During a CNN town hall on June 17, Hillary Clinton made some controversial remarks about opponents of gun control. “We cannot let a minority of people, and that’s what it is, it is a minority of people,” she said, “hold a viewpoint that terrorizes the majority of people.”
But is gun control opposed by only a minority of people? It’s not so clear. According to Gallup poll from late 2013 49% of people agree that the laws covering the sale of firearms should be made more strict. 13% support less strict laws. 37% support keeping things the same and 1% have no opinion. Contra Clinton the subject of gun control is practically a 50/50 split.
Clinton continued, “I was disappointed that the Congress did not pass universal background checks after the horrors of the shootings at Sandy Hook.”
While Americans are divided on gun control more generally, if we are talking about universal background checks, the statistics change dramatically. 79% favor universal background checks for gun buyers, including those purchasing weapons at gun shows and from private sellers, with 13% opposed.
But background checks have little to no effect on criminals acquiring guns because most criminals acquire their guns through theft, black market transactions or personal acquaintances. A mere 1.7 percent obtain firearms from anyone (dealer or non-dealer) at a gun show or flea market.
It’s naive to believe more laws would have an effect on criminals. After all, by definition criminals rarely follow. Rather than preventing guns from getting into the hands of criminals, universal background checks simply terrorize law-abiding gun owners and potential gun owners. Furthermore, background checks have historically been used to disarm marginalized and oppressed groups, especially minorities.
The fact is that Hillary Clinton is not for gun control. She is for gun centralization. She wants to limit possession of guns to the government and people the government approves of. To enforce this policy of gun centralization, she is perfectly willing to resort to violence of her own.
After all, how do gun “control” supporters plan to prevent certain people from getting guns? Those laws will be enforced by police with their own guns.
The only minority terrorizing the majority is the government. Governments were responsible for more deaths than all private individuals combined in the 20th century, with killing approximately 260,000,000 people. This is the type of organization Hillary wants to put in charge of who does or doesn’t get guns? A proper plan for reducing gun violence would be to take guns away from the government. But that doesn’t fly with the supporters of gun centralization, like Hillary.
Terrorism, as defined by Merriam-Webster, is the use of violent acts to frighten the people in an area as a way of trying to achieve a political goal. Hillary obviously has a political goal in mind: Gun centralization. That is, keeping guns in the hands of the government and those the government deems worthy. Her means? Limiting who can or can’t own guns using the threat of police violence.
Gun control opponents are not terrorizing anyone. On the contrary, politicians who support gun control are the terrorists. And we cannot let a minority of people, and that’s what it is, it is a minority of people, hold a viewpoint that terrorizes the majority of people.
