Follow the Crazies With the ‘Gun Control Argument Cheat Sheet’
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Make sure to keep this handy next week when we will no doubt revisit the age old issue of gun control. Listen as the politicians debate and the gunners shake their head, all the while insisting that gun control is the first step to a complete takeover of the country by that ‘Muslim’ Barack Obama.
The official gun control argument cheat sheet
Banning certain guns won’t have any impact on crime!!
Not true: Fully automatic weapons have been banned from civilian ownership for almost three decades and, not surprisingly, are rarely, if ever, used in crimes. This stems from the Bonnie and Clyde era law that taxed fully automatic weapons heavily, required special licensing, and purchases were required to be registered. Coincidentally, after passage, automatic weapons sales plummeted. The current automatic weapons ban has been in place since 1986.
http://www.npr.org/…/the-decades-old-gun-ban-thats-still-on…
Banning any guns will just create a black market and people can get them anywhere!!
Not true: Australia has seen a minuscule amount of illegal guns (mostly magazines) being imported there but the overwhelming majority of their confiscations, 88%, are guns that were not turned in during their nationwide gun buy back program after subsequently being deemed illegal. The U.K. has had similar experiences.
http://mobile.abc.net.au/…/source-of-illicit-guns-i…/6483762
Guns will keep me and my family safe!!
Maybe true but: Having a gun in your home dramatically increases the odds that it will be used in a suicide, used against you, or kill someone other than an intruder. Guns in the home are between 22 and 37 times more likely to be used against someone other than an assailant. Domestic disputes with guns in the home have a greater propensity for turning into a murder. And guns in the home are responsible for nearly 90% of all child related gun injuries.
http://m.aje.oxfordjournals.org/content/160/10/929.full
Video games/violent movies/television shows are responsible for the outbreaks of gun violence!!
Not true: Japan, the Netherlands, and the majority of Europe have higher video game usage per capita than the US but show significantly lower violent crime statistics and drastically lower instances of gun violence. And with the globalization of the entertainment industry and the Internet, they, almost without question, have access to the same movies and television shows we have here.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/…/ten-country-comparison-su…/
The only thing that can stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun!!
Not true: Ronald Reagan’s assassination attempt occurred in broad daylight while he was surrounded by Secret Service Agents and a myriad of uniformed policemen. Many mass shootings have occurred while concealed weapons were present. Virginia Tech had its own police department but that didn’t deter nor stop the massacre there. Columbine had armed guards as well. The military and police train constantly with weapons so as to prepare for the unexpected. The average gun owner does not train to the same degree nor under any conditions more strenuous than plinking at stationary targets. “As ye train, so shall ye fight.”
Side note: mass shooters aren’t deterred by armed security. They, with rare exceptions, know it to be a suicide mission, whether by their own hand or by cop. And in the latest instances, unarmed individuals have taken down shooters more often than armed ones. (See Belgian train incident and Chris Mentz)
http://www.politifact.com/…/jim-rubens-says-when-armed-civ…/
There are no school shootings in Israel because their teachers are all armed!!!
Not true: There are very few teachers that carry but it is definitely not the norm. Gun violence, outside of the West Bank is nearly unheard of in Israel, which has a considerably low volume of guns per capita.
http://www.israeltoday.co.il/…/t…/178/nid/23572/Default.aspx
They also have some of the strictest gun regulations in the western world despite having mandatory military service for their citizens. And they require licensing, of which 40% of applications are denied.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/…/israeli-gun-laws-are-much…/
There are a lot of arguments against gun control or infringement on the second amendment but the majority of them are based on false logic. These are just a few of them. The facts speak for themselves. The only thing unique about America is its lax position on guns. Every country has mental health issues. Every country has crime. Every country has video games. Every country has violent movies. But we are the only country with all of those things AND easy access to guns. Couple that with a multibillion dollar industry with a plethora of lobbyists and you have the perfect recipe for a gun problem. Not godlessness, not violent video games, not the latest war movie.
