Firearm and Knife Laws by Robert Wayne Atkins, P.E.

Every society needs laws to protect the honest people within that society.

However, some laws only hurt the honest people within a society. And worse still, these laws actually help the evil people within that society to flourish. These types of laws should never have been passed.

A specific example would be firearm related laws and knife related laws. These laws are theoretically passed for the good of the common citizen but they don’t work that way. The criminals among us completely ignore these laws. And when a criminal is caught breaking one of these laws the court system does very little to punish that criminal for breaking that specific law.

On the other hand, if an honest person who has no history of criminal behavior accidentally breaks one of these laws then that person almost always receives the maximum punishment under the law, which in many cases may be five or ten or twenty years of prison time. What kind of justice system do we have where repeat criminal offenders can do almost anything they wish but an honest person is cast into prison for a very long time just for carrying a weapon? And the honest person didn't even use that weapon in any type of theft or criminal activity. The honest person was simply arrested, convicted, and then thrown into prison for having that weapon in his or her possession for personal self-defense.

When you stop and think about it, then you may decide that it is a mockery of justice to force honest people who have never committed a felony to obey laws that the hardened criminals among us simply ignore.

These laws do nothing to protect anyone. If a person with no previous criminal record suddenly decides he or she is going to do something awful, then that person will do something awful. At that moment in time the person has no intention of obeying any law. If they obeyed the law then they would not do the awful thing they have planned. Therefore passing some type of law in the false belief that it will prevent bad things from happening is just plain silly.

It has always been extremely easy to kill another person. In the Holy Bible Cain killed his brother Abel. And he didn’t need a firearm or a knife to do it. Once a person has decided that he or she is going to do something evil then he or she will figure out a way to do it. No law is going to stop that person from doing the evil deed.

The only thing that might restrain a person from committing murder is the fear of capital punishment. When the United States of America became a kinder and gentler nation and we stopped executing our convicted murderers then our murder rate began to increase exponentially. Therefore, instead of forcing honest people to obey laws that will probably get them killed, doesn’t it make more sense to simply punish the convicted murders among us the old-fashioned way by ending their life and doing so within a reasonable period of time after they have been legally convicted of murder? If murder trials were over within thirty days after the original arrest, and if a person was convicted of murder and the state execution was done sometime the following week, then there would probably be a lot fewer murders because then the criminals would have something to fear. (Note: A punishment of "life in prison" does not scare a murderer and "life in prison" only imposes a significant financial burden on the honest law-abiding citizens of a nation.)

In my opinion, firearm and knife laws should only apply to convicted felons. Anyone who does not have a felony conviction should be allowed to exercise his or her own good judgment in what he or she will purchase and carry for self-defense. This means a person without a felony conviction would have the right to purchase, own, and carry any type of weapon at any time in any place without being subject to any type of firearm or knife law. Period.

This means any honest law-abiding person who does not have a previous felony conviction, or any other serious criminal conviction, could legally carry a firearm or a knife inside a bank, or a school, or a church, or a store, or a post office, or a home, or a car, or while walking on the street, or anywhere else.

When someone who is truly evil makes a decision to kill innocent helpless people then that evil person will do his or her evil deed anywhere that honest people are prohibited by law from having any type of weapon that could be used against the evil person. That is the reason these horrible killing sprees usually take place inside a church or on school property. The evil person knows he or she can kill anyone and everyone at the church or school without any fear of being stopped by someone who is armed at that location. On the other hand, if church members and school teachers were allowed the freedom to carry a weapon for self-defense inside those buildings then the killings at those locations would either not happen, or the evil person would be terminated before a huge number of innocent helpless people were slaughtered.

The only logical exceptions would be areas where there would be a high probability that a criminal activity might take place, such as inside a court house or a jail where a criminal's friends might try to free a criminal using violence. These areas could be posted as "Weapon Free Zones" to everyone except the authorized security personnel within those areas.

Will firearm accidents happen? Absolutely. But just because there is a random firearm accident should not mean that everyone loses their firearm rights. That would be similar to taking away everyone's right to drive because a car accident happened somewhere in the United States. That would be silly. Or taking away everyone's right to drive because a car was used somewhere in the United States to commit a serious crime. But this same type of flawed reasoning is used by unethical individuals to justify firearm laws that should never have been passed.

But that is just my common sense opinion. And it would be highly improbable for most people within the legal system to agree with my common sense reasoning. If they did agree then they could no longer intimidate us honest people into becoming helpless defenseless victims for the predators among us. And without lots of helpless defenseless victims then there would be an immediate reduction in the crime rate and the number of court cases. And that would immediately reduce the revenue generated from those court cases to everyone within the entire legal system. Therefore, it would not be good thing for the legal system to have less crime. It would only be a good thing for the honest people within our society. (Note: If our nation continues to allow its honest citizens to be destroyed then it won't be much longer before there won't be enough honest people to support our legal system or our political system. If that happens then nobody in law enforcement or in politics will be safe from the criminals who will then control our country. If you don't believe this could happen then take a close look at the current situation in Mexico, one of our very close neighbor countries.)

