More Guns, More Crime

On November 24th, 2004, at a hunting range in northwest Wisconsin, a hunter named Chai Vang was involved in a dispute with 15 other hunters. The dispute resulted in a firefight, in which Vang fired his 7.62x39 Saiga semi-automatic rifle, which killed six and injured two. The names of the dead were: Robert Crotteau, Joey Crotteau, Alan Laski, Mark Roidt,  Jessica Willers, and Denny Drew. Each of them had one thing in common: they were all carrying a gun.

On Apri 4th, 2009, in the Stanton Heights Neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Richard Poplawski opened fire with a WASR-10 semi-automatic rifle on a group of police officers, killing three and wounding two. The names of the dead police officers were: Eric Kelly, Steven Mayhle, and Paul Sciullio. All of the officers were armed.

On February 24th, 2005, in at a courthouse in Tyler Texas, David Hernandez Arroyo carried a MAK-90 semi-automatic into a courtroom and opened fire. His ex-wife, Mirabel Estrada, was killed. Also killed was a local resident, Mark Alan Wilson. Wilson had a concealed carry permit. And a gun.

The formula is simple: More guns, more crime. The lawless individual who cares not for gun laws also cares not as to whether his victims have guns. Or police protection. Columbine High School had an armed police officer when Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris killed 13 people before committing suicide. Virginia Tech, like most colleges and universities, had an entire in-house police force.

Unfettered access to guns is killing us, and in each of these aforementioned massacres, the guns were purchased legally. We have heard the arguments from the gun enthusiast crowd over and over again. The criminal would have gotten the gun anyway. Guns make us safer. Common sense, and statistics, do prove otherwise.

And we intend to prove it.