“Armed citizens swarmed the crooks to protect their community and local business. They wore no uniforms and had no official mandate to step into the line of fire. But they acted bravely and unhesitantly in a time of crisis against highly organized criminals—a sharp contrast to what took place during the Parkland, Florida, school shooting, in which armed, trained members of law enforcement didn’t rush in to stop the shooter.”
A frequent criticism levied at those who oppose widespread gun control is that they want to return to a kind of Wild West of violence and criminality.
But now, ironically, more and more people on the left are pointing to the Old West as a model for gun control. They say that conservatives are wrong to think the Second Amendment right to bear arms is ingrained in American history.
A recent article in Smithsonian Magazine called “Gun Control Is as Old as the Old West” laid out the case that some famous western towns, like Tombstone and Dodge City, actually had gun control laws.
But injecting these laws into the modern gun debate would seem to be ill-advised, especially if they are used to argue that “disarmed” societies are necessarily safer.
by Jarrett Stepman
