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Posted on 03/27/2022 6:15:22 AM PDT by marktwain
We are strange creatures. We see the world and build mental models of how the world works. Soon, those models become more significant to us than reality itself. That is dangerous when so much of our “experience” is from the news and entertainment media. We think our tiny screens show us what is really happening. We want to be carful about what we put into our heads.
Here in the USA, there are over a million violent crimes a year. The vast majority of them do not involve the criminal using a gun. At the same time, honest citizens like us defend ourselves with a firearm over a million times. Each year criminals also kill a few thousand people with a firearm. Mass murderers kill a few hundred of us. That isn’t what we see on our small screens.
The media inverts those proportions. We might think that mass murder is common and armed defense is rare. That lets special interests with a political agenda play on our distorted view of reality. That distortion is dangerous for all of us.
Three states recently passed constitutional carry legislation. That means that people who legally own a gun are allowed to carry their gun in public without asking for a permit and paying a tax. The new law won’t change how armed criminals behave since criminals who were not allowed to own a gun were already carrying their guns illegally. Breaking the law is what criminals do every day. Our gun laws disarmed the people who obey the law, and now we’ve reduced those infringements on honest people in three more states.
Now that constitutional carry passed, more law-abiding citizens will carry a legally owned firearm in public and at home. That makes life harder for criminals since the thugs don’t know if their intended victims are armed. The criminal’s uncertainty makes all of us safer. We are safer if we choose to carry a personal firearm and if we choose to go unarmed.
I studied the effects of concealed carry licensing across the United States. As you’d expect, fewer of us get our license to carry as that license becomes more expensive and more time consuming. What surprised and pleased me was that more of us take firearms training when the costs of a license go down.
That sounds counter intuitive from one point of view. If we drop the state mandate to take a firearms training class then more of us will take a class? I see why you could be skeptical.
Now consider another perspective. The state not only required a class, but they taxed us if we wanted to have a carry permit. No one would be surprised if more of us got firearms training if the state gave us a few hundred dollars. That is what happens when licensing fees decrease. We were able to spend our safety budget on firearms training rather than on paying state taxes and fees. We’re wealthier because the state isn’t taxing us as much, and now we can afford to take more firearms safety training.
That isn’t what the anti-gun Democrat politicians told us would happen. They said that blood would flow in the streets. They say the same thing each time a state considers removing the taxes and regulations on honest people who want to defend themselves with a personal firearm.
Whether we believe the politicians or not depends on the models of human behavior we carry in our heads.
Ask yourself if these anti-gun politicians were right. Did disarming the law-abiding victims make us safer? We already have over 23 thousand firearms regulations. In contrast, there were 21 states that already allowed ordinary citizens to carry a firearm in public without a permit. When you listen to the news and hear stories of violent crime, are those stories from states where honest citizens are armed or from states where honest citizens have been disarmed? Does the disarmament model actually make us safer?
It is nearly impossible to get a carry permit in parts of California, New York, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and in Maryland. Cities like Los Angeles, New York City, Springfield, Camden, and Baltimore are some of our most violent cities. If disarming honest citizens made us safer then we should see the results on the nightly news. What do you see?
We all want to stop violent criminals. Some people decided that guns were bad so they passed laws that disarmed the people who obey the law. I think that model of human behavior is incomplete. I like it when the good guys can defend themselves. That happens over a million times a year. I think that model of human behavior gives us better results than disarming the victims.
There is a bit of good news that we don’t see reported yet. We are not all the same. Some of us were able to pay the thousand-dollar tax in order to protect our families with a firearm. Many of us couldn’t afford that much. Removing some of the fees and regulations on armed defense means that more of us can now afford a gun and self-defense training. More of us will be armed at home and in public. Fewer of us will be unarmed victims. More poor people can defend themselves from violent criminals.
That helps the people who need help the most. I like that, and so do most of you.
~_~_
I gave you 800 words for free. Please share them with a friend and leave a comment. RM
If I were a criminal I would love banning guns. It makes my job much safer.
This Ping List is for all things pertaining to infringes upon or victories for the 2nd Amendment.
FReepmail me if you want to be added to or deleted from the list.
