The Second Amendment Is Not The Problem – Video Livestreamed From Chicago Basketball Court Shows Youths Armed To The Teeth

A disturbing video uploaded to social media shows a bunch of black youths, most of which are teens, showing off the massive cache of weapons they are carrying at an indoor basketball court.

The video is said to be from the south side of Chicago.

Video below:

Across the country, there has been a 66 percent increase in mass shootings since 2019 according to the Gun Violence Archive.

In Chicago, mass shooting data obtained by the I-Team from GVA shows a similar sizable jump in mass shootings

In 2019, there were 33. In 2020, the number jumped to 53 and last year it was at 60.

The majority of gun crimes committed are crimes in which a gun is never fired, but is simply used as a threat, but simultaneously, a large portion of those juveniles found carrying illegal guns claim that they require the weapons in order to protect themselves from opposing gangs and other threats. This makes the presence of illegal guns in American society even more problematic.

Criminals, by definition, do not obey the law. Gun control laws only affect law-abiding people who go through legal avenues to obtain firearms.

Criminals overwhelmingly obtain their firearms through illegal channels and will never be deterred by state and federal laws. That’s why background checks have virtually no impact on criminals.

A 2016 Obama administration study by the Bureau of Justice Statistics examined how prison inmates obtained the firearms they used during crimes — and the results weren’t surprising. The study found that only about 10.1% obtained their firearms through a retail source.

The vast majority of criminals obtained their firearms through other means, including: [1]

Illegal underground sales
Bought, borrowed, traded, or rented from friends or family
Gifts
Purchased by another individual for them
Theft
From their victims
From the scene of a crime

Criminals who go through illegal avenues to obtain firearms aren’t going to submit to background checks while doing so. Ultimately, only law-abiding citizens would be impacted by expanded background checks.

Background Checks Aren’t Effective

Even if criminals did submit to background checks, we’ve seen that these checks aren’t effective at stopping those who intend to use guns to commit crimes.

Consider the following scenarios.

A person with no criminal history walks into a store to buy a gun they’ll use to commit a crime. A background check most likely won’t stop them.

A drug addict lies about their addiction on a federal background check form. Although this individual is committing a federal crime, a background check most likely won’t stop them.

A person with serious mental health issues but no history of treatment or institutionalization goes to buy a gun. A background check most likely won’t stop them.

It makes sense then that background checks have no impact on violent crime.

Just take a look at California, a state that’s had background checks in place for decades. In 2018, a study was released that examined the effect of comprehensive background checks on the state. The study examined nearly two decades (1981-2000) of data and found that background checks had no effect on homicide rates in California. [2]

Again and again, firearm background checks have proven to be ineffective. What we do know is that they simply make the gun buying process more difficult for law-abiding citizens.

Crime Goes Down When Good Guys Have Guns

On the other hand, allowing law-abiding citizens to more easily access firearms does help reduce violent crime.

Gun control advocates have long promoted the idea that making firearms more accessible would increase crime. But time has told a different story. Gun ownership is up, and violent crime is down overall.

Let’s look over some quick facts:

Over the past three decades (1991-2019), violent crime rates have dropped by more than half. The number of privately-owned firearms in the United States doubled in that same period. [3][4]
The number of people carrying a firearm for protection outside the home has also risen to all-time highs as violent crime dropped. [5]
Mass murderers have repeatedly been deterred or stopped by citizens carrying lawfully concealed firearms. [6]
Concealed carry laws help reduce the number of rapes and robberies overall. [7]

It makes sense that criminals would be far less likely to commit a crime if they believed their victim might be armed. In fact, a major study of 2,000 felons in state and federal prisons across the United States showed that criminals actually fear armed citizens more than they fear the police. [8]

Cities with the Strictest Gun Control Have the Highest Crime Rates

Does gun control reduce crime? The evidence says no.