Amid the controversy sparked by Jeanine Pirro’s remarks on legal and illegal gun ownership in Washington, D.C., it’s worth noting that all gun regulations are fundamentally flawed.
Gun control is not only unnatural but should also be completely abolished. Well, almost.
I addressed this issue at the Young America Foundation Reagan Lunch Conference in March 2025. During my talk, I mentioned that the unnatural elements of gun control become clear when such laws obstruct individuals from exercising their inherent right to self-defense. Gun control, in essence, undermines the Second Amendment by hindering this right.
Think about this for a moment. In the majority opinion of McDonald v. Chicago (2010), Justice Samuel Alito noted: “Self-defense is a fundamental right, recognized by many legal systems, dating back to ancient times…and in Heller, we regarded individual self-defense as a ‘core element’ of Second Amendment rights.”
Essentially, individual self-defense is the key that opens the door to the Second Amendment. If you remove that key, the door might fall apart or lose its functional shape. This is an untenable situation when we apply it to Second Amendment rights.
Diving deeper, Chicago (2010) is quite revealing as it challenged one of the city’s prominent gun laws—the handgun ban.
Chicago imposed a ban on handgun ownership in 1982, which remained until the Supreme Court intervened in 2010. Now, if gun control truly aligned with our natural rights, including the right to life, we would expect an environment flourishing under even the most restrictive laws, like a total handgun ban. However, Chicago’s murder rate has surged, drawing attention far beyond recent statistics.
For instance, in 2016, Chicago hit its highest post-Prohibition murder rate at 762. Yet, the annual homicide figures had decreased while the handgun ban was enforced.
Breitbart News highlighted that:
In 1993, Chicago police reported 850 murders—almost 100 more than the 762 in 2016, as per CNN. In 1994, there were 930 murders, and in 1991, there were 921. The number of homicides in 1992 reached 940.
The common thread here? All these incidents occurred when the city prohibited responsible citizens from owning handguns for self-defense. They couldn’t even keep them in their homes or cars, let alone carry them. This meant criminals didn’t have to fear retaliation from their victims.
We didn’t have to wait until the 1990s to see the consequences of handgun bans. The first decade following Prohibition demonstrated this. In those years from 1983 to 1989, Tribune noted that murders rose by 41 percent, in contrast to an 18 percent increase nationwide.
If gun control policies were consistent with the right to life, they would promote it; instead, handgun bans had the opposite effect. While in place, the right to self-defense, identified as a ‘central element’ of Second Amendment rights, was severely restricted.
The current situation reflects this same principle. California, while not banning handguns, possesses the strictest gun laws in the country, including numerous restrictions: a ban on “assault weapons,” limits on magazine capacity, monthly purchase limits for law-abiding citizens, universal background checks, red flag laws, permit requirements for concealed carry, a 10-day waiting period for purchases, and bans preventing concealed carry permit holders from defending themselves on college campuses.
But interestingly, California led the nation in “active shooter” incidents in 2021 and 2023, demonstrating that gun control policies still leave residents vulnerable.
No matter if we look at Chicago, California, Washington D.C., or any other area in the U.S., gun control is fundamentally flawed and ought to be fully abolished. Almost fully, anyway.
