WHO IS REALLY TO BLAME FOR GUN VIOLENCE?

Just about anyone of us gun owners would be the first to decry the killing of cops, murder on  the streets of our inner cities, school shootings and gun violence in general.  Yet, those of us who would never even think to commit one of these crimes have been marginalized and relentlessly blamed for them... simply because we own a gun and often carry it.  

"Pile on more, laws; legislate gun ownership into oblivion!"  Those are the cries of the radicals in  the country.  In fact, that seems to be their answer to most everything; if they don't like it, they make a law against it.  They never stop to analyze the situation from an informed and logical sense.  

The fact of the matter is this: those of us who carry concealed, who are NRA members, who value their gun rights... we as a group commit fewer than 1% of the gun-involved crimes in the country.  The rest of the gun crimes are committed by illegal gun owners or possessors, by the mentally unstable and by career criminals or terrorists.  

That's point one; point two is that there are already hundreds, if not thousands, of laws regarding guns on the books in this country.  So, do those who commit 99% of the gun crimes follow them?  Evidently not; I doubt seriously that someone who had just stolen a gun to use in a crime will go and get a background check before he pulls the trigger.  

The problem here is that the existing laws on the books have insufficient enforcement to prevent the criminal or terrorist from perpetrating their evil-doing.  If there are additional penalties for using a gun in a crime, for example, those penalties are rarely enforced in a court of law.  When it is a felony for a convicted felon to own or possess a gun and he gets caught carrying one, he may be charged with a felony, but it is often reduced to a misdemeanor.  

Point three is that the tougher the gun laws, the higher the violent crime rate.  Just ask those unfortunate people in Chicago who take their lives into their own hands every time they stick their heads out the window.  

So, quit penalizing the 99% of us who own guns and go about our daily lives day after day, year after year, without incident.  Instead, start analyzing the societal problems associated with gun violence, start enforcing the laws already on  the books, and put the blame where it actually belongs... on those who write the laws, enforce them, and interpret and apply them.