armed, and we will have massively shifted power away from the citizenry. Don't.

Knowing maniacs can erupt, you should consider arming yourself. This month, drive to a range. Practice. Learn. Do your part to help make America safer and stronger. Empowerment, not ignorance - it's the American way.

Alan Korwin, who lives in the Valley, is the author of seven books on gun law, including "The Arizona Gun Owner's Guide" and "Gun Laws of America." He can be reached at his Web site, gunlaws.com