The day after 21-year-old Dylann Roof allegedly shot and killed nine members of the Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, SC, Fox & Friends claimed congregants could have defended themselves if someone had a gun. But a timely study from the Violence Policy Center (VPC) concluded that guns are rarely used for defensive purposes. According to the most recent data that’s available, there were 8,342 criminal firearm homicides by private citizens (non-law enforcement members) in 2012 — as opposed to 259 justifiable homicides. In other words, there were 32 criminal homicides for every killing of a felon who was in the process of committing a crime. And 13 states reported zero justifiable homicides that year. As noted by VPC, the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) observed a similar trend in previous years. Between 2007 and 2011, 29,618,300 people experienced a violent crime, but only 235,700 — 0.8 percent — of victims used or threatened to use a gun in self-defense. Findings from both the VPC and NCVS supplement studies verifying that more guns lead to more crimes.
It’s become an article of faith among Proudly Closed-minded Gun Gontrol Foes ©…so much so that proof is no longer required to be convinced that MOR GUNZ!!! makes everyone safer. It’s become so self-evident to so many that proof and factual support are no longer necessary. OF COURSE it’s true; it’s so logical and sensible, is it not? What good, God-fearing American patriot could POSSIBLY question that MOR GUNZ!!! isn’t the answer…to virtually every question, especially when it comes to protecting us from criminals??
That would be impossible to question, except for this little thing like to call “the truth,” which bears repeating: MOR GUNZ!!! DON’T make everyone safer…in fact, MOR GUNZ!!! only leads to more crime. As a very wise man once said, you’re free to your beliefs…but that freedom doesn’t mean being able to spontaneously generate your own facts.
Of course, when the truth becomes inconvenient and proves to no longer be a reliable ally, Proudly Closed-minded Gun Control Foes © do what zealots so often do in such cases: they ignore the truth and cling to their narrative with every fiber of their being. When your domicile rests on the soft sand of lies, half-truths, propaganda, and false claims, it’s got to be tough to face the reality that the foundation is cracking from lack of support.
Despite all evidence to the contrary, Proudly Closed-minded Gun Control Foes © cling to the mistaken belief that guns are an effective means of self-defense. Ah, the power of propaganda when it comes into contact with an\ patriotic intellect impervious to reason and truth….
“The reality of self-defense gun use bears no resemblance to the exaggerated claims of the gun lobby and gun industry. The number of justifiable homicides that occur in our nation each year pale in comparison to criminal homicides, let alone gun suicides and fatal unintentional shootings,” the study reads. “The idea that firearms are frequently used in self-defense is the primary argument that the gun lobby and firearms industry use to expand the carrying of firearms into an ever-increasing number of public spaces and even to prevent the regulation of military-style semiautomatic assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition magazines.”
The truth is that all MOR GUNZ!!! really means is more fatalities and tragedy…and the potential for even more to come. There’s simply no- zero, zip, none, nada, bupkis- credible data to support the argument that ever-greater amounts and lethality of firepower in public and private spaces inevitably leads to more safety. Believing something to be true doesn’t make it so, despite the fervency with which Proudly Closed-minded Gun Control Foes © hold fast to their unfounded and baseless convictions.
The only things MOR GUNZ!! accomplishes is to place greater numbers of innocents in mortal peril…not that Proudly Closed-minded Gun Control Foes © really care about the welfare or well-being of others. No, it’s all and only about their narrow interests…and if they’re not burying their own, mass murder remains an inconvenient abstract concept.
"It is not good enough simply to show sympathy." - President Obama at U.S. Conference of Mayors http://t.co/lR0b4o22LY
— Maddow Blog (@MaddowBlog) June 19, 2015
It’s difficult to imagine lucid human beings being so unreasonably and willfully intransigent on any other issue (except for perhaps abortion), particularly one that so intimately impacts public safety. Yet there are those who feel it their God-given right to carry any amount of firepower into any public space they choose…’cuz it’s all about protecting themselves from violent assault, don’tchaknow?
Sorry, y’all…but if you feel your safety to be so imperiled that you insist on carrying an AR-15 into an airport or a mall, you’re not a patriotic, Constitution-loving American. You’re an attention whore with compensation issues who really should be under a doctor’s care, preferably while heavily medicated.
The President’s right; it’s no longer good enough to express sympathy for the victims and cluck disapprovingly about yet another madman murdering innocents in a church, shopping mall, or other public space. It’s time for good, decent, and honest Americans to stand up to Proudly Closed-minded Gun Control Foes © committed to propagating the lie that MOR GUNZ!!! equals more safety.
Unfortunately, in our world, a lie can be on its second lap around the world before the truth drags its sorry ass out of bed. It’s time for that to change.
It’s time we ask ourselves a very simple question: What kind of world do we want to live in?
