The man in the video below is Bill Whittle. He is a man that breaks down the exact placement of America in comparison to other countries in regards to firearms. He also points out how socialism and gun grabbers in America love to demonize our guns.
This video does a really good job of presenting the facts and putting things in to context when looking at pure facts. The per capita numbers that he talks about are very important to look at. American is pale in comparison when you look at the real numbers like Plano, TX. These numbers are reflective of what Real America is like and the only reason we end up at 111th place on the list rather than at the very bottom is due to the fact that we have heavily gun-controlled zones like Chicagoand New York where criminals have yet to follow the rules and turn in their guns and people do not have the reasonable means to protect themselves. And looking at the following list those are not even our ‘bad cities':
New Orleans – 53.2 per 100,000
St. Louis – 35.5 per 100,000
Baltimore – 34.9 per 100,000
Newark – 34.4 per 100,000
Oakland – 31,8 per 100,000
Stockton – 23.7 per 100,000
Kansas City – 22.6 per 100,000
Philadelphia – 21.5 per 100,000
Cleveland – 21.3 per 100,000
Memphis – 20.2 per 100,000
Atlanta – 19.0 per 100,000
Chicago – 18.5 per 100,000
Truth, we are all about truth, and when we factor out these liberal killing fields America becomes not only a very safe place to be but rather one of the safest places on the planet. Let’s talk for a minute about ‘legal’ gun owners, New York has made the attempt to implement the SAFE Act which among other things requires people to register their newly defined ‘assault style’ weapons which officials estimate to be in excess of 1 million weapons. This program has been an utter failure with only 23,847 registrations since its inception. Local law enforcement will not get behind the program because these departments know that not only is this type of legislation purely politically motivated but worse yet will do nothing to protect the people of New York.
GUN CONTROL PROPONENT: WOMEN TOO WEAK TO CARRY GUNS FOR SELF-DEFENSE
During the August 23 airing of Third Rail on Al Jazeera, the executive director of New Yorkers Against Gun Violence, Leah Gunn Barrett, suggested women are too weak to be allowed to carry guns for self-defense on college campuses.
She made this suggestion in the face of Florida state Representative Rehwinkel Vasilinda (D-9th), although Vasilinda was the victim of “attempted rape” while in college–an “attempted rape” that she was able to stop by grabbing the gun her father had given her for self-defense.
Vasilinda made clear she wants to see Florida pass laws opening the door for women on campuses today to be similarly armed for self-defense.
Barrett responded to Vasilinda by claiming college campuses are “some of the safest places in the nation” and asking why we “would want to change that” by allowing law-abiding women to carry guns for self-defense. Barrett then made clear that she would never allow her daughter, who is a sophomore in college, to attend a school where women and other law-abiding citizens are allowed to carry guns for self-defense.
Vasilinda countered, explaining that college campuses are not bastions of safety, but places where “20 percent of women” are victims of rape or sexual assault. She said she is very concerned about the safety of women who are denied the ability to defend themselves via campus carry.
Barrett then countered with a suggestion that women are too weak to carry guns for self-defense. She said, “Women are not physically powerful like men are. A gun could easily be turned on the woman, and it is frequently.”
After further cross questioning, Barrett said she did not agree that the nine unarmed church-goers at Charleston’s Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church would have been safer if armed.
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Dear Idiot Gun-Grabbers, Women Need Guns More than You
Have you heard the very sad story of New Jersey’s Carol Bowne, the woman who was murdered by her crazy ex-boyfriend… while awaiting her gun permit? It was such a heartbreaking case, even RINO Governor Chris Christie is changing his gun-control stance as a result.
Yet amid this tragedy, there’s an underlying issue this incident exposes that no one wants to talk about. Because if you do, you’re sexist. Or racist. Or some kind of other “ist”… but I’m brave. So here goes it.
Men and women are different.
Boom. There. I said it.
Somewhere along the line, feminism decided that what women really need is to be treated exactly like men, to pretend that despite science and biology, we’re no different from them. We’ve demanded equal treatment, and in the process, rejected much of the best of womanhood – like gentle persuasion, motherly kindness, and anything that makes us appear somehow “weak,” “delicate,” or “less” than a man.
Except none of these things make us less then men. We never were and never will be. But we are different.
And when we reject those differences, people get hurt.
As a general rule, men are stronger than women. We’re built differently. (Get over it.)
If a man decides he wants to overpower a woman, he’s most likely going to be able to do it. Unless that woman has been trained in really, really powerful self-defense methods… or is equipped with a firearm. And frankly, most women, even if they possess basic self-defense skills, will remain powerless against a male assailant.
The only thing that really gives a woman a fighting chance to defend herself? A gun.
“But what if the rapist has a gun? Then what?” Well then, she better shoot first.
