Posted on 05/23/2020 6:01:48 AM PDT by marktwain
It is only the last decade or two when those who want a disarmed population in the West have started to stress “suicide” as a reason for disarming the population. The early pushes for population disarmament were predicated on the excuse of reducing violent crime, particularly homicides. The actual motivation had nothing to do with crime. The original motivation was to reduce armed rivals. In New York, to reduce armed resistance to organized crime, particularly the Tammany Gang. In England, to reduce armed support for a potential revolution. Originally, the push was to eliminate handguns from almost all the population. There was some talk of accidents, but suicides were almost never mentioned.
Top 2 lines, blue, total suicides and suicides with guns. Bottom 2 lines, purple, total homicides and homicides with guns
As gun control policies were implemented in various countries, it became clear violent crime and homicides were not reduced by gun control. The push to ban handguns in the United States had failed, and those pushing for citizen disarmament moved on to semi-automatic rifles. The famous quote by Josh Sugarman of the Violence Policy Center was near the start of this phase. This push did not depend on homicide or violent crime for its existence. Semi-automatic rifles are seldom used in violent crime. Rather it is the similarity in appearance to military firearms which is used, under the pretext that military firearms are not useful to the ordinary citizen, and most citizens are not familiar with them. From the Violence Policy Center, 1988:
(Excerpt) Read more at ammoland.com ...
WUT!? I’m flabbergasted to learn that. Without a gun, how would anyone be able to commit sui...................... Oh. Did our tax dollars fund the study?
Top 2 lines, blue, total suicides and suicides with guns.
Bottom 2 lines, purple, total homicides and homicides with guns
Japan has a suicide rate which dwarfs ours but private gun ownership is virtually unknown there.
‘A Year’s Worth of Suicide Attempts in the Last Four Weeks’: California Doctor Calls for End to Lockdown
You just *know* that they are going to use this as an excuse to ban guns.
I can assure everyone that we had at least our share of suicides...and only a small percentage of them involved firearms.
As it says later in the article: When you actively dislike the idea of firearms in any hands outside of government, and see no positive function for firearms in private hands, you do not see any cost from disarming the population by force. With zero perceived costs to ban guns, the cost/benefit ratio is infinite with a tiny perceived benefit.
Good news, but unfortunately, facts don’t matter to the Left.
What matters more to them is emotion and rhetoric.
Aesop had a fable whose moral was that “Tyrants need no excuse”, however that moral missed an obvious corollary found in the fable, that “Tyrants still create endless excuses while exercising their tyranny.”
What matters more to them is emotion and rhetoric.
I suspect emotion and rhetoric only matter as means to an end: obtaining and keeping power.
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