(I shocked several liberals recently by suggesting in a comment on a news story about the Colorado murders that the gunman should have his head put on a pike. The subsequent outpouring of outrage at my "violence" was truly astonishing.)
Predictably, after each shooting, the Democrat-media complex shifted into high gear, once again to blame the usual suspect. No, according to leftist ideology it's not the shooters' fault. The blame rests entirely on the guns these murderers used to commit their crimes. Once again, the media and Democrats alike called for a ban on "assault" weapons, "automatic" weapons, cartridge magazines, and cartridges. Oh, and a few threw in a suggestion for a handgun ban bill or two on top of the assault on the 2nd Amendment.
The unsurprising outcry from the left claims that if we could just get rid of guns, crime would go away and we'd all live in a perfect state of Utopian harmony. (Imagine that, John Lennon!) Yet, the left never asks the real questions, the fundamental questions, about the reasons why one American would shoot and kill another (or others). Leftists blame the gun - the tool - which is only a symptom of the disease. Trying to ban the tool for the crime is like trying to prevent greed by taxing the rich out of existence, or like trying to prevent the abuse of power by ignoring the rule of law (which are all tactics used by the left).
If we are to solve the problems of crimes, especially violent crimes, we have to ask questions about what makes Americans kill each other. Guns are only a means. More murders in the US are committed by weapons other than firearms (#1 is handguns, #2 is knives, #3 is everything else but guns, and #4 is all other types of firearms combined). Taking away firearms will not remove the underlying causes of murder in this country.
Let's face it. We live in a gun culture in the US. Our Constitution was founded on it. We Americans have always been a violent people. However, we also take our freedoms seriously, especially the freedom to distrust our own government and the freedom to defend ourselves from those who would abuse our free society, engaging in illegal activity. So the leftist attack on guns, trying to remove the tools rather than the disease, only annoys the half of Americans who are a part of the gun culture.
In order to force feed us leftist ideology, Democrats and the media tell a lot of lies about what constitutes gun culture. Here are the biggest:
1) After the Colorado mass killing, the media immediately started chanting the mantra to ban "assault" weapons (AR-15s to everyone else). By naming these guns assault weapons, the media imply that the guns private citizens can purchase are fully automatic, military weapons. The truth is that automatic weapons are heavily controlled in the US. The typical AR style rifle is semi-automatic and is no more dangerous than any number of semi-automatic hunting rifles used by hunters and sport shooters everywhere. The main reason the media go after AR style weapons is because they look scary.
I've shot a semi-automatic .22-250 for years, which shoots a bullet comparable in speed and "power" with the AR-15 (which uses .223 caliber ammunition). I've looked at the other rifle for the simple reason that the .223 ammunition is less expensive than what I've been shooting. (By the way, I've never shot anyone with my .22-250. I know you were all worried on that point.)
Bye the way, the Colorado gunman also used a shotgun in his killing spree - a most devastating weapon. I've not yet seen any outcries to ban shotguns - only assault weapons.
Why do the Democrats and the media push for gun control? That's the real question. Some, I'm certain, truly wish to find a solution to reduce gun violence in the US. Most, however, are driven by dogma, unable to justify the 2nd Amendment to the US Constitution in their ideal of Orwellian government control. Leftists must resort to spreading "disinformation" in order to force their ideals on the rest of America.
2) The media would have us believe that mass murders are on the rise - blaming them on the numbers of available guns. However, the Department of Justice reports that murders of more than one person (two or more) account for about 4.4 percent of all murders. That percentage has not substantively changed in twenty years. If we look at murders of more than two people, the percentage drops below one percent, again, an unchanged number for years.
3) The media would have us believe that gun crimes are increasing in the US. Nothing is further from the truth. Again, according to the Department of Justice, from 1993 to the present, gun homicides declined by more than 60 percent and remain stable. We should be hailing the decline in homicides as a huge success. Instead, the media keep lying about homicides in order to maintain the illusion of their ideology.
4) The media would have us believe that banning guns would stop gun violence. Nothing could be further from the truth. Guns don't cause violence any more than cars cause highway accidents. In Switzerland, the government issues adult males (most serve in the militia) an "assault" rifle and/or a 9mm handgun. These are kept at home. Switzerland's gun crime rate is so low that statistics aren't even kept.
On the other hand, Mexico has some of the strictest gun laws in the world. Yet few Americans know that drug wars rage across northern Mexico, using arms smuggled into the country through Guatemala. (Unfortunately for the gun control enthusiasts, the guns "walking" into Mexico from the US were supplied by our very own Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives in an operation known as "Fast and Furious." Source)
The real problem, besides the threat of a leftist authoritarian regime, is that the current narrative focuses so much on gun control, we forget the real questions behind the violence in the first place. Why does one American kill another?
DOJ Source
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