When 2nd Amendment rights are restricted, the people most negatively affected are women.
In New York city – one of the most anti-gun cities in the entire US – a 911 call regarding domestic violence is made every two minutes. That’s 700 calls a day, or 263,207 calls a year. Just in New York City. 39 people, most of them women, were murdered in New York by a spouse or partner in 2012. That’s 9.3 percent of the city’s 419 total murders that year.
You want to empower women? Train them in the proper use of a firearm, and watch what happens. 34-year-old Dietta Gueye of Detroit made news last week when she singlehandedly held off 5 home invaders with her handgun. Check out her story:
We pray for Carol Bowne’s family, and we also hope to never see another story like hers. What we need are more stories like Dietta’s, stories of women who’ve been truly empowered, who know how to use a gun, aren’t afraid to fight the bad guys, can protect themselves… and in doing so, maybe even bring a little more justice to the world.
But that won’t happen until liberals get their hands off our guns.
At least six people have died and another 35 have been wounded in shootings across Chicago since Friday evening. In the weekend’s first fatal shooting, an 18-year-old man and a 16-year-old boy got into a street fight with another man at about 6:15 p.m. in the 3800 block of West Lexington, police said.No one is in custody for the shooting.
A 42-year-old man was shot while driving just after 8:30 p.m. in the 1000 block of North Lamon Avenue. Someone opened fire on the man’s vehicle, shooting the driver multiple times, police said. The man’s car crashed into a parked car nearby and he was pronounced dead at the scene with multiple gunshot wounds to the body.
This news story continues with a huge list of shooting incidents that involved gang shootings and more senseless violence. The shootings included many innocent people who were in the wrong place at the wrong time and many of these cases will result in no perpetrators being arrested. The shooters will skip away with their still-smoking stolen guns to commit another crime elsewhere.
The more concealed carriers the better, that has been proven in several studies… Chicago can’t keep sitting on it’s hands as more and more citizens are killed in situations that could have been prevented. It all comes back to the walls put up in legislature to prevent law-abiding citizens from acquiring firearms and ultimately defending themselves with guns.
It all comes back to the light punishment for criminals that are eventually caught and the fact that politicians and those influencing the laws are targeting guns as the problem. This article highlights some of these issues.
In a news release, McCarthy noted police have seized over 3,300 illegal firearms so far this year, but said many gun offenders quickly return to the street because sentences for those caught carrying illegally are too lax.”Our efforts will continue unabated until all Chicagoans gain the same sense of security, but better laws are needed to reduce the proliferation of illegal guns in our communities,” Chicago’s top cop continued.
These laws will not prove to keep criminals from getting guns, but will make it even more difficult and ludicrous for a law abiding citizen to buy one. No matter what laws are put into place on gun control, criminals will always have access to guns.
Common sense seems to be lacking in Chicago’s gun laws as everyone knows the definition of a criminal is a person who refuses to abide by the law! Most gun crimes are committed by those with illegal or stolen firearms, and those who aren’t afraid to break the law to get what they want, even if that means murdering an innocent victim.
When is Chicago going to get the fact that defensive gun use happens EVERY day, multiple times! Citizens need to be armed! More criminals will think twice before committing a crime if they know they could be killed or deterred by a citizen carrying a gun. Lives are saved, people refuse to be victims by arming themselves, and criminals are faced with the question if breaking the law is worth being shot.
Recycling Old Arguments as an Admission of Failure.
No, what the three-lettered, gun-clutching He-Men are actually doing is more of what they do best: They’re now using a cartoon to appeal to the clearly underserved teenage-and-under market for the Bushmaster Carbon-15.
Think of it as a Joe Camel for the modern age. With armor-piercing bullets
I almost dropped my coffee when I saw this. I know Eddie Eagle has been a thorn on the side of the Gun Control groups because it keeps asking them the obvious question: If you are into safety, show us what you’ve done to teach kids not to mess with guns? To which the answer is a big fat zero.
And now a bit of history for the Youngins: Back in 1996 (Yes, the author went back to the trash pile almost 20 years) there was a huge campaign against the cigarette brand Camel because they had a character named Joe Camel who the cognoscenti said made it cool for kids to smoke.
This was the era of the huge lawsuits against the Tobacco companies so eventually the campaign was dropped. Now, the geniuses of Gun Control saw what happened and went after Eddie Eagle by comparing it to Joe Camel and adding the narrative that the Eddie Eagle Program incited kids to go buy and use guns…. well, the truth has never been their strong suit.
