Lies About America (gun control commentary)

Hour Eleven ^ | 05 January 2004 | Doug Hagin

[Lando Lincoln]

Take a look at this number and see if it means anything to you, 2,452,643. Does it ring a bell? No? Well if you are thinking these numbers represent a lotto winner’s purse or the number of times Democratic candidates have attacked President Bush in the last month you are mistaken. No instead this very large number represents the number of times Americans have used firearms to thwart crimes and defend themselves over the past year.

According to the National Self-Defense Survey created by Florida State University criminologists in 1994 the rate of defensive gun uses can be projected to approximately 2.5 million per year, or one defensive use for every 13 seconds.

Do those numbers come as a surprise? Certainly they would to those who buy into the myths put forward by the gun control advocates in our nation.

According to their information guns are the very worst things any American can own.

They love to represent guns as the cause of crimes, tragic accidents and of course suicides. Yet the actual numbers do not bare their representations out at all. Consider some more numbers from the National Self-Defense Survey.

Among 15.7% of gun defenders interviewed nationwide during The National Self Defense

Survey, the defender believed that someone "almost certainly" would have died had the gun not been used for protection -- a life saved by a privately held gun about once every 1.3 minutes. (In another 14.2% cases, the defender believed someone "probably" would have died if the gun hadn't been used in defense.)

In 83.5 % of those successful gun defenses, the attacker either used or threatened force first. So much for the gun control argument that gun availability for self-defense will not make any difference.

Further in 91.7% of these defensive uses the people protecting themselves neither killed nor wounded their attackers. This surely destroys the oft used argument that gun ownership leads to wild west style shootouts in the streets doesn’t it? Of course the media is incredibly irresponsible in their consistent non-reporting of these defensive uses of firearms. At most these stories will receive only passing mention in the vast majority of media outlets. And that is only if they are mentioned at all.

Yet another popular gun control myth put forward is that a gun will most likely be used against a family member or a loved one. Yet as the survey showed over 70 % of the defensive uses were against a stranger, while those against a family member or loved one was well below 10%.

Another very popular gun control tactic is to insist that alternate self-defense options such as pepper spray or martial arts are preferable to using a gun. Yet in this survey over half of these incidents the intended victim was facing two or more attackers. And in a quarter of them three or more attackers were menacing the victim. Pepper spray or hand to hand combat would not have served the intended victims nearly as well as their guns did. Yet those intent on disarming America insist on selling the lie that guns do not make us safer.

Of course possibly the most maligned laws by gun control advocates are concealed carry laws. In every state, which allows citizens to carry weapons violent crime, has dropped yet the cries of gun grabbers to do away with these laws for safety’s sake continue. The Self-Defense Survey proves most damning to the cries against these laws. Nearly 80% of the defensive gun uses were by citizens with concealed weapons. Further a quarter of the uses occurred away from the defenders home. Where would these innocent citizens have been without these laws?

The evidence from this study makers it very clear just how wrong the gun grabbers of America are. The may argue all day about wanting to reduce violent crimes yet they argue against Americans arming themselves. If they were to get their way there would have been more, many more victims of violent crimes, not fewer in this nation.

[Lando Lincoln]

Lando

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[GailA]

Bersa .380 bump

[GrandEagle]

this very large number represents the number of times Americans have used firearms to thwart crimes and defend themselves over the past year.
That is just the ones "reported" so to speak.
NOT included in that number is the time about 8 years ago when I was on a business trip to a large Southern city and two thugs tried to mug me. My .9mm Browning convinced them to seek another, more willing victim. In this case it was unlikely that they would have done more than steal my stuff.
It also does not include the time about three years ago when a young man from Georgia visiting my state took issue when, in an effort to avoid a collision, I beeped my horn when he ran a stop sign. When he looked up from drawing his weapon he was looking down the barrel of my favorite carry, a .45 Colt. Without a doubt he was going to shoot me, I simply out drew him. He drove away with no fear in his eyes at all, but a look of disgust that I "beat him to the draw".
NOTE: There was much more to this encounter, with him yelling, cursing, etc. Time and space prohibits details.

None of the miscreants mentioned above knew that I was armed (since I have NO desire to shoot anyone, I don’t advertise or threaten), but all got the message to move on. In both cases not a word was spoken by me (I was looking for a way out), No shots were fired, no one was hurt.

Anytime someone says that we should eliminate firearms, its like saying to me “I wish you were dead.” My carry practices absolutely saved my life.

[Joe Brower]

[Imal]

This surely destroys the oft used argument that gun ownership leads to wild west style shootouts in the streets doesn’t it?

Even in the wild west (Nevada), where I and thousands of other citizens carry concealed firearms legally every day, we don't have "wild west style shootouts in the streets".

It just doesn't happen, despite the fact that we also have plenty of criminals who carry concealed firearms, but illegally.

I don't need a study to tell me what reality makes so plain. Unfortunately, there are millions of citizens and legislators in the U.S. who refuse to consider well-founded studies over junk science, or even truth, reality and constitutionality when they vote on this issue.

Ultimately, the driving forces behind "gun control" are ignorance, fear, stupidity and mendacity, all defining characteristics of gun control advocates. The fight against gun control is a fight against these things.

[skepsel]

The existence of concealed carry laws has another effect too, to create doubt in the mind of the predator. The knowledge his prey "might" be armed tends to make them hesitate. Several years ago the route to my night job took me through a bad part of town, driving a Jeep with a bikini top and door skins (S. Florida). The low lifes would congregate at a corner where poor lighting and heavy bushes gave them a covered approach to drivers waiting at the light. On this night three decided to make the attempt, two walking away down the street and crossing over to approach on the passenger side from the rear and the decoy coming to the driver's side with some ploy about the time or a cigarette. All it took to discourage them was to make a production of flipping open the console and sticking my hand inside as if grasping a weapon. End of stalk, decoy, and story. Everyone muttered a bit and went back to the bushes to sit on the milk crates and return to sucking down the 40 ouncers and passing the pipe while waiting on easier prey. W/o CCW in Florida I doubt they would have been so easily deterred. Thank you Marion Hammer!

skepsel

[GrandEagle]

The knowledge his prey "might" be armed
Yes! That "element of doubt" is amazing isn't it?
I had a friend a few years back that was very anti gun. I issued her a challenge that I would get rid of all my guns if she would place a sign in her yard stating that she had no guns and that no firearm would ever be allowed in her home.
She declined the offer and got very angry when I suggested that she was covered by the "safety net" that my owning a weapon provided her.

[Ancesthntr]

I had a friend a few years back that was very anti gun. I issued her a challenge that I would get rid of all my guns if she would place a sign in her yard stating that she had no guns and that no firearm would ever be allowed in her home. She declined the offer and got very angry when I suggested that she was covered by the "safety net" that my owning a weapon provided her.

That is simply brilliant! If every single pro-gunner used this tactic when confronted by the idiots on the other side, we might get them to actually think a bit and change their minds (or at least STFU on this issue).

BTW, I hope that if your friend had taken you up on the offer that you'd have remained true to your words by "getting rid of" your guns - followed immediately by reacquiring the same. I know that I would...

[GrandEagle]

you'd have remained true to your words
I would have had to, but at the time I only owned two weapons. I was pretty sure that there was no danger of me having to give them up though. LOL

[Travis McGee]

BTTT!

[JamesA]

"Molon Labe"

[RandallFlagg]

I wish that someone would post a link to that "13 seconds" source.

[Neil E. Wright]

BUMP for later read

[The_Eaglet]

McCain-Feingold(from the blogasphere) -Daily Campaign Finance Reform thread-day 27