Issue Position: Gun Rights

Issue Position

In the 112th Congress, I have reintroduced the Citizens' Self-Defense Act of 2010 (HR 2252), which reaffirms the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms and puts criminals on notice that law abiding citizens could use deadly force, if necessary, to defend themselves, their family and their homes.

In District of Columbia v. Heller, the Supreme Court of the United Sates ruled that an individual's right to possess a firearm and use it for self-defense in the home, is protected by the Second Amendment of the Constitution. This reaffirms the need for a federal statute in support of the Supreme Court's decision.

It is illogical and unfair that current crime prevention tactics intend to make society safer by denying law abiding citizens the right to defend themselves with a firearm. Such policy fails to recognize that criminals, not guns, cause crime and violence. Making guns more difficult to obtain legally will only expand the black market, the primary source of firearms for criminals.

Statistics support the fact that gun control is not an effective vehicle for combating violent crime. Washington, D.C. is an example of this. When Washington, D.C. banned the private ownership of handguns, it was rewarded with higher homicide rates which rank amongst the highest in the country. Although banning guns makes a moving emotional argument, it is ineffective as a deterrent to crime.

Thomas Jefferson once argued that, "Laws that forbid the carrying of arms…disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes…Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants; they serve rather to encourage than to prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed man." These words were as true then as they are today. It is upon such wisdom that my legislation was crafted.

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