Every major media outlet ran with this. You would have thought the NRA was bringing heroin to the classroom and injecting it in the kids so they could become instant addicts. Legislators demanded that laws be written to forbid the use of such disgusting scheme in our sainted schools. Newspapers wrote long scathing editorials about the thinly veiled attempts to kill our kids with guns, even though at least one major newspaper in the Gunshine State ran a front page story of a girl who saw a gun abandoned in a playground and followed what she had learned in school and made sure nobody touched the gun, got her friends to leave the playground and got adults involved who called the cops. That newspaper hailed the girl as a hero. No, I am not kidding you.
What happened next, shook the Gun Control community: The NRA and gun owners in general flipped their ugly middle finger and refused to be cowed into silence. Them effing rednecks defied the experts! How dare they! They kept at it for a while, but after being asked “OK, show us YOUR plan to teach kids how to be safe around guns” mixed with healthy doses of STFU, the Antis called it quits. I guess we somehow offended their sensibilities too much and went to their respective safe areas.
Now, that a pundit had to go dumpster-diving and pull out this smelly piece of failed strategy, shows how depleted of ideas their brainpan is at this time…or any time for that matter.
Guys, if the Eddie Eagle = Joe Camel strategy went turd 20 years ago, it did not turn into fragrant musk just because you pulled it out from the landfill, dumped a gallon of Old Spice on it and presented it in a new fancy container: It is still a turd.
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Minnesota Says GFY To 4 States In A Move To No Longer Recognize Their Carry Permits, Including Utah
With the annoyance of no national reciprocity for carry permits, holders have to keep themselves up-to-date with the latest laws from each state that they ever plan to visit… no to mention their own state.
The amount of actual research needed to make sure we’re legal is literally absurd. There’s simply no other way to put it.
And now, to the list of states throwing out what they consider trash, Minnesota is no longer doing business with the following state’s permits for carrying of firearms:
Missouri passed a law in 2014 to allow 19-year-old military personnel and veterans to obtain a permit. Minnesota law does not allow issuing permits to anyone under 21.
Texas passed a law in 2014 to allow 19-year-old military personnel and veterans to obtain a permit. Minnesota law does not allow issuing permits to anyone under 21.
Wyoming law gives local sheriffs discretion to issue permits to 18-21-years-olds. Minnesota law does not allow issuing permits to anyone under 21. In addition Wyoming law does not require permit-holders to demonstrate shooting proficiency. Minnesota law requires training to include shooting proficiency.
Utah law does not require permit-holders to demonstrate shooting proficiency. Minnesota law requires training to include shooting proficiency.
But wait, there’s a light at the end of the tunnel! Some states were added to the list of acceptable participants. Those include: Delaware, Idaho (enhanced permits only), Illinois, New Jersey, North Dakota (enhanced permits only), Rhode Island, South Carolina and South Dakota (enhanced permits only).
Get to reading, travelers. You don’t want to cross an invisible line and become a felon now…do you?
Commonly Misused Gun terms everybody should understand
Before You Get Your Opinion Out On This Lets’s Look At Some Facts
Gun safety begins with good communication.As such, often times people may not understand the distinct differences between the gun terms people use.Certainly, media outlets are notorious for using incorrect gun terminology to describe an incident or accident.This is why we’re going to clarify some important terms and break down what they actually mean.
Magazine vs. Clip
People get beaten up all the time about this term.
Because the term “clip” has been around arguably longer than magazine, it tends to get thrown around to refer to the same thing.Is it technically incorrect?Depends on the weapon you’re referring to.
A quick illustration of the difference would be the M1 Garand or traditional SKS and an AR-15.
An AR-15 has a detachable magazine which is inserted into the magazine well.An M1 Garand has a clip – or open-faced magazine (non-enclosed) – of bullets fed into its fixed magazine well.And an SKS uses a stripper clip to load ammunition into its fixed magazine well.
General rule of thumb: clips are used to load magazines.Magazines can either be detachable (AR-15) or fixed (M1 Garand, SKS, etc.).
Now, it’s not necessary that the magazine or clip stays put after a cycle of fire has been completed.It is a common feature of magazine-fed firearms to retain the magazine until it is released by the gunman.
Assault Weapon vs. Assault Rifles & Semi-Automatic Rifles
A weapon is anything that can be used to inflict bodily harm, injury, or death upon another living thing.That is literally the definition of a weapon.So the concept of an “assault weapon” is redundant.Every weapon is theoretically an “assault weapon” – once it’s used in an assault.
An assault rifle refers to a class of rifles that have selective fire mechanisms for switching between semi-automatic firing (one trigger pull, one bullet fired) and burst or automatic modes.By helping to define those selective fire modes, we’ll inevitably discover the reason why semi-automatic weapons are not necessarily assault rifles and tying those two terms together is a bit arbitrary.
Non-semi-automatic One trigger pull results in one bullet fired but in order to fire another, a firing mechanism must be reset (i.e. “bolt charged to the front” or “hammer pulled to the rear”, etc.).