One day the honest citizens within a nation will realize that they should not be subject to the same laws that convicted felons are subject to. And those honest citizens will demand that the laws be changed so that all honest people will have the legal right to protect themselves from any criminal who is trying to harm them or kill them.

This is not a new or a radical concept. The Second Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America, passed on December 15, 1791, reads as follows: "A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed." Our founding forefathers intended for us to have the right to own and carry firearms without any interference from any government authority and they tried to protect that right with the Second Amendment.

Our founding forefathers very carefully chose the word “Arms” when they drafted the Second Amendment. In the year 1791 the word “Arms” referred to firearms, knives, bayonets, spears, swords, pikes, and everything else that a person might use in self-defense or in a military battle. Every time a law is passed that restricts the rights of United States citizens to purchase, own, or carry any type of firearm, or knife, or other weapon then that law is in direct violation of the Second Amendment to the Constitution.

Perhaps now is the time for the honest people within our nation to insist that our Constitutional Rights be restored to us in full.

Now is not the time to pass additional laws that restrict the rights of honest law-abiding people to carry firearms or knives. The laws we currently have are not working. These laws have not been working for a very long period of time. The reason these laws don’t work is because the only people who obey these laws are the honest law-abiding people within a nation. The criminals within a nation have absolutely no intention of obeying the existing laws or any new laws that might be passed. Therefore anyone who believes that we need more firearm or knife laws is either: (1) completely ignoring the failure of our existing laws to discourage criminal activity, or (2) secretly desires to further restrict the rights of honest people to protect themselves in order to make it easier for criminals to take advantage of us and kill us.

Please do not support or vote for anyone who wants to create more firearm or knife laws. Instead it would probably be wise to support and vote for individuals who promise that they will work diligently to repeal all the existing firearm and knife laws and replace them with a few very simple laws that only apply to convicted felons and other individuals who have been convicted of a really serious crime.

If any of our existing United States Congressmen are serious about reducing the crime rate then they should not explain to us why this suggestion won't work. Instead they should be actively supporting us in the elimination of all the existing firearm and knife laws because these laws are not working and they need to be repealed. Our existing firearm and knife laws do not need to be simply "revised to make them work better." They need to be either repealed or they need to be reworded so they only apply to a person convicted of a felony or some other really serious crime. Rewording the existing laws so they only apply to convicted felons will not force a criminal to obey those laws but it will allow honest law-abiding people the right to arm and protect themselves against criminals without fear of being punished by their own government.

Even if our United States Congressmen won't listen to us then maybe our state Congressmen will and they will repeal our state firearm and knife laws or reword them so they only apply to criminals convicted of serious crimes.

This would not be a monumental undertaking. It would only require the creation and passage of one short simple new law that says something similar to the following: "Any United States citizen of any age who has not been convicted of a felony or other serious crime is immediately exempt from any and all firearm and knife laws of this state (or nation) and that citizen may now legally purchase and carry any type of firearm or firearm related item or knife, either concealed or unconcealed, anywhere within this state (or nation) with the exception of Court Houses and Jails and similar institutions that confine arrested individuals. This law does not give any citizen the right to use a firearm or a knife to commit a crime and if a citizen of any age uses a firearm or a knife to commit a crime then that citizen will be prosecuted for the commission of that crime. However a citizen will not be prosecuted for simply owning and carrying a firearm or a knife unless that citizen has been previously convicted of a felony or other serious crime and that citizen has forfeited the right to carry a firearm or a knife."

Will some people try to take advantage of the above law? Absolutely. There are criminals right now who ignore our laws and there will be criminals in the future who will continue to ignore our laws. But the above law, or something similar that contains all the right words, will immediately restore the constitutional rights of all honest law-abiding citizens and it will give us the right to legally protect ourselves, our families, our homes, and the communities in which we live.

Why is right now the correct time for a law similar to the above? Because our entire world is experiencing serious hard times. In the United States of America the hard times have resulted in reduced tax revenues, and therefore reduced operating budgets, and that has resulted in reductions in the size of our police force. At the same time there are now more people doing bad things and this means the crime rate is increasing.

In summary, during hard times there are fewer police but more crimes are being committed. Wouldn't it make good sense to allow the honest law-abiding citizens within our nation the right to carry any type of firearm or knife they want so they can protect themselves? This would immediately make it more difficult for criminals to be successful. You be the judge and you decide for yourself what you believe is right. Then support our leaders who feel the same way you do.

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