Many of us who are dedicated to 2nd Amendment rights have said over the years that if we were to outlaw guns, only criminals would have guns because, of course, outlaws do not modify their behavior based on the law. They base it on what they can get away with. We are repeatedly bombarded by those who would, due to the illicit use of some guns, take away all the guns from law-abiding citizens. We are told that society is so violent because guns are so readily available. What if we were to discover that an armed citizenry was actually a restraining force against evil in society? We have.

The London Times acknowledges what we already knew:

Despite a ban on handguns introduced in 1997 after 16 children and their teacher were shot dead in the Dunblane massacre the previous year, their use in crimes has almost doubled to reach 4,671 in 2005-06. Official figures show that although Britain has some of the toughest anti-gun laws in the world, firearm use in crime has risen steadily. This year eight young people have been killed in gun attacks: six in London and one each in Manchester and Liverpool.

The evidence is conclusive. If you want to see gun crime rise exponentially, confiscate guns from those who law-abiding citizens who would turn them in, while leaving the criminals, thugs, and gangsters armed. Armed citizens are actually the reason that gun crime is not higher than it is. And so, as they say, you’ll get my gun when you pry it from my cold, dead fingers.