Example:US Navy Colt single-action revolver or M1917 Lee-Enfield Rifle.
Semi-automatic – One trigger pull per bullet fired.
Example:M1 Garand – Capable of discharging one bullet per trigger pull and no more.
Burst – Automatic selective fire mechanism that discharges two or more bullets per trigger pull.If the trigger is held down, though, it will not continue to fire.
Example:M16A2 (Assault Rifle) – “Burst” will discharge three rounds per trigger pull.
Automatic – Holding down the trigger will discharge ammunition at a cyclic rate of fire until ammunition runs out or the weapon overheats.
Example:AK-47 (Assault Rifle) – When placed on ‘auto’, press and hold the trigger to cycle through all available rounds.
Pistols, Handguns, Revolvers vs. Semi-Auto
A handgun is the broadest of all classifications in this group.It can be defined as any firearm that is hand-carried with no supporting stock.Whether it’s fed by a cylinder – making it a revolver – or a magazine – making it a pistol – is a descriptor which then further defines it.
Handgun – a hand-held firearm
Revolver – Cylinder fed, single or double action, handgun.Available in either semi-automatic (“double action”) or single-action.
Pistol – Magazine-fed handgun.Commonly only available in semi-automatic variants with some automatics.
To the experienced concealed carrier or firearms enthusiast, the term “semi-auto” doesn’t mean anything other than one trigger pull per bullet.There are semi-automatic revolvers – double-action, usually.For the remainder of pistols out on the market, it’s exceedingly difficult to find a non-semi-automatic pistol.Why?Because to fall out of the semi-automatic category, the pistol would have to require a cocking mechanism to discharge a second round or conversely, be fully automatic.The practicality of either of these composes an extremely small share of the market.That’s why gun manufacturers don’t spend too much time on them.They’re novelties.
Have you heard any other terms that are commonly bungled by gun enthusiasts?
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LISTEN TO YOUR FATHER: Daughter Starts Carrying After Her Father Wanted Her To, Ends Up Potentially Saving Her Life
INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA — “Honestly, I mostly carry it because my dad wanted me to. Now I’m glad I listened.” Those are the words spoken by a daughter who is happy she listened to her father’s advice.
The daughter, named Crystal, was coming home from work late Friday night when she was approached by three men who tried to rob her. At least one of the men was armed. “I just heard them saying ‘Shut up, be quiet, don’t say anything’ and the one here had a weapon,” she said.
When one of the men went to grab at her, she turned around and started shooting, hitting one of the three men. The trio took off and were soon located by police. The two uninjured men got away, and the third was taken to the hospital with a gunshot wound to the shoulder.
Crystal has some advice regarding women and their safety: “Learn how to protect yourself if you don’t know how. Be more aware. I wasn’t paying attention to my surroundings at all.”
Responsibility And Carrying A Firearm Should Always Go Hand In Hand And If It Doesn’t, Do You Say Something To A Stranger?
Robert sent us a message on our Facebook page that detailed an experience he recently had. It involved an open carrier, and a lack of good judgement.
– – – – – – – – – –
I was at a fund-raising memorial ride (motorcycles, cars) in VT. A young guy, 20s, rides up on a zip-splat, and I see he is open-carrying, looked like a medium size 9mm in a plastic holster. I try to reserve judgment as to what his behavior would be like. A nightmare was what it was. He was burning rubber, riding wheelies, standing up, turning around, doing the wig-wag in his lane, riding up onto side-walks, racing his engine, almost non-stop. All I could think is how unsafe it was for the 30-40 riders around him, what he was portraying bikers as, and (more relevant to this page) what might have happened if he went down-slamming a firearm to the ground at 50 or more mph couldn’t be good-or losing it from the holster. When we believers in carrying are trying to show we are responsible and think about what we are doing, there is always someone acting the fool and making an example for the other side to exploit.
– – – – – – – – – –
If you’re like me, it is your opinion that gun owners should be responsible in every aspect of their lives, no matter what. We’re upstanding citizens, and should be seen as such. Not only is it good for life in general, it helps our 2nd Amendment cause when people see others carrying firearms and are acting responsibly.
So now that the details are out, it begs the question: If you were a witness to something like this, as a gun owner yourself, would you say anything to the person being irresponsible?
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32 Essential Items For Your Doomsday SHTF Prep List - Defend and Carry
Jun 25, 2015
32 Must Have Items for Doomsday – Here is our SHTF Prep List
No one can be prepared for everything, all the time. It’s mostly a question of having the items you need to survive on standby should all hell break lose. Part of preparation is finding that perfect combination – what you need to immediately escape and survive and that which can help you sustain.
Here are thirty two items we think need to be in every person’s survival kit. If you find something missing, please include it in the comments below.
