Millions of law-abiding Americans own firearms.
If you’re not a gunowner yourself, chances are someone you trust is:
A neighbor, a co-worker, a friend or a relative.
But in the last few years, you’ve been asked to believe some very
dangerous things about your fellow Americans, just because they own
guns for protection and recreation.
You’ve been told they’re "bad," and
"different;" that they’re not like you, and that they are responsible for all
sorts of things from crime to accidents to the insane behavior of a few
individuals.
Because you’ve been told to believe those things, millions of Americans
like you have had their rights denied or delayed, with the excuse that you
are being "protected" from other Americans just like you.
In the last few years, most of the action has come in the form of
government regulation or interpretation of laws. These regulations have
been enacted against Americans not in the sunshine of democracy, but in
the shadow of bureaucracy. There is little or no recourse for your fellow
Americans.
Gunowners are denied one of the most basic rights: the right
to state their case, not just to legislators, but to other Americans.
A dangerous new front has now been opened against all Americans with
the intention of several big city mayors to abandon their duties to their
citizens to find reasonable and just solutions to crime. Instead, these
mayors prefer to rely on contingency-fee crazed lawyers uninterested in
rights, justice or common sense.
Time after time, statistics by independent researchers have shown
that American gunowners are not the problem.
They do not break the law when they seek the legal means to own a gun.
They are not, and have never been, the problem.
The research shows
just the opposite: in states where citizens are accorded the right to own
and carry a firearm for personal protection, crime rates are lower – much
lower – than in places that enact strict control of law-abiding Americans –
places like Washington, DC, and Chicago.
Common sense tells you that if crime flourishes, if rapes, assaults,
robberies and even murder, are higher in places that deny people just like
you the means to self-protection and the protection of their homes and
families, then, at the very least, American gunowners are not the
problem.
It is a dangerous experiment to remove freedoms, one by one,
in exchange for the broken promise of safety.
It’s always been easier to blame people, especially if you isolate them
with labels and name-calling, for problems that are obviously larger, more
complicated, and sometimes even insoluble, than it is to work together and at the same time, we respect each other and our differences.
It can’t make sense to ignore existing laws, and instead pile on more and more, never bothering to use the laws for the benefit of society.
If you think gun control isn’t people control, think again.
The history of gun control – beginning with the denial of firearms rights to
newly freed African-Americans in the post-Civil War South, to those
aimed at immigrants at the turn of the last century –
is a dangerous, deceitful, un-American history of people control.
If laws can be enacted, if
regulations can be implemented, without review or recourse against
Americans just like you,
what and who ---- comes next?
Your friends, neighbors, relatives and co-workers who own guns just
want what you want: the safe and secure lives that Americans declared
their right over 200 years ago; lives that are not judged by others merely
because they "seem different;" the renewed promise of a government
that works for the people and respects their judgement, and a fair and
open hearing in the court of public opinion.
The Bill of Rights guarantees your rights and trusts the people.
All the rights we enjoy today are dependent on one another. Your rights
and liberties, including your privacy
and your personal decisions about
yourself and family are guaranteed
in the Bill of Rights, which includes
the
Second Amendment.
That’s why, for over 25 years, the Second Amendment Foundation has
been dedicated to educating and informing all Americans about our
precious Second Amendment rights, through books, monographs,
periodicals, scholars conferences, grassroots seminars, court cases and
public information ads like this.
To learn more about the Second Amendment Foundation,
write us at 12500 NE Tenth Place, Bellevue, WA 98005, or visit
our website at www.saf.org.
If you’re not a gunowner yourself, chances are someone you trust is:
A neighbor, a co-worker, a friend or a relative.
But in the last few years, you’ve been asked to believe some very
dangerous things about your fellow Americans, just because they own
guns for protection and recreation.
You’ve been told they’re "bad," and
"different;" that they’re not like you, and that they are responsible for all
sorts of things from crime to accidents to the insane behavior of a few
individuals.
Because you’ve been told to believe those things, millions of Americans
like you have had their rights denied or delayed, with the excuse that you
are being "protected" from other Americans just like you.
In the last few years, most of the action has come in the form of
government regulation or interpretation of laws. These regulations have
been enacted against Americans not in the sunshine of democracy, but in
the shadow of bureaucracy. There is little or no recourse for your fellow
Americans.
Gunowners are denied one of the most basic rights: the right
to state their case, not just to legislators, but to other Americans.
A dangerous new front has now been opened against all Americans with
the intention of several big city mayors to abandon their duties to their
citizens to find reasonable and just solutions to crime. Instead, these
mayors prefer to rely on contingency-fee crazed lawyers uninterested in
rights, justice or common sense.
Time after time, statistics by independent researchers have shown
that American gunowners are not the problem.
They do not break the law when they seek the legal means to own a gun.
They are not, and have never been, the problem.
The research shows
just the opposite: in states where citizens are accorded the right to own
and carry a firearm for personal protection, crime rates are lower – much
lower – than in places that enact strict control of law-abiding Americans –
places like Washington, DC, and Chicago.
Common sense tells you that if crime flourishes, if rapes, assaults,
robberies and even murder, are higher in places that deny people just like
you the means to self-protection and the protection of their homes and
families, then, at the very least, American gunowners are not the
problem.
It is a dangerous experiment to remove freedoms, one by one,
in exchange for the broken promise of safety.
It’s always been easier to blame people, especially if you isolate them
with labels and name-calling, for problems that are obviously larger, more
complicated, and sometimes even insoluble, than it is to work together and at the same time, we respect each other and our differences.
It can’t make sense to ignore existing laws, and instead pile on more and more, never bothering to use the laws for the benefit of society.
If you think gun control isn’t people control, think again.
The history of gun control – beginning with the denial of firearms rights to
newly freed African-Americans in the post-Civil War South, to those
aimed at immigrants at the turn of the last century –
is a dangerous, deceitful, un-American history of people control.
If laws can be enacted, if
regulations can be implemented, without review or recourse against
Americans just like you,
what and who ---- comes next?
Your friends, neighbors, relatives and co-workers who own guns just
want what you want: the safe and secure lives that Americans declared
their right over 200 years ago; lives that are not judged by others merely
because they "seem different;" the renewed promise of a government
that works for the people and respects their judgement, and a fair and
open hearing in the court of public opinion.
The Bill of Rights guarantees your rights and trusts the people.
All the rights we enjoy today are dependent on one another. Your rights
and liberties, including your privacy
and your personal decisions about
yourself and family are guaranteed
in the Bill of Rights, which includes
the
Second Amendment.
That’s why, for over 25 years, the Second Amendment Foundation has
been dedicated to educating and informing all Americans about our
precious Second Amendment rights, through books, monographs,
periodicals, scholars conferences, grassroots seminars, court cases and
public information ads like this.
To learn more about the Second Amendment Foundation,
write us at 12500 NE Tenth Place, Bellevue, WA 98005, or visit
our website at www.saf.org.