After the Newtown tragedy, gun control was on the minds of many Americans.

It has since moved to the back burner once again because of other topics that have drowned it out in the public consciousness.

This is a good thing because gun control has little if any effect on violent crime and murders.

I was reminded of this after reading an article in USA Today that said New Jersey gun laws don’t curb violence in Camden.

This article discusses New Jersey having some of the most restrictive gun laws in the nation, but still having a high murder rate in Camden. Camden is a city of 77,000 people, and there were 67 homicides recorded last year.

To bring this closer to home, consider Chicago. In Chicago, there were 38 homicides recorded for the month of May, according to redeyechicago.com.

Once again in a place with strict gun control laws there is a still a high murder rate.

Another problem with gun control laws is the focus on banning assault weapons and high-capacity magazines.

The problem with this approach is assault weapons are rarely used in homicides.

Scott Thomson, Camden County chief of police, is quoted in the USA Today article as saying “98% of crimes are not committed by assault weapons.”

He goes on to say the weapon of choice is a 9mm handgun.

This makes sense because a handgun is easily concealed.

Good luck tucking an AK-47 in your waistline and not getting noticed.

Gun control laws miss the bigger picture. The reason for this violence is lack of jobs, opportunity and education.

The violence and murders are due largely to criminal activity and gang life – a life that values criminal records and murder as a normal way of life or business as usual.

If there were more jobs, people would not turn to crime and gangs as a means support themselves.

For a lot of children in crime-ridden areas they only have drug dealers and gang members as role models.

With more jobs, parents will be around for their children instead of on the streets or locked up in jail or prison.

This will bring about an end to the cycle of crime and gang life plaguing American cities because the parents will be around to teach and set good examples for their children.

With children turning away from gang life, what will be needed is better and more access to education, which will once again be achieved by having employed parents at home.

In order to bring down murder rates down, we need social change not more useless gun control laws.

Marcus Smith can be reached at 581-2812 or masmith6@eiu.edu.