Water Storage/Sanitation
The recommended consumption of water is a minimum of a gallon a day. Keeping a regular supply of clean water is difficult when either on the run or cut off from regular water sources. That’s why it’s important to be able to store at least a full day’s water requirement and supplies to treat the next day’s.
1. 2.5 L hydration pack (Camelbak or similar)
2. Empty gallon milk jugs (x2) for untreated water
3. Chlorine tablets
4. Activated charcoal tablets
5. Plastic gallon ziplock bags (x1 package)
Storage (Backpack/Daypack/etc.)
You may be able to carry a lot in your pockets, but it’s hard to keep everything you need to survive on your body at all times. That’s why having a 65L capacity backpack is essential. It can hold everything in this list and give you the advantage of near-instantaneous mobility.
A general rule of thumb is you want to carry no more than half your bodyweight in supplies for long distance. For instance, 170 lbs body weight means no more than 85 lbs maximum pack weight. Your feet, joints, and ligaments have to hold up for the long haul and you’ll find that the longer you’re on the road, the more you can do without.
1. 55-65L backpack
2. 20L emergency/patrol pack
3. Waterproof bag (5-10L)
4. Mesh bag (5-10L)
First Aid Kit (Sanitation/Medicine)
First aid, in a survival situation, is about two separate aspects – immediate treatment and sustained treatment. If STHF, there is no way of knowing when these supplies will be replaced and when an actual injury occurs, you can’t operate sparingly. Resupplying these materials should be close to a top priority at all times.
Baking soda cannot be understated. It is a space efficient cleaner which can be used as toothpaste, deodorant, and cleaning wounds to the mucus membranes.
1. Baking soda (0.5 kg)
2. Isopropyl alcohol (300 mL)
3. Hydrogen peroxide (300 mL)
4. Ibuprofen/pain relievers (60 capsules)
5. Sterile supply of gauze and wraps
6. Antibiotic ointment (x1)
7. Surgical stapler (x1)
8. Suture kit (x1)
Navigation
What’s the bare minimum you need to navigate across land? For most people, that would be a compass and map. A basic road map is sufficient to get a rough approximation of the lay of the land. More detailed relief maps can help plan for elevation and estimate possible water sources but they also take up more room in your pack. Waterproofed or laminated maps are also extremely helpful. Lensatic compasses are the most reliable for little money. If possible, a compass and protractor are also extremely helpful for route planning. Obviously, not as essential but nonetheless useful.
1. Lensatic Compass (Bearing, Azimuth)
2. Local road maps (at minimum, laminated if possible)
3. Notepad, 3 pens/pencils
Food/Shelter
It’s impossible to carry all the food you will need for a week unless you’re eating very high density proteins like nuts. Nuts and dried meat are two of the easiest off-the-cuff meals. Canned food has a lot of water that is wasted during the cooking process. Stay away from heavily flavored or salted nuts. The amount of salt present in the unsalted nut mixes is still sufficient enough to replace electrolytes.
Shelter can be as simple as two tarps with bungee cords or a 2 man tent. Items like a sleeping bag can help you retain body heat. A poncho is the cheapest, easiest way to make yourself and your equipment water resistant.
1. Rain poncho (thick polypropylene)
2. Sleeping Bag (0°C rated)
3. 2-Man Tent/Tarp
4. 6 bungee cords or 100 ft cord
5. 1 pound nuts per estimated meal (5 lb bag)
6. Wide brimmed hat
7. Polarized sunglasses
Personal Defense/Utility
Personal defense items – such as rifles and heavy firearms – are going to be increasinly hard to manage the farther you move from steady supplies. Ironically, it’s firearms that help acquire more food, provide personal protection, and deter others from attacking. In a SHTF scenario, heavy armament is only good within fortified areas. If you want to stay highly mobile, switch down to a .22LR polymer rifle such as the Savage survival rifle or similar. Lightweight, collapsible, and perfect for hunting game. Loaded with subsonic rounds, it can also be a lot more efficient than heading off a target with a loud 30-06.
Utility knives that incorporate many smaller tools can be a lifesaver. One equipped with a pair of pliers and a few types of screwdrivers is essential. A good combat knife and pistol is also a good idea. If you’re able to go out on patrol, you’ll appreciate both instantly.
1. 9 mm Handgun (due to availability of ammo)
2. Inside the Waistband Concealed Carry Holster ( we recommend AlienGearHolsters.com )
This list serves as a rebuttal of the Listverse list “10 Arguments for Gun Control” by Morris M. This list is not intended to incite controversy, but to foster an even-sided debate. The issue of gun control is global, but since it is most controversial in the United States of America, that nation is referred to most in the following entries.
