Sound Thinking About the "Gun Problem"

Almost five times as many people are murdered with a knife as with a rifle (and that includes all kinds of rifles, everything from routine hunting rifles to what the left calls "assault" rifles). More children are killed by 5 gallon buckets and bathtubs than by guns. And a good man could probably not use a five gallon bucket to protect his child from being killed by a five gallon bucket....whereas a good man with a gun has a real chance to protect his child from being killed by a bad man with a gun. 

All of the horrific mass killings of recent decades have occurred where liberal policy has prevailed: so-called "gun free zones."  From Columbine, to Va Tech, to Fort Hood, to Aurora (of all the theaters in town, only this one prohibited licensed concealed-carry on the premises...you heard that on the news, right? Right.), and now Newtown...a deranged individual has selected a no-guns-allowed area to carry out his twisted deed.  The reason is as obvious as the nose on your face, isn't it? The "no guns allowed" areas are where no one will be able to shoot back!

From our friends at the Patriot Post, I am sharing this December 21, 2012 article in full.  For more sound thinking of this kind, visit them at http://patriotpost.us/editions/16010/

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Leftists Exploit Pain for Political Gain

"The right of the citizens to keep and bear arms has justly been considered as the palladium of the liberties of a republic." --Joseph Story

The nation is still reeling over the dreadful events in Newtown, Connecticut, one week ago. We mourn the tragic loss of life, and we weep and pray for the families who won't have a son or a daughter to open presents under the Christmas tree this year. We wish that we could, as one nation, just pause and reflect. The last thing we want is a political fight. But even so, we won't stand idly by while some use Newtown's pain to justify taking away our Liberty.

Evil exists in the world, and yet too many people seem shocked that an evil man would take the lives of 20 six- and seven-year-old children, six adults at the school and even the life of his own mother. That isn't to say that the horrific crime isn't shocking, but it is to say a sober view of reality is needed.

Instead, the Left is almost uniform in hiding the evil behind its implements. Evil often takes things -- sometimes very good things -- and twists and distorts them for its own ends. Rather than admit the existence of evil, the Left blames the thing itself. Hence the renewed efforts at "gun control" at the federal level. Our mission -- and it should be the mission of congressional Republicans -- is to stop those who would use evil acts as an excuse to take away our very means of defending against that evil; to stop Barack Obama and his ilk from stacking up the coffins of innocent little children as a platform for their vile disarmament agenda.

The Terms

We must begin by considering the terms of the debate, and refusing to cede the field to leftists. For example, we must not use the Left's lexicon when referring to crimes where assailants use guns. The sociopath who used a gun to kill kids in Newtown was not a "shooter" or a "gunman." Such words only put the emphasis on the tool, rather than the perpetrator. When we head to the range, we are shooters and gunmen. That sociopath was an "assailant" and "murderer."

Furthermore, those who don't have the first clue what they're talking about regarding guns shouldn't be the ones to craft legislation dealing with them. When Nancy Pelosi warns hysterically of "assault magazines," or when Carolyn McCarthy refers to a barrel shroud as "the shoulder thing that goes up," they have shown themselves to be incapable of good judgment on the issue.

When the Left frets about "high-capacity magazines" or "assault weapons," they know not of what they speak -- or worse, they deliberately misinform. Many guns, including handguns, have standard-capacity magazines that hold more than 10 rounds, which, inexplicably, seems to be their lucky number to solve "gun violence."

Rifles such as the AR-15 are not "assault weapons." The Defense Department says, "Assault rifles are short, compact, selective-fire weapons [i.e., machine guns] that fire a cartridge intermediate in power between submachine-gun and rifle cartridges. Assault rifles have mild recoil characteristics and, because of this, are capable of delivering effective full automatic fire at ranges up to 300 meters." The AR-15 is a civilian semi-automatic weapon that fires intermediate-powered rounds -- one for each distinct pull of the trigger. Such rifles aren't "high-powered," either. Indeed, they aren't legal for deer hunting in many states because their firepower isn't sufficient to reliably take down a deer.

