Gun Control Comes from a Place of Privilege

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When underprivileged people worry about crime, it’s tempting to say “just call the cops.” But this isn’t actually helpful advice. It just demonstrates how little we know about their circumstances and how unqualified we are to speak to their issues.

Source: Gun Control Comes from a Place of Privilege - Foundation for Economic Education

There's nothing necessarily wrong with being born privileged. After all, none of us get to choose how wealthy, famous or powerful our parents are. However, it can really skew your view of the world.

So why does gun control come from a place of privilege? It's simple really. Privileged people live in wealthy neighborhoods. Wealthy neighborhoods have good security and little crime. The police are quite responsive to calls from wealthy neighborhoods.

On the other hand, poor neighborhoods tend to have higher crime rates and police may not be as responsive. And even if they are, they may not be trusted. Sometimes the reasons for mistrusts are valid and sometimes not.

So where are you most likely to need a gun to defend yourself? The obvious answer is in the place where there is more likely to be crime and where police response time makes their job one of cleaning up the mess that has already occurred. In other words, you are more likely to need a gun if you are poor. Being anti-gun and even anti-police is easy if you can afford walls, gates, a good security system and your own private security force. It's a little harder if you have a reasonable need for self defense.

Given that gun control comes form such a place of privilege, why is it so supported on the left? After all, isn't the left anti-privilege? The answer is that of course they aren't. At least not in a general sense. They are only anti-privilege if the privilege is not theirs. After all, most politicians, left or right, are born privileged.