The US Constitution’s Second Amendment reads: “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”
10 There Is Murder In The UK
Almost all handguns are banned from civilian possession, ownership, purchase, or sale in the United Kingdom as a result of the Second Firearms Act of 1997. This was in response to the Dunblane Massacre, in which 43-year-old Thomas Hamilton walked into an elementary school and shot dead 16 children, aged six or younger, and one teacher before killing himself. He used four handguns.
Now that modern handguns are no longer legal to have in the UK, let us take a look at some murder rates. The rate for intentional homicide in the UK in 1996—the year of the Dunblane Massacre—was 1.12 per 100,000. It was 1.24 in 1997, when the Firearms Act went into effect, and 1.43 in 1998. The rate rose to a peak of 2.1 in 2002 and has fallen since to 1.23 as of 2010. These numbers have, however, been called into question due to possible under-reporting of violent crimes in the UK.
It cannot be denied that the rate of homicides via guns has fallen dramatically since Dunblane, but the rate of murders has gone up. To say these higher numbers are the result of fewer people able to arm themselves for defense is drastically jumping to a conclusion, but the fact does remain that more people are killing each other in the UK today than when guns were legal to have. Even the police are almost all armed with tasers instead, so handguns are very hard to come by. All the numbers are higher in the US, of course, where there are more people, and there have been no more school shootings in the UK since Dunblane.
But in 2005, there were 765 intentional murders in the UK and most of these were committed with knives. Blunt objects follow, then strangulation, fire, and poison. Banning guns has halted rampage shootings, but it does not address the issue of people killing each other. In the US, the number of intentional homicides in 2004 was 10,654—a number that would have been much lower without access to guns, but still terribly high. Opponents of gun control are always quick to question how many victims of knives, clubs, and strangulation would be alive if they had had a gun.
9 Literary Infallibility
Thomas Jefferson once wrote “Our liberty depends on the freedom of the press, and that cannot be limited without being lost.” Gun enthusiasts often couple this with a quote from Ben Franklin, “Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote.”
Unfortunately, Franklin never said that. It was probably written by someone on the Internet, who then tacked his name onto it. But Jefferson’s premise of not limiting the freedom of the press can extend to any freedom. Right now, American legislators are up in arms, if you’ll pardon the pun, over the question of whether to limit some firearms’ ammunition capacities. Proponents cite the only obvious use for an assault rifle—killing people—and defend ammunition limitations as a compromise that will save lives. Opponents maintain that a single life lost due to some maniac with a gun is just as excessive as 30.
The issue of fully automatic firearms has been a hotbed for a long time. In some states, they are legal for civilians, provided that an extra fee is paid. In North Carolina, a fully automatic M2HB .50 Browning heavy machine gun is perfectly legal to use as a home defense weapon or for hunting. This is because that state considers any limitation of guns to be unconstitutional. California does not agree. In that state, no semiautomatic firearm may contain more than 10 rounds at any time. Assault rifles are completely banned. There are some federal limits: no caliber is permissible larger than .50 unless a special and expensive license is obtained and cannons are legal to own but not to fire with real ammunition.
The debates will go on for a very long time, and most of them center on the Constitution’s wording of the Second Amendment. How should we define “a well-regulated militia”? Proponents of gun control claim this should entail proper training. Opponents claim that almost all gun owners train themselves in their free time. They further claim that, should any affront be made to the Second Amendment, those who want to control guns will no longer have any line to cross. They will interpret as they see fit any word or phrase of any Amendment in order to limit more and more rights until, in this case, all guns are banned from civilian use.
8 The Civilian Need For Assault Rifles
An assault rifle is any weapon which fires high-powered rifle rounds rather than pistol rounds, semi or fully automatically. The weapon reloads each round on its own—all you have to do is pull the trigger again and again. It is true that these weapons were invented for the purpose of warfare, not hunting, though they can be used for either. Proponents of even limited gun control maintain that, if nothing else is done, assault rifles should have magazines of no more than 10 rounds at a time. The argument typically brought out in defense of this position claims that in any self-defense scenario, assault rifles are overkill.
Gun control opponents, however, have long argued that the Second Amendment was put in place not just for ordinary home defense against burglars but specifically to guarantee that the nation could never be overcome by any military power foreign or domestic. If the five branches of the US military were beaten by, say, a nuclear holocaust, the only national defense left would be the civilians themselves. Any subsequent military invasion—probably armed with AK-47 variants—would find it very easy to overrun civilians armed only with lever, bolt, and pump action weapons.
7 Welcome To Texas
The first modern school shooting occurred on August 1, 1966 and deservedly made national headlines because no one had ever heard of such diabolical insanity. If you have a problem with your boss, you might get mad and shoot him, but sniping innocent random strangers from up to 400 yards for 90 minutes somehow makes even less sense. Whitman’s tower rampage on the University of Austin was not the first school shooting in the sense of a single maniac killing indiscriminately, but it was possibly the first to push the notion into the public eye. It was a direct cause of the institution of SWAT teams among city police forces around the nation. There were none before this incident, and the Austin police found themselves woefully outgunned at the outset.
