By Sam Hoober
There are a number of facts, figures and ideas that gun control advocates like to throw around as support for their arguments. On paper, there may be something approaching truth to them. But, ultimately, they’re lying.
The problem with statistics is that any sample without context is worthless. Say you fill a glass with seawater at the beach. Based on that sample, you could say there aren’t any fish in the sea.
That’s how gun control advocates roll.
While there may be something approaching a good intention somewhere (wanting fewer people to die is a good thing), antis use facts and statistics that either lack context and/or fail to directly address the problem they’re supposedly addressing.
For example, they use the oft-quoted figure that America suffers somewhere in the neighborhood of around 30,000 gun-related (or rather, gunshot wound-related) deaths every year. These figures are published every year by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, so it can generally be taken as true.
What they don’t tell you is that roughly two-thirds are intentionally self-inflicted wounds or, in other words, the majority of firearms deaths are suicides. Slightly less than one-third of those fatalities are murders. The remainder are accidental deaths due to gunshots (which have been decreasing for years).
Regarding homicides committed by firearm, the CDC doesn’t separate the numbers into mass murders, “regular murders” and murders stemming from organized crime activity.
Mass shootings, while certainly tragic and horrifying, are actually quite rare in the grand scheme of things. Far more common: violent crimes committed by members of organized crime. In fact, they account for the majority of violent crime in America.
Once suicides and organized crime are removed from the equation, fewer than 5,000 deaths per annum are the result of non-gang related or accidental shootings.
And how do hoodlums GET those guns? Mostly illegally, which leads us to excessive regulations on purchasing.
Very few people would disagree with the idea that it’s a good idea to “keep guns out of the hands of dangerous people”: violent felons, spouse abusers, the mentally ill and so on. Which is why – for good or ill – we have the background check system.
[In some jurisdictions, there are universal background checks that require an NICS or state background check be done for ANY gun purchase including private sales.]
Truth be told, the kind of people that commit most gun crimes don’t buy them in a store. Most studies into the matter indicate they obtain them from friends and family or steal them (they also don’t buy them at gun shows).
This doesn’t stop the gun control lobby from spreading their anti-gun rights propaganda.
CrimAdvisor is a website run by the Brady Campaign that purports to tell you where it’s easy for criminals to buy guns. The site highlights states that have more lax background check statutes. They maintain that these states are veritable oases of criminal purchases of firearms.
One of the best states for controlling purchases, and therefore cutting down on crime, according to this site? Illinois. Where they keep Chicago. Apparently the state is a “low” contributor to the national gun violence problem!
I’m not the first person to say this and I won’t be the last: gun control laws only hamper the people that follow the laws.
With rare exceptions (which can be rounded down to zero, statistically speaking), the kind of person who bothers to get a concealed carry permit is not the person causing problems. In fact, the vast majority of gun owners are not going to commit any crime.
Gun control advocates also favor magazine restrictions. Thankfully, only a few states have magazine restrictions in place. But “standard” capacity magazines are a perennial target of the civilian disarmament complex.
Some mass shooters have used high-capacity magazines. However, they also carry a lot of them and reload numerous times. For instance, the Virginia Tech shooter had nineteen magazines on his person and 400 rounds of ammunition in total. When Charles Whitman ascended the clock tower in Austin, he was carrying 700 rounds with him.
And so on. My point: people who carry out mass murders often plan ahead by having plenty of ammunition on hand. A few fewer rounds in a magazine isn’t going to make much difference.
Gun control advocates are unwilling to listen to reason or use facts appropriately or in context. Why would they? The facts don’t support gun control. Which is why they rely on emotion; waving the bloody shirt.
Until and unless Americans examine the issue of gun control on a logical, rational basis, gun rights will always in imminent danger. Which is why they will always be in imminent danger.