Will Hillary Clinton Come After Your Guns?

Hillary Clinton spoke out this week against widespread gun ownership.

The presumed 2016 presidential candidate for the Democrats was speaking at a mental health conference in Maryland on Tuesday when she appeared to be endorsing additional gun control measures.

On the subject of guns, Clinton said, “I think again we’re way out of balance. I think that we’ve got to rein in what has become an almost article of faith that anybody can have a gun anywhere, anytime. And I don’t believe that is in the best interest of the vast majority of people. And I think you can say that and still support the right of people to own guns.”

Apparently alluding to incidents such as the Florida movie theater shooting, the former US Secretary of State claimed that “at the rate we’re going, we’re going to have so many people with guns everywhere, fully licensed, fully validated” and that the US gun culture is equivalent to countries that she has visited “where there is no rule of law and no self-control.”

Most Americans regardless of their gun ownership or non-ownership would agree that it is crucial to keep firearms away from criminals and those persons who are mentally ill. The difficulty is that much of the proposed or enacted feel-good regulations exert their effect primarily on law-abiding citizens. In addition, the Obama administration — which supports additional gun restrictions including those that failed to pass the Democrat-controlled US Senate — reportedly has a lackluster record in prosecuting federal gun crimes under laws already on the books, including in the city of Chicago which has been engulfed in a long-standing violent crime wave.

Moreover, a recent Harvard study contends that more guns actually equals less crime: “… adoption of state laws permitting millions of qualified citizens to carry guns has not resulted in more murder or violent crime in these states. Rather, adoption of these statutes has been followed by very significant reductions in murder and violence in these states.” The study also claimed that a county like the UK which has banned all handguns has experienced a sharp increase in violent crime.

Do you agree with Hillary Clinton that gun ownership is out of balance and has to be reined in? Is that point of view consistent with the Second Amendment?