They were considerably aided, in Ramiro Martinez’s opinion, by several dozen students and passersby who did not take cover, but instead ran to their vehicles and brought back hunting rifles. They then took cover alongside police officers and opened fire on the observation deck, forcing Whitman to take cover and fire less often and less accurately. Martinez was one of the three officers who entered the tower and killed Whitman, and he thanked the civilians for their assistance. Whitman would certainly have killed many more than 12 from the 28th story observation deck had he not been harried by the civilians’ return fire.
6 It Didn’t Work For Germany
On March 10, 2009, 28-year-old Michael McClendon shot 10 people dead in a spree that covered three counties of Alabama. Gun control was immediately revived in national debates, primarily because he used two assault rifles for most of the rampage. He also had a shotgun and a pistol. McClendon had left a suicide note in which he made it clear that he despondent and enraged over his dead-end life. He began the spree by shooting his own mother, all three of her dogs, and burning down her house. He then drove down the highway shooting random people from his vehicle.
The gun control debate did not reach fever pitch, however, until a German high school student initiated a very similar rampage the next day in Winnenden, Baden-Wurttemberg, in southwestern Germany. Seventeen-year-old Timothy Kretschmer began at Albertville-Realschule, where he murdered 12 people, most of them women, then carjacked Igor Wolf and forced him to drive Kretschmer to the town of Wendlingen. While in the backseat, Kretschmer reloaded his magazines and answered Wolf’s question of why he had done it. “For fun. Because it’s fun.” He ordered Wolf off the road near a car dealership and ran inside, murdered two more people, and then shot it out with the police, wounding two and being wounded in both legs. He opened fire on every random person he could see, then shot himself.
He killed 15 and wounded nine, all with a single 9mm pistol. This was his father’s gun, since he was too young to own one, and it was the only gun his father had not locked in a safe. He had illegally kept it outand loaded in case of burglary. This is not illegal in the US. Here, we see that a child, who should not have been able to acquire a gun, did so in a nation with extremely strict laws on gun control.
5 Gun Control Equals Absolute Despotism
Of all arguments against controlling guns, this one crystallizes everything the ravenous pro-gun crowd has had to say over the years. Most Americans do not trust their government, or more properly, the people who hold the highest positions in it. This was the feeling long before Edward Snowden leaked proof of the government spying illegally on its own citizens and nations around the world. Snowden deemed this too similar to “Big Brother,” as Orwell calls it, but the US government not only disagreed with him, it even defended what it was doing as not in any way criminal, though its own law books clearly differ. Snowden is not without supporters. Twitter has erected security firewalls to guard against NSA spying, and Google, Facebook, and Tumblr have followed suit.
Pro-gun citizens consider their guns the same protection. They arm themselves for the possibility of government agents taking away their rights one by one until they live in a police state in which the government is able to do anything it wants because the civilian populace is unarmed and cannot resist. In these terms, any gun control is viewed as a threat to liberty, and though the Constitution guarantees rights, it does not enforce anything. Guns do.
The Snowden fiasco in particular brought the rampant and frighteningly amoral dishonesty of the federal government back once again to the front of global debate, since America had been spying on China, France, Germany, and even Great Britain against their wishes. The pro-gun American citizens have seized on this embarrassment as yet more proof that the government is out to take away its citizens’ rights, as many as possible until democracy is gone and tyranny is in place. Tthe only truly effective protection of American citizens’ rights to freedom of speech, press, religion, and others are their guns.
4 Rampage Shooters Like Soft Targets
If rampage killers are so depressed that they intend to kill themselves afterward, then why hasn’t anyone whipped out an assault rifle and attempted to kill people inside the US Bullion Depository near Fort Knox? Because breaking into the White House would be a lot easier. Do these shooters fear the firepower lurking around the gold? Not if they want to die, but what they do fear is not killing a lot of people beforehand. They have a rage in them, and it appears to be always the same. Motive or not, they want to exact revenge. The more dead, the merrier. The media, of course, is largely to blame for turning any shooting incident into a circus. Presently, a lovers’ spat that boils over in public will make brief national headlines as a possible rampage scene.
The James Holmeses, the Cho Seung-huis, and Adam Lanzas are the sort who want to one-up the last massacre, and this can’t be done in a bank. The police are on the lookout for the banks and there aren’t enough people anyway. It can’t be done at the White House or a police station, but malls, schools, ordinary workplaces, and churches are all soft and rich targets because they contain many people and few of them are armed.
