By Will Arthur | USA

One of the few issues dividing the economic left and right today is their respective views on gun control. Generally, Republicans and conservatives support and respect a citizen’s right to own a firearm to a greater degree. However, Democrats and liberals are more likely to fight for gun control, believing it would bring safety to our nation. They claim this safety as more important than the freedom it restricts. Despite this claim, there are serious contradictions with who the left thinks should own and control firearms.

Far too often, citizens are shot, tazed, brutally injured, or even killed by police officers. The vast majority of the time, these acts are wrongful, but courts rarely deem them as such. Frequently, the officer in question receives no trial at all, let alone an adequate punishment. When these awful events occur, Democrats are often keen on pointing out cases of police brutality. Perhaps most famously, they spoke out against such police violence at their 2016 National Convention.

However, what makes these protests interesting is that the same ideology supports gun control, enforced by the U.S. police. As a Pew Research poll shows Democrats are more likely to lack confidence in the police force, it seems rather strange that they are willing to place the dangerous and complex issue of gun control into the hands of the police. When enforcing gun control, protests and lack of compliance may cause more conflict, injury, and death. So, why then, do Democrats oppose preventable violence in one area but not another?

Yet, Democrats’ desire for a police force that they often protest to enforce gun control is not the only contradiction. If police enforced gun control, Democrats would have to put full trust into the police force not to abuse this given power. If the state stopped citizens from buying certain guns, this would not eliminate them. Instead, state funded groups like the military, FBI, CIA, and the police would be the only ones with them. This transfer of ownership of firearms would create huge differences in power between the people and government.

Essentially, Democrats are protesting one part of our government. Yet, as soon as they would like a law enforced, they turn to this same group of people. They have no problem giving power to the same group they accuse of committing murder. This shows how fast some Democrats will go back on their word. Any supporters of gun control should know this. Gun control is not anti-gun; rather, it is simply giving the guns to a corruptible police force.

(Image from thedailybeast.com)