The Bill

The primary purpose of the Second Amendment isn't to preserve hunting, or sport shooting, or even self-defense, though it does protect all those things. The Founders' intent when enshrining our natural right to "keep and bear arms" was to ensure that the people could defend against a tyrannical government -- that's precisely why tyrannical governments always begin by disarming the people. Anyone who doubts this truth should ponder the awful history and the appalling body count of 20th-century communism. Mahatma Mohandas Gandhi once said, "Among the many misdeeds of British rule in India, history will look upon the Act depriving a whole nation of arms as the blackest."

In the immediate aftermath of the Newtown murders, Sen. Dianne Feinstein vowed to get "weapons of war off the streets" by reintroducing her 1994 "assault weapons" ban. Of course, that ban did little but prohibit guns with certain cosmetic features that, to the ignorant, look particularly scary. The Bushmaster .223 that the Newtown killer allegedly used was legally owned by his mother in Connecticut, which has an almost identical ban to the 1994 federal one. An especially troubling aspect of the new federal law is the proposed ban on magazines that hold more than 10 rounds of ammo, merely because Beltway leftists and New York chardonnay sippers can't conceive of a legitimate use for 12, 15 or 30 rounds. (For a good summary of the other details of the bill, see here.)

The Obama White House announced that it will "actively support" the bill, as did Senators Harry Reid (D-NV), Joe Manchin (D-WV) and Mark Warner (D-VA), who all have good NRA ratings. Joe Biden is now in charge of a "task force" to reduce gun violence, in part through legislation. We are reminded that in 2008, Obama said, "If you are a law-abiding gun owner you have nothing to fear from an Obama administration." So much for that. Indeed, don't be surprised if Obama tries something through executive order should Congress fail to bow to his wishes.

Attorney General Eric Holder said, "[W]e have to ask ourselves some hard questions" and "talk about the freedoms that we have." Let's do. Let's start with some hard questions about why the Department of Justice was selling Mexican drug cartels the same types of weapons Obama now wants to ban. Another of those Fast and Furious weapons just turned up at a Mexican murder scene in November.

Meanwhile, Obama is using Newtown as an excuse not only for gun control, but, grotesquely, he said that it provides "some perspective" for getting his domestic agenda through Congress, particularly on the fiscal cliff. He's also using it for continued fundraising.

Obama asked Sunday night, "Are we prepared to say that such violence visited on our children year after year after year is somehow the price of our freedom?" The president's political party has made killing children prior to birth a pillar of their platform -- 54 million children sacrificed on the altar of "choice" since 1973, currently a rate of 3,200 every day.

The Stats

Since Obama was elected in 2008, gun and ammunition sales have surged to historic highs. Perhaps if Obama is really concerned about the proliferation of firearms, he should resign.

Since the previous ban on certain semi-automatic rifles sunset in 2004, gun ownership has increased and crime has decreased.

According to the FBI, two-thirds of murders that involve guns were perpetrated with handguns. In fact, it's pretty embarrassing for Feinstein that her own summary statement says that her ill-defined, so-called "assault weapons have been used in at least 459 incidents, resulting in 385 deaths and 455 injuries" since the ban ended, because that's less than one-half of 1 percent of all gun deaths in that time period. Twice as many people are killed with an assailant's hands, fists or feet -- and almost five times as many with a knife -- than with a rifle. Furthermore, the gun-death statistics that leftists tend to trot out are invariably skewed by gang-on-gang violence.

Just this year in Chicago -- Obama's hometown and a city with the toughest gun restrictions in America -- 62 young people between the ages of six and 18 have been murdered with guns -- and nearly 500 people total. Not a word from Obama.

It must also be noted that the murders in Newtown, as well as those in Aurora, Virginia Tech, Columbine and other places, occurred in so-called "gun-free zones." The Useful Idiots of the Left are under the delusion that simply posting a sign will make people safe, when only the murderers actually are safe. Estimates are that the sociopathic killer in Newtown broke 20 existing gun laws, including entering a "gun-free zone" with a gun. Murder is also against the law no matter the weapon.

There are numerous stories every week like this, this and this of citizens using firearms to stop threats, often without even firing a shot. Ann Coulter recounts several attempted mass shootings thwarted by gun owners.

The Conclusion

Benjamin Franklin once proclaimed, "They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety." In the case of those who would give up Essential Liberty for nothing more than the perception of a little temporary safety with more gun prohibitions, indeed they deserve neither Liberty nor safety and, ultimately, will lose both.