Debunking 8 Myths Created By Our Gun Grabbing Friends
Several years ago, I was physically assaulted in a mall parking lot. Without going into great detail, I will tell you what I remember most about my attacker, was the ‘brute’ strength he had over me. Do I wish I had a gun that day? Hell, yes!
Fast-forward to today, a time when every American has a dangerous enemy that makes my attacker seem as harmless as Kermit the Frog: Radical Islamic Terrorism. As we have learned from San Bernardino, CA, these jihadists are already in the U.S., and prepared to kill mass numbers of Americans in cold blood. This warped ideology treats women as subhuman, executes homosexuals, sells young girls into sex slavery, beheads children, and slaughters their fellow human beings without even blinking an eye.
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But rather than focusing on the REAL threat (these barbarians who are hell-bent on KILLING us all!), our gun-grabbing friends have decided to exploit the San Bernardino attack as yet another crusade to take away guns from the ‘good guys’ to leave us defenseless against ‘bad guys’ of all sorts. As I write these very words, President Obama is crafting executive orders for more gun control.
If we listen to the mainstream media long enough, we may even be tempted to buy into their phony bologna and start believing that our government can make us all safer by taking our guns away from us…Okay, most of us probably would NEVER buy into that garbage. But we do know some low-information friends who are. And basically, they are just regurgitating the same talking points of their favorite ‘boob tube’ gun grabber without thinking for themselves.
So, just to dispel a few of the myths we have been hearing from many anti-Second amendment advocates, here are a few gun facts to share:
Myth #1: More gun control will help stop gun violence.
Fact(s): That assumption is false.
In contrast to the widely embraced narrative, perpetuated by the Obama administration and the Left-wing media, that gun violence in America is getting worse all the time, the data reveals the very opposite to be true.
According to data retrieved from the Centers for Disease Control, there were 7 firearm-related homicides for every 100,000 Americans in 1993 (see light blue line in chart). By 2013 (most recent year available), the gun homicide rate had fallen by nearly 50% to only 3.6 homicides per 100,000 population. Here are two important charts:
Apparently, more Americans agree with these AEI charts than with the gun grabbers as we have been seeing firearms sales soaring since the San Bernardino attack.
As Reuters reports, “Many Americans agree and are stocking up on weapons after the country’s worst mass shooting in three years. Gun retailers are reporting surging sales, with customers saying they want to keep handguns and rifles at hand for self-defense in the event of another attack.”
Contrary to media hysteria over the necessity for more gun control, the FBI also reports that murders and robberies have actually decreased since gun sales have increased over the past two years. According to Breitbart, “2013 was a banner year for gun sales, with a record 21,093,273 background checks for gun purchases completed. And with all those new guns in circulation, the FBI reports that murders and robberies have decreased.”
As John Lott, a leading researcher on gun control, states, “Passing more laws doesn’t keep terrorists from getting guns.”
You can bet that if Syed Farook and Tashfeen Malik didn’t have any firearms, they would have used the bombs they were building in their home. They were hell-bent on killing Americans, regardless of the weapon. And they certainly weren’t concerned about breaking any California laws.
Thomas Sowell also points out:
“Why anyone would think that criminals who disobey other laws, including laws against murder, would obey gun-control laws is a mystery. A disarmed population makes crime a safer occupation and street violence a safer sport.
The “knockout game” of suddenly throwing a punch to the head of some unsuspecting passer-by would not be nearly so much fun for street hoodlums if there were a serious risk that the passer-by was carrying a concealed firearm.”
Myth # 2: Stats are not favorable toward women who carry guns for self defense.
Fact(s): Liberals like Dianne Feinstein will argue that women are not even capable of defending themselves with a firearm. I have heard this myth myself many times recently from gun grabbers.
Yet, you can go to THIS SITE and read the countless testimonies of women who have successfully used a firearm to save their own lives, or lives of their family members.
Also, while anti-2Aers will argue that a woman with a gun in the home is more likely to die by it than protect herself with it, statistics do not support this claim. If she is a law-abiding responsible gun owner, she is better off armed. The reality is that firearms are attributed sixty times over to saving lives rather than taking them.
John Lott wrote in his book, “More Guns Less Crime”:
“The National Crime Victimization Survey data show that providing a woman with a gun has a much greater effect on her ability to defend herself against a crime than providing a gun to a man. Thus even if few women carry handguns, the change in the “cost” of attacking women could still be as great as the change in the “cost” of attacking men, despite the much higher number of men who are becoming armed. To phrase this differently, if one more woman carries a handgun, the extra protection for women in general is greater than the extra protection for men if one more man carries a handgun.”
It’s astounding how many politicians and gun grabbers want to disarm women and make them potential victims of rapists, murderers, and terrorists. Luckily, many women aren’t listening to them. In fact, more women are purchasing firearms now than ever.
Myth # 3: The United States should follow the Australian model for gun control.
Fact(s): Australia’s 1996 gun confiscation didn’t work…and, it would never work in America.
President Obama has stated on more than one occasion, “We know that other countries, in response to one mass shooting, have been able to craft laws that almost eliminate mass shooting…Friends of ours, allies of ours — Great Britain, Australia, countries like ours. So we know there are ways to prevent it.”
As National Review points out, “Australia” is Obama’s preferred euphemism for that most cherished of gun-control ideals: mass confiscation of the citizenry’s weapons.”
