Ronald Reagan Discusses Gun Control Laws | Short Clips

It's a nasty truth, but those who seek to inflict harm Are not fazed by gun control laws. I happen to know this from personal experience. *applause* You know, I've always felt a special bond with the members of your group You live by Lincoln's words: "Important principles may and must be inflexible." Your philosophy put its trust in people, So you insist on individuals be held responsible for their actions The NRA believes that America's laws were made to be obeyed, And that our Constitutional liberties are just as important today as 200 years ago. And by the way, the Constitution does not say That government shall decree the right to keep and bear arms. The Constitution says the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed. The next time you hear a politician call for common-sense gun control, listen for the details. You are likely to be treated to a torrent of platitudes about assault weapons, Gun show sales, and other half measures These sorts of proposals are rooted in a theory of gun control that has been around since the 1960s The basic idea is that fewer guns equal less gun crime But for this theory to have even a chance of working, Drastic reductions in the supply of guns will be necessary Everything else amounts to security theater The late Senator Howard Metzenbaum, a strong gun control advocate, Explained it this way: If you don't ban all guns, you might as well ban none of them But few of any politicians who call for common-sense gun control have the courage to propose this. Even putting aside the issue of the Second Amendment to the Constitution, Which affirms the right to keep and bear arms. A gun ban has no broad popular support. Never mind that Conservative states handgun ban referendums Failed by large margins in two of our most liberal states: Massachusetts in 1976, and California in 1982. No serious attempts have been made since then. Recently, Australia's gun control efforts have gained new prominence As a possible model for the United States to follow. Let's take a closer look at Australia. In 1996, after a lunatic used a semi-automatic rifle to murder 34 people in Tasmania, The Australian government banned all semi-automatic rifles and repeating shotguns Owners of roughly 700,000 registered firearms, About a quarter of the country's 3 million total guns, were required to turn them in for destruction. The government called this a buyback, but in fact, no one had a choice. As my research shows, this model will not work in the United States, For the simple reason that the U.S. has roughly 325 million guns. This is orders of magnitude more than any other country Even if the Australian plan were tried in the U.S. and worked perfection, We'd still be left with over 200 million guns. Including handguns, which account for nearly 80% of gun crime. But gun confiscation has never worked to perfection, And sometimes threatens to make things worse.