“Remember that it is not enough to abstain from lying by word of mouth; for the worst lies are often conveyed by a false look, smile, or act.” —Abraham Cahan
Recent polls from Gallup reveal that most Americans believe guns in the home make them safer. Americans believing guns in the home make a safer place has risen to 63%, nearly doubling since 2000, only three in 10 Americans still assert a gun in the home makes it a more dangerous place
Since 1990 crime rates have sharply declined at a rate of 54% while gun ownership has more than doubled. More states are adopting laws enabling citizens to carry firearms while other states have moved to create, “constitutional carry,” carrying a concealed firearm without being licensed.
On the face of it, the Gun Control constituents are losing the ideological battle and they are losing big. Gun Control Advocacy typically outspends Pro-Gun efforts seven-to-one. Despite the money, message and the mantras, they lose ground as time progresses.
Calls for universal background checks, the false specter of the ubiquitous, “gun show loophole,” and massaging of figures pertaining to gun deaths in a desperate effort to turn public policy has categorically failed. So what does the gun control community do? Lie even more.
The Violence Policy Center, a bunch of anti-gun lefties, released a study last Wednesday, finding that, “People are much more likely to use a gun to kill someone without cause than to protect themselves…” The study findings further wildly asserts,
“Gun owners committed 259 justifiable homicides compared to 8,342 criminal homicides in 2012.”
And…
“Gun owners are 32 times more likely to kill someone without cause than to act in self-defense…”
The Executive director of States United to Prevent Gun Violence, Julia Wyman says, “We hope legislators in every state will stop believing the self-defense myth and look at the facts. Guns do not make our families or communities safer.”
Hokum. Professor John R Lott, noted David Hemenway’s guest column last Sunday outlining this study where Hemenway asserts, “Scientists reach consensus on guns,” conveniently fails to mention that another similar survey of peer-reviewed researcher
s was released two months ago and found the exact opposite.
Professor Gary Mauser of Simon Fraser University in British Columbia, specializes in polling at Simon Fraser. Mauser conducted this study for the Crime Prevention Research Center. Fifty-three economists who have published in the scope of work over the last 15 years were surveyed. Among the questions: an overwhelming number of respondents asserted— 83 percent — noted guns are more likely to be used in self-defense than in crime; 74 percent said concealed handgun laws reduce murder rates and 69 percent said guns in the home don’t cause more suicides. Also, 83 percent said gun-free zones attract criminals.
Professor Lott further asserts that Hemenway fails to note that the people surveyed by him only had to mention “firearms” in their research. They didn’t have to actually conduct empirical work on guns. There were also problems in the recording of Hemenway’s responses. Professor Lott was supposedly one of the researchers surveyed. Yet, his responses weren’t recorded. When Professor Lott emailed Hemenway about this technical problem, his emails went ignored.
Jennifer Baker in responding on behalf of the National Rifle Association calls the study, “Rubbish.” Baker responded, “VPC fails to note that only a fraction of defensive firearm homicides are reported to the FBI and the study doesn’t account for the many crimes deterred by a firearm that do not result in a homicide. Recent polling shows that most Americans believe exercising their constitutional right to self-protection makes them safer and this is just another transparent attempt to push gun control.”
Leftist Progressives will stop at nothing to extinguish the Second Amendment of the Constitution. An Anti-gun leftist will say, “Get rid of guns,” While knives remain in the wake of stabbings, automobiles remain in the wake of drunk driving deaths, and ball bats remain in the wake of crushed skulls. “If we get rid of the guns, violence will fall, for lack of access,” they say. “It’s all about the gun.”
Left unaddressed by gun grabbers is violence by other means. They pretend it does not exist. When backed into a corner leftists change their paradigm: “It’s about the violence, not necessarily the gun; get rid of the guns and there is less violence.” Same idea with sleight of hand. Facts simply do not matter. Solipsism rules the day and progressives rely on their own facts, the end game being to rid citizens of the right of self-defense. If that means using a flawed study, twisted into a neat package of lies and mistruths, this is what the leftist Kool-Aid slurping gun grabbers will do.
All advocates of the Second Amendment should stay boned up on the technical facts and statistics. Don’t stay silent in the face of lies.