National Review continues:
“But the Australian 1996 National Agreement on Firearms was not a benign set of commonsense gun-control rules: It was a gun-confiscation program rushed through the Australian parliament just twelve days after a 28-year-old man killed 35 people with a semi-automatic rifle in the Tasmanian city of Port Arthur. The Council of Foreign relations summarizes the Aussie measure nicely:
The National Agreement on Firearms all but prohibited automatic and semiautomatic assault rifles, stiffened licensing and ownership rules, and instituted a temporary gun buyback program that took some 650,000 assault weapons (about one-sixth of the national stock) out of public circulation. Among other things, the law also required licensees to demonstrate a “genuine need” for a particular type of gun and take a firearm safety course.”
However, University of Melbourne researchers Wang-Sheng Lee and Sandy Suardi concluded their 2008 report on the matter with the statement:
“There is little evidence to suggest that [the Australian mandatory gun-buyback program] had any significant effects on firearm homicides.”
From National Review:
“An American mandatory gun-confiscation program — in addition to being unconstitutional — would be extraordinarily coercive, and perhaps even violent. There is no other way around it:
The mandatory confiscation of the American citizenry’s guns would involve tens of thousands of heavily armed federal agents going door-to-door to demand of millions of Americans that they surrender their guns.”
That. Is. Not. Going. To. Happen.
Myth # 4: The AR-15 is a “military-style assault rife”.
Fact (s): No, it is not. The AR-15 is a semiautomatic rifle. That means that only one bullet fires every time the trigger is pulled, and the next bullet can be fired with another pull of the trigger. A semiautomatic rifle is different from an automatic rifle, which fires multiple bullets while the trigger is pulled.
From Hands Off My Gun:
“The distinction between semiautomatic and automatic is important. Automatic rifles are machine guns, were developed for the battlefield, and have been regulated by federal law for almost a century. In contrast, semiautomatic rifles are not machine guns, were not developed for the battlefield, and are in widespread use by law-abiding Americans. Most pistols are semiautomatic, and about 40% of rifles are semi-automatic. For the purposes of public policy, there is not principled distinction between semiautomatic rifles and other kinds of legal rifles and handguns.
The AR-15 began as the civilian version of the M16. It’s a lightweight, easy-to-fire rifle, and it’s the weapon of choice for many women who want an easily manageable firearm for home defense when an intruder breaks into their home. It’s also a favorite rifle amongst marksmen at shooting competition.”
Myth # 5: We don’t have laws in place to address gun ownership and mental illness.
Fact(s): Yes, we do.
From Hands Off My Guns:
“Laws prohibit mentally defective people from owning a gun, but the responsible authorities have to follow the laws for them to work. Laws are in place to prevent psychopaths from obtaining a gun, and additional laws have been passed to incentivize faster reporting to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System. The problem is not usually the absence of laws, but the failure to enforce those laws by the very people who could have and should have reported and acted on psychopathic behavior.”
These laws must be enforced in order for them to work.
Myth # 6: Anyone can buy a gun.
Fact(s): Not true.
According to 18 U.S. 922:
There are many federal regulations as to who can possess a firearm. Possession is illegal if you are a felon, fugitive from justice, or an illegal alien. You can’t possess one if you use illegal drugs or were dishonorably discharged from the military. Possession is prohibited if you have ben “adjudicated a mental defective,” have renounced your citizenship, are subject to a domestic-violence restraining order, or have been convicted of any domestic crime, including a misdemeanor.
Myth # 7: We need to close those gun show loopholes.
Fact(s): The vast majority of vendors at gun shows are fully licensed dealers who must run an FBI check at the time of purchase.
According to Cato Institute:
“Since 1938, persons selling firearms have been required to obtain a federal firearms license. If a dealer sells a gun from a storefront, from a room in his home or from a table at a gun show, the rules are exactly the same: he can get authorization from the FBI for the sale only after the FBI runs its “instant” background check (which often takes days to complete). As a result, firearms are the most severely regulated consumer product in the United States — the only product for which FBI permission is required for every single sale.
Cato Institute also points out:
“According to an NIJ study released in December 1997 (“Homicide in Eight U.S. Cities,” a report that covers much more than homicide), only 2 percent of criminal guns come from gun shows.
That finding is consistent with a mid-1980s study for the NIJ, which investigated the gun purchase and use habits of convicted felons in 12 state prisons. The study (later published as the book Armed and Considered Dangerous) found that gun shows were such a minor source of criminal gun acquisition that they were not even worth reporting as a separate figure.”
(Of course some criminal gun acquisition at gun shows is perpetrated by “straw purchasers” who are legal gun buyers acting as surrogates for the individual who wants the gun. Straw purchases have been federal felonies since 1968.)”
Most people selling guns at a gun show are gun dealers. All the same rules and regulations apply to gun dealers.
From the Washington Times, “Gun shows aren’t the equivalent of the Wild West. The vast majority of vendors at the shows are fully licensed dealers who must run the FBI check at the time of sale. What the gun grabbers are really after are transactions between private individuals trading or selling their personal property.”
In reality, criminals, by definition, do not obey the laws. So, someone who clears a background check can be a “straw purchaser” and give the gun to someone who wouldn’t have passed a background check. There’s not a single law you can put on the books that a criminal cannot get around.
Myth # 8: Guns kill more people every year than anything else.
Fact(s): According to the National Safety Council’s 2011 “Injury Facts” report, firearm accidents accounted for only 1.5 percent of fatal accidents. More fatal accidents were attributed to motor vehicle accidents (47%), fires (4.4%), and choking on objects (3.0%). As we have already pointed out, firearms are attributed sixty times over to saving lives rather than taking them.
