No other instrument or object in American society is more vilified and maligned -- or evokes more emotion and passionate debate -- than the firearm . Any category of death by unnatural causes should get attention . However , when that death occurs as the result of a gun being illegally used , reason and logic are marginalized , myths become facts and emotion drives the conversation . The problem with the gun in America is that the left has politicized it . An entire advocacy has been developed and is part of their political platform . Their call for gun control is deceptively wrapped around a theme of reducing street violence and mass killings . The flaw in their argument is that none of the remedies they offer to reduce these senseless acts has anything to do with why this violence occurs . For the anti-gun cabal , this is more about defeating a political adversary , the influential National Rifle Association , than it is about reducing gun violence . Universal background checks and limiting magazine capacity are offered as reasonable approaches to reducing violence . Neither of these suggestions is directly associated with gun violence . Instead , these technical fixes frustrate the overwhelming number of law-abiding American gun owners . Our system of jurisprudence is predicated on punishing those individuals directly involved in committing crime , not those who are not . Gun control has never worked to eradicate violence . The cities of Chicago and Washington have had some of the strictest gun laws in America , yet they continue to experience high levels of gun-related , violent crime . A little-talked-about truth is that gun control in America has its roots in racism . Its original intent was to keep firearms out of the hands of black people , more specifically , newly-freed slaves . As Charles C.W . Cooke noted in his article `` The Great Equalizer , '' civil rights champion Ida B . Wells said this about the value of bearing arms , `` ... the only case where the proposed lynching ( of a Black man ) did not occur was where the men armed themselves . '' She went on to say that the `` lesson that teaches , and which every Afro-American should ponder well , is that a Winchester rifle should have a place of honor in every black home and it should be used for that protection which the law refuses to give . '' In a recent New York Times article , Charles W. Cooke quoted civil rights champion Ida B . Wells on the value of bearing arms : `` ' ... the only times an Afro-American who was assaulted got away has been when he had a gun and used it in self-defense . ' '' And , quoting her further : `` ' ... a Winchester rifle should have a place of honor in every black home , and it should be used for that protection which the law refuses to give . ' '' Abolitionist Frederick Douglass also supported the right of blacks to arm themselves to guard against mob violence . As noted in Stephen P. Halbrook 's book , `` That Every Man Be Armed : The Evolution of a Constitutional Right , '' Douglass believed that `` slaves without arms '' could never attain freedom . Even the U.S. Congress at the time recognized the key role that arming blacks played in the ending of slavery . In 2010 , the U.S. Supreme Court granted Otis McDonald , a Chicago resident , that same protection by validating his right to keep and bear arms when they struck down the city 's unreasonable gun control ordinance . McDonald sued Chicago , claiming that the restriction prevented him from protecting himself and his home from gang violence . Preventing private citizens the right to arm themselves for their own defense is a de facto death sentence . Here are more effective ways to reduce gun violence : . First , let 's rid ourselves of the fantasy that strict gun control is even achievable . In his blog for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel , Marquette University law professor Rick Esenberg said that `` such a conversation about gun violence should be tempered by constitutional , political and practical realities . We are not about to ban the private ownership of guns in the United States . '' Second , end social engineering experiments in the criminal justice system that see criminal perpetrators in a warped view as victims of society to be treated leniently . Punishment , when applied early in a criminal 's career , is an effective deterrent to crime . Finally , stop conditioning society that guns are evil . They save many more lives than they take . Instead , start providing gun safety education that teaches people to respect firearms , not fear them .
The CNN Guns Project explores the role of guns in the United States . He says many gun restrictions are n't directly associated with gun violence . We should n't view guns as victims who need to be treated leniently , he says . We also need to stop conditioning society that guns are evil , he says .