Suppose there were a guarantee that everyone in a church on Sunday morning were armed to the teeth—pistols, shotguns, and assault rifles, and more importantly, that they were all trained to fight back. Even the most desperately depressed rage-a-holic would pick a different target. The Amarillo school district in the good ol’ state of Texas has gone to the extreme of arming its entire faculty and staff as a warning to would-be maniacs. This means the teachers, janitors, groundskeepers, and secretaries all have guns on their person.
3 The Eighteenth Amendment
This amendment prohibited the production, transport, and sale of alcohol within the United States of America. It was a result of the Temperance Movement. Most of the politicians in Washington, DC strongly supported the imposition of the ban, but when it went into effect on January 17, 1920, the public responded in a way that neither the temperance movement nor the politicians had expected—few people heeded the criminalization, and those who had been manufacturing alcohol continued doing so regardless of the law. Everyone seemed haughtily recalcitrant and alcohol use flourished even more than before. The police around the country were woefully ineffective in curbing its production, sale, or consumption.
Career criminals like Al Capone became extremely rich by gaining control over the importation to entire cities. Those too afraid of the police resorted to making their own booze at home, and this resulted in many deaths from poisoning.
Replace every reference to alcohol above with a reference to guns and you have the most assured aftermath of a similar prohibition on guns—except in this scenario, the crimes involved are much deadlier. The Al Capones who rise up will attempt to gain control over a city’s illegal importation of guns, and there will be street violence worse than that of the most dangerous areas of Chicago today.
The public outcry leading up to the national ban might not cause a nationwide uprising. Such a disaster can only be conjectured as alternate history fiction, but if the government enforced the ban by raiding homes and businesses, there would certainly be small-scale uprisingsthat easily spread. Martial law would have to be imposed in some large cities, especially in Texas. Texas might actually make good on its common threat to secede, since it does retain a provision in its state constitution which permits this. There would be civil war, but with much deadlier weapons. The war would probably not be fought in as open a form as the previous Civil War, but those who refuse to relinquish their firearms would engage in guerrilla warfare and splinter cell terrorism. None of this is to say that the US military, if loyal to the ban, could not put down such rebellion to it, but the consequences would be horrific and long-lasting.
2 Laws Do Not Apply To Criminals
We’ve all heard this one many times, but a point of contention that just won’t go away must be quite convincing to some. Gun laws are all founded on the principle of making a nation safer by limiting its civilian population’s access to guns, but laws against murder and violence do not apply to those who have given up on life and intend to die while killing as many people as they can. Laws against theft do not apply to a person who intends to steal something. The sole thing the criminally-minded care about is not getting caught. Some are reformed in prison, but in large part, those who want to break a law are not going to feel remorse when they are caught. Give them a chance and they will do it again.
From this perspective, it is difficult to fathom the logic of enacting newer, stricter gun laws on an already lawful society. Most of us obey such laws. Sale of guns is forbidden within the city limits of Chicago, an ordinance that went into effect in 2010. For the year 2013, the city’s murder count is 374. There were 432 in 2010 and 500 in 2012. The FBI has named Chicago the nation’s murder capital. Thus, the city ordinance did nothing to reduce its murder rate.
None of this is to imply that in areas of well-armed civilians, the violent crime rate must go down. That is not true. The highest crime rates in 2012 were in the South, where gun ownership is at its highest. But this fact as well corroborates that any imposition of gun control does not address the issue of gun-related crime.
1 Maybe In A Perfect World . . .
Let us disentangle ourselves from the trees and take a look at the forest. Because there is no national gun registry, the exact number of guns in civilian hands in the US cannot be determined, but a conservative estimate places it—as of 2010, when the gun-buying craze was just reaching its peak—at 270 million weapons. This was about 89 guns per 100 people, the most heavily armed civilian population in the world. Yemen was second with 55 per 100, and Switzerland third. As of 2013, Serbia is second.
Another estimate, conducted by Congressional Research in 2012, places the total number of weapons in US civilian hands at 310 million as of 2009. By today, that means almost 1 gun for every single citizen, including infants. What would gun control even mean at this point? Assume this federal law: from 2014 on, no more assault rifles. Those who already own one may keep theirs, but such weapons will disappear from gun stores and pawn shops. Have we controlled much of anything? There are still at least 3 million assault rifles out there.
In a perfect world, gun control would mean going house to house throughout the nation and taking away every single firearm, including muzzle loaders. That would be impossible. Regardless of its constitutionality, gun owners would either fight back until there were a nationwide civil war or simply hide their weapons and claim they have none. Since most of those in the US are unregistered, no one knows who has what. Owners could always claim they destroyed those that are registered.
Thus, to debate gun control is a futile exercise. They cannot be controlled—not anymore. The continuation of buying and selling them cannot make the situation any worse because criminals will never again have to go far to find one.
