The Ineffectiveness Of Defense Free Zones

Gun free zones do not work. According to lp.org, many mass shootings are stopped simply because a potential victim had a firearm at the time and used it properly. In instances where the event was not stopped in time, many were gun free zones. Gun free zones are not the answer to stopping these tragedies. A gun free zone actually creates a target for anybody planning on committing atrocities like a mass shooting and ensures any victims are unable to defend themselves and fight back. Areas that have posted gun free signs tend to have a higher crime rate than areas that are known to have an armed populace because criminals have the common sense to attack helpless citizens.

Most guns used in violent crime are bought illegally so even keeping track of registered gun owners wouldn’t stop gun related crime. Completely taking guns away would only stop 20% of gun-related deaths according to FBI and CDC statistics on gun-related death. The other 80% would soon encompass a larger amount of victims if it weren’t for people like Stephen Willeford. Stephen Willeford, the hero of the Sutherland Springs church shooting, used his legally owned AR-15 to stop the shooter and pursued him until the police arrived. Had this man not shot and injured him, he wouldn’t have stopped and according to Willeford himself, the shooter fled in a vehicle with more guns and much more ammunition in the direction of even more places of worship. It was only because of a legally owned firearm that a travesty such as Sutherland Springs did not escalate further. Willeford stated in an interview with Steven Crowder that had he not stopped the criminal that eventually he would have gotten in a shootout with the cops and more lives would have been at risk. Stephen Willeford could have done as many in his community did and waited anxiously in his home for the police to arrive, but he took action because he was there at the time of the event and was armed and knew how to use his weapons. Churches are generally accepted by society to be a place of worship and many opt to leave their guns at home or in their vehicles, leading to nobody in the church being in a position to fight off the attacker. If we made it legal to carry in places like churches or armed the staff of many establishments rather than making them gun-free zones, the lives saved would be unimaginable because of the presence of guns. Many school shootings don’t make it to mainstream media because they are stopped before any deaths can occur.

The main thing connecting most of these events is an armed staff member, many times not even security but a teacher or office worker, stopping the shooter themselves. Taking away someone’s right to defend themselves wherever they happen to be does not save their lives. Taking their legal weapons condemns them to die to an illegal weapon. A mass shooting in areas with no guns ends one of two ways. Either the cops arrive after people have already been long dead, or the job gets done. This is the reality of these “defense free zones”.