Gun Control

Gun Control... good or bad ?

Many who favor "gun control" laws profess that they don't want to take your guns away, while the rest of those folks flat out admit that YES, they want to take all guns away from everybody.  Some even think that the police should not have guns.  I think the latter are so blinded by their ideals that they can't realize that there is evil in this world.  AND… the police should be wary of a society where only the police have guns, for where would the criminals get their guns if private citizens didn’t have any ? Duh !

Here is a quote from the CDC… “The tragic and historic increase in firearm homicide and the persistently high rates of firearm suicide underscore the urgent need for action to reduce firearm-related injuries and deaths,” said CDC Director Rochelle Walensky, M.D., M.P.H. “By addressing factors contributing to homicide and suicide and providing support to communities, we can help stop violence now and in the future.”(emphasis added).  Does ANYONE really think that gun violence can be “stop”-(ed) ???  Can it be reduced, perhaps, but “stopped”… that’s an absurd statement. 

You may ask, WHY is the CDC (Center for Disease Control)  getting involved in the gun issue?  Well, think COVID !  Think of the restrictions placed on the American public during the Covid ordeal.  This was made possible by “Emergency Powers” legislation that gives politicians unlimited power (makes most politicians salivate) to enact edicts for anything they want.  If “gun violence” is deemed a “national emergency” like Covid… anything is possible, including outright gun confiscation.  And, do you think they will give the guns back after the “emergency” has passed ???  That would be a hard NO !

In 2021, there were a total of 48,830 firearm deaths, an increase of 3,608 or 8% from 2020 according to the website UAS Facts.  Firearm deaths include all deaths involving guns, such as homicide, suicide, and accidents. More people in the US die from suicide involving a firearm than homicides or accidents.  If the majority of deaths are from suicide, then how many were from gang-related violence?  How many were from accidental discharge of a firearm?  And finally, how many of those deaths were from the dreaded “mass shooting”? 

While 2021 saw the highest total number of gun deaths in the U.S., this statistic does not take into account the nation’s growing population. On a per capita basis, there were 14.6 gun deaths per 100,000 people in 2021 – the highest rate since the early 1990s, but still well below the peak of 16.3 gun deaths per 100,000 people in 1974 (Pew Research article)

In contrast, 250,000 deaths are attributed to medical malpractice per year in the US.  This is a stat from Johns Hopkins School of Medicine News and Publication.  Why is there no call for common sense medical laws ???  Also, the United States ranks 11th in a world ranking for Violent Gun Deaths Worldwide. (many mis-informed think the US is first)

Also, The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has released its early estimate of traffic fatalities for 2021. NHTSA projects that an estimated 42,915 people died in motor vehicle traffic crashes last year, a 10.5% increase from the 38,824 fatalities in 2020.  Why is there no demonstrations for common sense car laws ?  Darrell Brooks was found guilty of six counts of first-degree intentional homicide recently for driving his SUV into a crowd of Christmas parade attendees in Waukesha, Wisconsin, last November, killing six people and wounding dozens more.  Why is there no calls for common sense car laws such as weight limits on vehicles like there is against “high-capacity” magazines ?

Do you see any pattern here ?   FAR more people die at the hands of doctors, and more people die in car crashes, but there are no cries for “common sense” laws for any of those deaths.  Below is an excellent debate on “common sense” gun laws.  It is interesting to see how those favoring more restrictive gun laws are dealing with inaccurate information.  Where did they get that inaccurate information from… main street media.  Main street media not only uses inaccurate and cherry-picked information to distort the facts, but that also lie by omission of relative facts.

Crowder video: https://youtu.be/x8keXO3WEEk?si=n6L1MPZW3oa4AYgH

In April of 2022 the US Supreme court decided the New York State Rifle & Pistol Association, Inc. v. Bruen case stated “New York’s "proper cause" requirement violates the Fourteenth Amendment by preventing law-abiding citizens with ordinary self-defense needs from exercising their Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms in public for self-defense.”  This was a landmark decision that for the first time, the court recognized an individual right to carry loaded guns in public. The June ruling forced a half dozen states with more restrictive standards around who can carry guns in public to loosen their permitting rules. It also upended the constitutional test previously used by lower courts to evaluate cases involving gun restrictions and replaced it with one that is structurally more favorable to gun rights arguments.

In the Texas Mass shooting an armed civilian who used his assault rifle to stop Sunday’s mass murder of 26 Texas churchgoers has been hailed, rightly, as a hero, but Stephen Willeford is hardly unique. A number of armed American citizens have also used their firearms to stop or limit mass killings.

The former National Rifle Association instructor who lives next door to the First Baptist Church of Sutherland Spring, Texas, grabbed his AR-15-style rifle after hearing the gunfire and went over to investigate. Confronting the shooter, Devin Kelley, Willeford shot him in the leg and torso before Kelley dropped his weapon and fled the scene in his SUV.  As horrific as Kelley’s rampage was, it could have been much worse if it wasn’t for Stephen Willeford.  “I thank my God, my Lord, protected me and gave me the skills to do what needed to be done,” Willeford told local media on Monday. “I just wish I could have gotten there faster.”

Stats sourced from a CDC-commissioned study finding that instances of defensive gun use occur between 60,000 and 2.5 million times per year.  Also,an excerpt from a Forbes article stated: Last month, I discussed the need for more robust and intellectually balanced research into gun use in the United States. In particular, I proposed that https://www.forbes.com/sites/paulhsieh/2018/03/20/any-study-of-gun-violence-should-include-how-guns-save-lives/#ff3d89e5edc5  "Any Study Of ‘Gun Violence’ Should Include How Guns Save Lives".

In particular, https://www.nap.edu/read/18319/chapter/3" a 2013 study ordered by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and conducted by The National Academies’ Institute of Medicine and National Research Council reported that, “Defensive use of guns by crime victims is a common occurrence”:

Almost all national survey estimates indicate that defensive gun uses by victims are at least as common as offensive uses by criminals, with estimates of annual uses ranging from about 500,000 to more than 3 million, in the context of about 300,000 violent crimes involving firearms in 2008.

Subsequently, I learned of a recent paper by Florida State University professor Gary Kleck, “What Do CDC’s Surveys Say About the Frequency of Defensive Gun Uses?“ which outlines significant underreporting of Defensive Gun Use (DGU).  It’s a long article but if you scroll down to the Conclusion it states that: “The experiments reported here provide strong evidence that DGUs are more likely to go unreported if Rs (Respondents) are not explicitly told to report crime incidents in which the Rs escaped injury and property loss, or incidents involving offenders known to the R.”  In many cases the simple act of displaying (some call it "brandishing") a firearm is enough to thwart an attacker.

So in conclusion I think it’s safe to say that if you care about gun deaths, you should also care about the guns used in defense of someone’s safety.  What are YOUR thoughts on this issue ?  Do you lean more towards more gun control, or do you lean more towards absolute support of every American to not only own a gun, but to carry on their person wherever they go ?  Put your comments below for the world to see.