More 2nd Amendment related articles on FR's Bang List.
Good article.
Self-defense with a gun happens more often than a lot of people think. It’s just that A) it’s not likely to be reported - guy threatens you in a parking garage, you pull your piece on him, he runs away. Nothing happened and you get in your car and drive off. (Are you going to call the cops and tell them you chased away a potential attacker in the parking garage? Probably not! They’ll find an excuse to arrest you.)
And B) If your attacker robs, assaults, or kills you, THAT’S WAY BETTER NEWS. That’s newsworthy! You getting killed.
If you end up shooting the guy, there will indeed be some reporters on that, likely demonizing you for saving your own life and property.
On channel 251 on DirecTV is Oxygen channel. It is mainly cop/murder/type programs. Tons and I mean tons of the people murdered on these programs that are murdered are NOT shot. Tons are stabbed, beaten, strangled (I was surprised by the number of women murdered by some guy who strangled them to death), knocked out and then the house burned down around them, bludgeoned to death. Lots are shot, mainly some woman shooting her husband and then saying someone broke into their home and shot her husband and she came home and found him dead. The majority of these shows are women who kill men, but there are many men killing women programs. Guns are not the only means of murder. As I said, this channel shows tons of programs where people are killed by other means other than guns. If you have a gun, you are asked for it and most say, “oh it was stolen.” That doesn’t fly with the cops. Purchase of a gun from a 3d party is used a lot, no background or record of the sell, and use that to kill and get rid of but the cops find out usually. Lots of sleeping men are hit with a heavy object or stabbed. A lot of women are afraid of guns if they are not familiar with one, and they use these other means. There have even been men whose wife/girlfriend got them drunk and pushed off a boat and they drown. So, that channel shows tons who are murdered by other means other than THE DREADED GUN CRIME!!!!!!!!! The left just wants guns out of our hands because as long as we have guns, they cannot simply run over us. We can fight back. That is why I think the left will use martial law and bring in the UN, who will bring in the Soviets or Red Chinese to do the killing. Our cops and troops might not shoot us, but our enemies will!!
For an American writing an objective article, i salute the author. He presented his argument and conclusion well.
For years, I carried concealed, with a permit for my county/parish, only. Yes, there was ‘the fee’, but $50, then $10 for consecutive years, compared to (last i knew), $500 for five years, eech one requiring either training, or if you are a veteran, a letter ztatting your training, and a copy of your house insurance, to see if you carried enough.
I am now housebound and disabled, with the only travel in medical vans, so i let it lapse, but don’t worry, folks, somewhere on the premise is a firearm.
So, for the TWENTY THREE STATES,that have gone Constitutional Carry, congratulations!!
You are supposed to call, and tell 911: "I have been the victim of a crime." Otherwise, the attacker might call first - and then you will be arrested.
Guns are already specifically taxed by the Feds.
L
I gave you 800 words for free. Please share them with a friend and leave a comment. RM
Really???
You need to cut out over half and work on getting to the fact instead of dancing around it. This article is way too long for me to understand it.
See my tag line.
Raise the transfer tax rate from $200.00 to $2000.00 but allow us to buy NEW machineguns and destructive devices. That means getting rid of 18 USC 922 (o). I'd then call FN an place an order for a M240 and M203 with new 40mm HDEP from DoD contractors.
Democrat’s wet dream from 1930s by Orr in the Chicago Tribune.
“A bill to promote burglary”
https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/1ygAAOSwvgVfJrO4/s-l400.jpg
Sane and sensible article. Just what the Socialists hate! :)
(If state regulations and taxes are dropped on gun ownership) “More poor people can defend themselves from violent criminals.”
That is one vicious circle. How can people keep voting for Socialist Democrats when the evidence is OVERWHELMING that they’ll do everything in their power to keep the poor in their place? Insanity!
Better Idea. Tax the criminals. Any profit from a crime has a 78% tax liability. Anyone who does not pay will go to jail for income tax liabilities.
Other than being unfocused and incoherent, it was a pretty good read.
ATF officially declares certain gun triggers ‘machine guns’
https://americanmilitarynews.com/2022/03/atf-officially-declares-certain-gun-triggers-machine-guns/
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