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Note to Gun Control Advocates: Be Careful What You Wish For

Robert Farago - comments No comments

“If there’s any will at all to reduce the death toll from guns in this country — more than 33,000 deaths a year — no doubt the country that sent a man to the moon can figure out how to do it without violating citizens’ rights.” Sure there is! All we have to do is . . .

Effectively address the scourge of suicide — which accounts for about two thirds of firearms-related fatalities — and start locking up gang bangers — who account for the majority of the remaining deaths.

Anyway, Jill Richardson makes her optimistic observation at columbiamissourian.com. So…show me!

Nope. Ms. Richardson has no suggestions. But she reckons that any gun control law is OK as long as it has some impact on “gun violence.”

Furthermore, just because a law may not prevent all shootings doesn’t mean it won’t prevent some shootings.

I’ve even heard a gun advocate say that regulation won’t work because it would only stop people who are too stupid to get around them from obtaining a gun.

You know what? That sounds good to me. If we can prevent every single shooting perpetrated by a stupid person, I’m for it.

That’s still fewer people dying overall. It won’t get us down to zero, but refusing to do anything just because it’s a partial solution is ridiculous.

Each little bit of progress we make is a human life saved. It’s an entire family whose lives aren’t torn apart and changed forever.

It’s two fewer grieving parents and four fewer grieving grandparents. It’s more children who grow up with their parents alive.

I don’t have a stake in which method we use to reduce gun violence so long as we pick something that works. It would be nice if law-abiding gun enthusiasts would help.

Well now, here’s the thing: gun control laws have far more impact on law-abiding Americans than on criminals (and thus firearms-related injuries and deaths). Ipso facto.

By making it more difficult for law-abiding Americans to keep and bear arms (yes AR-15’s too), gun control laws invoke the law of unintended consequences. More [defenseless] people are hurt than helped.

And if the citizenry are completely disarmed (gun control’s hidden goal), all hell breaks loose. The hell that claimed my family and would include, I suspect, left-leaning journalists, should that dark day ever arrive.

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Robert Farago

Robert Farago is the former publisher of The Truth About Guns (TTAG). He started the site to explore the ethics, morality, business, politics, culture, technology, practice, strategy, dangers and fun of guns.

0 thoughts on “Note to Gun Control Advocates: Be Careful What You Wish For”

  1. Not mentioned, the ultimate NRA way to raise the value of your guns
    1: Buy gun
    2: Encourage PotUS to sign legislation making future copies illegal
    3: falsely claim to fight for repeal of this law
    4: Collect donations that would be used by people actually fighting it and do nothing

    Reply
  2. If Jill has such a tender heart, maybe she can look into fighting for those who have NO defense, the unborn.
    Only 50+ million have been slaughtered like swine. Yeah, yeah… women’s rights and all that bullshit.

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  3. Wayne LaPierre is “pro-gun” whatever that means depending of which way the wind is blowing. Ted Nugent is pro-2nd Amendment which is the way the Founders of this country intended citizens of this great nation to be. I will take one Ted Nugent over 1,000 Wayne Lapierres.

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  4. Im so sick of “if it only saves one life”. Well for the majority of gun related deaths in this country are those lives really worth saving?? Suicide?? Take away the gun and they will find some other way out the door.
    Criminals and gang bangers killing each other?? Let them. I don’t want to pay to keep them incarcerated.
    Now for the other maybe 5K a year who are truly innocent victims of gun shots. If its an innocent I do have sympathy for them and their families of course. Im not totally cold hearted.
    Just sick and tired of anyone trying to take away from me the best tools for the job of protecting myself and my family.
    They come 1st above all else, even myself.

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  5. My argument would be that the vast majority of violent gun crime victims are a net drain on society and killing them off would actually be hedging a loss…. if they lived it would cost us a hell of a lot more tham 2.8 billion dollars dealing with them, their problems, and possibly their children one day.

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  6. Get a part-time (or full-time) job in a pawn shop that has a generous employee discount.

    Put your gun geek skills to use and start building your collection.

    (There’s an old saying in the pawn biz that true, and I know it’s true because I’ve seen it with my own two eyes time and time again – “You never know what will walk in that front door of your shop and drop in your lap.”)

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  7. If you want the right to control your own body, I think I should have the right to decide when and how I die. No, I am not suicidal, but I can see a time when I might just want to check out. Like when the cancer is metastasized and I can not get the pain relief to want to stay alive.

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  8. range from the firepower of a combat weapon, to modern semi-automatics little different than those carried by police.

    What does that even mean? Are police carrying modern semi-automatics for non-combat purposes? The Left is so conflicted where their hatred of guns collides with their love of state power, it’s hard to make heads or tails of their rambling.

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  9. “and start locking up gang bangers”

    “But The Star’s review of every gun charge in Marion County from 2009 to June of this year found that prosecutors — Democrat and Republican alike — dismissed 3,059 gun charges, including 1,508 felony counts. Among those dismissals were 371 charges for possession of a firearm by a serious violent felon.

    The Star’s findings include:

    • More than half of felony gun charges were dismissed, usually in plea agreements.

    • Possession of a firearm by a serious violent felon — the charge specifically aimed at getting violent criminals off the streets — was dismissed in 41 percent of cases.

    • A change in the state’s criminal code that began July 1 reduced the jail time for possession of a firearm by a serious violent felon.

    Why the charges meant to keep gunslingers off the street are dropped is a complicated question tangled in prosecutorial will, rules of evidence and sentencing practices written into the law. But when shown The Star’s findings, Newman called for legislation to close the incentive to bargain away such charges. It is an idea endorsed by public safety officials.”
    https://www.indystar.com/story/news/crime/2014/10/05/exclusive-violence-rises-prosecutors-bargain-away-gun-charges-indianapolis-marion-county/16760997/

    Imagine that everyone charged with a gun crime faces a 20 year sentence and no plea bargain. The cases would clog the court system and fill the jails. Jill Richardson will no doubt complain about how her taxes have skyrocketed and the number of POC that are in jail.

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  10. Well, we’d had bump stocks and incomplete NICS data. Just needed ghost guns to complete the gun banners’ trifecta. I’m surprised this hasn’t been headlined sooner and louder…wait for it!

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    • Crazy / neighbors warned / police powerless/ kills wife / shoots through schools / makes his own gun. Definitely full Bingo card. Definitely seems contrived.

      All of that dude’s F’d-upness they attribute to EVERY gun owner (at least as a potential) WHEN WE ALL KNOW THE PROBLEM IS THE GUN-GRABBER’S “CRAZY”.

      F CA

      Reply
  11. After stealing one pic-a-nic basket too many, Yogi and Boo-Boo learned the hard way that they were not, in fact, smarter than the average bullet.

    Reply
  12. Thank you for such a comprehensive comparison! This is the kind of writing that brought me to TTAG. Lets keep ’em coming folks!

    Reply

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