We stand alone in this world as the only developed nation that can’t figure out why its population keeps shooting one another. That’s what sets us apart from the rest of the world. The second we stop trying to take everything but guns out of the equation is the second we’ll realize that guns are the root of the issue. Maybe then we can have an open and honest discussion about the problem and venture towards a solution.
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There’s some complicated issues at play here, starting with the actual number of gun fatalities.. some 20,000 in 320 million. Sure, every death counts I agree. Of those 20,000 2/3 are suicides.
Second this to consider is the a vast amount of the American public do not believe the Government should have a monopoly on ‘use of force’. This is hard to understand elsewhere where we’ve been raised to accept the bureaucrats are in charge, but in the US where the government has committed some pretty vile acts against the people, it’s understandable to a degree. Don’t forget California as one of the most liberal states still practices forced sterilizations – one of the last bastions of eugenics still in place in the US.
Lastly is the thing I see as the elephant in the room – if people were truly concerned about unlawful killings, why do we ignore medical deaths? Sure it’s a little off topic, but if deaths is the concern how about the 200,000 + deaths a year attributable to massive medical cockups? : http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2000/07/30/doctors-death-part-one.aspx
Oh, and go look at the worst mass murderers in history outside of wars. All doctors and nurses.. Start with Harold Shipman, Michael Swango, Stephan Letter, Daniela Poggiali, Megan Haines, Charles Cullen, Orville Majors, Richard Angelo, John Bodkin Adams, Arnfinn Nesset, Jane Toppan. That’s far from a full list. These guys didn’t just kill a few – some of them were clearly there for the killing! And often they were (continue to be) protected by the AMA/BMA and other medical fraternities. During Shipman’s investigation the BMA sent out letters to doctors telling them not to cooperate with police investigators.
Good point. Dr. H.H. Holmes, widely considered America’s first actual serial killer, murdered dozens of people during the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893. Although only evidence of 27 bodies were found police believe at least 200 were killed.
There’s a lot of truth in what he says. I think we could do something to reduce the amount of useless things like 100 round drum magazines, but when fully automatic weapons were pretty much taken off the civilian market in the 1930’s, there weren’t nearly as many guns around as there are today. Back when anything larger than 15 rounds were banned, there were so many hundreds of millions sitting in warehouses and grandfathered in you could buy them everywhere. There still are and even more.
The passion for guns is huge in America and it’s fed, in part by mistrust of government and fear of government spoon fed to us by various groups. When Obama was elected long lines formed outside of formerly lonely gun stores. Since the Oregon shooting, it’s happening again. Sporting goods catalogs are selling lots of underground burial vaults for guns like hotcakes. I think the most common motivation for buying guns today IS THE FEAR THAT THE ANTI-GUN RHETORIC WILL LEAD TO BANS.
Americans equate guns with freedom and any law addressing them in any fashion as tyranny. Unless we change that we will change nothing. how do we do that? One suggestion is to stop misrepresenting what’s out there because people who recognize the misstatements have their suspicions confirmed. People resent being told they are potential murderers. Resentment makes people buy guns.
What do Americans do when they are suspicious of government or of powerful groups who influence government? THEY BUY GUNS. So when we hype up the fear, we aid the fear mongers like the NRA. Let’s try to be more objective, less hyperbolic and lets stop saying that crime is escalating when it isn’t. Only a small proportion are rampages yet there is no effort to address any other segment of the murder market.
Here in Florida, the high crime county to the south is enduring a wave of drive buys and gang shootings — not one school or movie theater. Just sayin’
Abortion? BAN IT!
Drugs? BAN IT!
Prostitution? BAN IT!
Teaching evolution? BAN IT!
Unions? BAN IT!
Guns? Look, banning things never works…
Brilliant E.A. and accurate to the letter!
You forgot BAN THE BOMB
No, because banning the bomb is not a conservative trope.