​For those supporting more stringent gun control measures without having first considered that murder is already illegal regardless of means, there are some interesting statistics in today’s newspaper: “Brian Doherty notes that the  gun homicide rate in 1993–when there were approximately 192 million guns in circulation–was 7 per 100,000 Americans. In 2013, the gun murder rate had declined to 3.8 per 100,000, by which time there were approximately 300 million guns in private hands. More guns do not seem to equal more gun murders.” 

In her concluding paragraph, columnist Mona Charen writes: “But the truth is that no one really knows why we’ve suffered mass shootings in such numbers in recent years. It may be party the copycat effect; or the lure of the publicity shooters invariably receive; the decline of character-building institutions like churches and families (the vast majority of mass shooters have been male raised in divorced or single-parent homes); or the failure of our mental-health system to provide treatment to those who need it most.”

We might even go further to state that parenting which emphasizes high self-esteem results in the unrealistic, entitled expectations and narcissism. Narcissism, as we ought to know, leads to a disregard for the value of others. Read John Rosemond for more information on that.

It’s a hot-button issue. No, I don’t think that everyone and anyone who wants a gun should have one. But think about this: the new gun control measures presuppose guilt. In a country where legal tenets presume innocence before guilt, that is a direct conflict. I don’t want to live where I’m assumed guilty because someone else did something bad. Do you?