Door to Door Gun Seizure Program in DC

DC police will be going door to door in DC neighborhoods in search of guns and drugs. Similar programs are already underway in Boston, with other cities considering similar measures as well.

Under the program, police will knock on doors and ask to search your home for guns and drugs. Homeowners consenting to search will be asked to sign a release form, and granted amnesty should any guns or drugs be found on their property.

However, a couple of paragraphs after the Mayor guarantees amnesty, he goes back on his word. The program will test seized guns to determine whether or not they have been used in a crime and, if the test are positive, investigations will be launched. The investigations could lead to charges. Welcome to amnesty, DC style.

While the program sounds like a great idea to help rid the city of its crime problem, my opinion is this measure will only increase crime levels in the city. Law-abiding homeowners who have their guns seized will be left without any protection against criminals in their neighborhoods. The practice of disarming private citizens, through amnesty programs or otherwise, always results in higher crime rates.

The classic argument in favor of private citizens' right to own firearms goes something like this:

Gun control laws, by definition, are designed to eliminate (or control) the presence of firearms in a community. When passed in to law, law-abiding citizens are forced to give up their firearms or face criminal charges for possessing them. Criminals, on the other hand, do not obey laws, so there's no reason to believe they will obey gun control laws. Therefore, gun control laws will only disarm honest people, and leave them at the mercy of criminals with guns, leading to more crime. Under this program, honest citizens will be easy prey for criminals with guns.

Put yourself in the mind of a criminal for a second. Are you more likely to attack a house where you know the owner has a gun, or are uncertain if the owner has a gun? Or are you more likely to attack a house where the owner has no gun? The answer is obvious. The DC amnesty program will serve as an advertisement for criminals to invade private residences by guaranteeing them the absence of resistance from the homeowner.

Further, it's no coincidence that the first neighborhoods police will target are the same ones that have the highest crime levels. If I were to venture a guess, I'd say that those same neighborhoods are the ones that receive the least amount of police protection. Remember, police aren't as concerned about protecting the public as they are concerned about protecting themselves...that's why they stay out of bad neighborhoods. Removing firearms from citizens in high crime areas will accelerate the crime rate even faster than in other parts of the city.

Finally, this program will guarantee that the only people carrying guns in the city are government-funded police and criminals. Given the recent surge in cases with alleged police brutality, the line between criminal and government-funded thug is becoming increasingly difficult to define...and programs like this will only underscore that difficulty.