IN ARIZONA IT’S CRIMINAL CONTROL, NOT GUN CONTROL

You would think that Arizona is just one gigantic OK Corral. No permits are needed to carry a concealed firearm. You can carry your gun into a bar. Law-abiding citizens can carry a gun openly anywhere in public. Yet surprisingly there have been relatively few shootouts in the state. What’s the secret?

There is no secret. This week in her State of the State address, Gov. Jan Brewer said that Arizona had reduced crime by “punishing criminals and not by infringing on the rights of law-abiding gun owners.”

President Obama has just issued 23 executive orders which he believes will reduce gun violence. He also called on Congress to pass a new and tougher assault weapons ban and a ban on any magazines that hold more than 10 rounds. He wants Congress to outlaw the possession of armor-piercing ammunition. And he wants legislation to require background checks for nearly all gun sales, including private ones.

In announcing his gun control plan, Obama said “If there’s even one life that can be saved, then we’ve got an obligation to try.”

Obama’s grandiose gun control plan may indeed save a life here and there but it will not stop mass shootings and other gun violence because criminals, gangbangers and psychos will still be able to get their hands on guns if they are determined to do so.

As for that proposed assault weapons ban, only two percent of gun deaths in the U.S. are caused by the use of rifles and that includes rifles that are not military-style firearms. And all the executive orders and legislation to prevent the mentally ill from obtaining firearms fail to take into consideration that a mentally healthy gun owner can turn psychotic in the blink of an eye.

Obama’s gun control proposals are nothing more than feel-good fluff that will impact mainly law-abiding citizens without any significant reduction in gun violence. The President is preaching to the gun control choir by taking political advantage of the 20 little children that were killed by a crazed gunman.

Arizona has the right idea. Lock up criminals. But eventually the federal courts will order Arizona to reduce its inmate population because prior decisions have ruled that prison overcrowding constitutes cruel and unusual punishment. You only have to look at California to see where that will lead Arizona.