At 1:30 into this video, the interviewer asks rapper YFN Kay if “gun violence” can ever be stopped. “I think it can be contained, but never stopped,” he opines. “I think it’s like part of the world it’s just what goes on. It’s just part of the world goin’ and changing and it’s gonna go and change with it, but I don’t think it’s ever gonna stop.” In other words, there are bad people and there are guns. You’ll never stop bad people being bad or stop bad people from getting guns.
That reality — that bad people ignore “good” laws — undermines gun control. Its advocates either ignore the implications or resort to incrementalism. If a law saves just one life, it’s worth it! Never mind all the lives not saved (i.e. lost) because gun control laws prevented civilians from arming themselves in defense of innocent life.
So why can’t gun control advocates face reality? What is it that keeps them in a permanent state of denial (e.g., California)?