It's soapbox time..
I decided that I wanted to write a response to Adam's last journal post (before the one talking about Andrea and his job) where he said "i'm sick of seeing people that are trying to become activists and "fight for what they believe in" when they have not experienced life and things that should make them want to fight
( Read more... )
I'm going to do this in a simple Myth/Rebuttal style, where I state a common myth about gun control, and then a series of facts and statements as to why it is wrong
Part 1
Myth: Stricter gun laws would have prevented the Columbine massacre, and could prevent further school shootings.
Fact: Harris and Klebold violated 20 different federal and state firearms laws in the weeks leading up to, as well as during, the shooting. This does not even include laws against murder, assault with a deadly weapon, etc. The TEC-9 handgun used had been banned for 4 years, and the sawed-off shotgun had been banned since 1934. Do you think that 21 laws would have done the trick? In states without right-to-carry laws, there have been 15 school shootings; In states with them, there has been only one.
Fact: In Pearl, Mississippi, the assistant principle had formerly carried a firearms to school. When the 1995 "Gun-Free School Zones" was enacted, banning firearms from within 1,000 feet of a school, he started locking his gun in his truck down the street, and walking to school. When there was a school shooting there, he ran to his truck, ran back, disarmed the shooter, and held him on the ground until the police arrived. Had he been allowed to carry his weapon at school, he might ahve been able to prevent the injury of 7 students and the death of 2.
Myth: 13 children are killed each day by guns.
Fact: This "statistic," depending on where you find it, includes "children" up to the age of 19 or 24. Since the majority of violent crime is commited by males aged 16-24, 70% of those counted are adults involved in gang-related activity, half of which are killed while commiting a violent crime. It also includes suicide (I'll get back to this topic), which makes up for over one half of gun deaths. When you discount gang-related activity and suicides, it comes out to about 1.3 children per day. To put this into perspective, 4 children each day in the US die from parental abuse or neglect, and 13 teenagers die each day in automobile accidents.
Myth: Guns make suicide easier, and therefore lead to an increas in suicides.
Fact: The US has a higher percentage of housholds with guns than any other western country, but it's suicide rate is around average compared to those other countries. France, for example, has half as many armed households per capita, and twice the suicide rate.
Myth: Mandatory trigger lock laws preven children from accidentally shooting themselves
Fact: 31 out of 32 gun locks tested by the Consumer Product Safety Commission could be opened without the key. They could be opened with paperclips, scissors, or even just whacking it against a table. The number of accidental gun injuries in the US is so low, in fact, that the CPSC doesn't even bother mentioning them in their annual report.
Fact: Accidental deaths of children because of guns is a non-issue. In 1996, there were 80 million people owning guns, and only 44 accidental gun deaths of children aged 10 and under in the US.
Fact: California introduced a mandatory trigger lock law in 1994, and that same year saw a 12% increase in accidental gun fatalities. Texas (which is one of the highest ranking states in guns per capita) does not have one, and saw a 28% decrease that same year. Trigger locks do, however, make the gun much less accessible in a self-defense situation.
Myth: If it saves the life of one child, is it worth it?
Fact: Guns are used 2.5 million times each year to prevent a crime. That adds up to 6,849 crimes every day prevented by responsible civilian gun ownership. Is it still worth it?
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Myth: Gun registration will help solve crimes.
Fact: There is mandatory registration of firearms in Hawaii, Chicago, and Washington DC, yet there has not been a single case to date in which the registry has been used to identify a suspect.
Myth: Registration does not lead to confiscation.
Fact: In Canada, Germany, Australia, California, New York City, Bermuda, Cuba, Greece, Ireland, and Jamaica, guns that were once perfectly legal and registered by law-abiding citizens were later confiscated because of newer laws. (Ex Post Facto what?)
All right, I'm getting kind of tired of hunting down statistics and typing here. If anyone else has any preconceptions about gun control, please post your myth and I will disprove it.
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