< Changing Worldviews.Commentary >
Words are powerful - Thoughts shape - Ideas have consequences
Howard Nemerov
Author, Freelance Writer
Gun Control Works!
A recent editorial highlights the continued need to stand guard on our precious liberties:
Like most Americans, I’ve become regrettably inured to the daily reports of gun violence and gun death in this country. Oh, I know, “Guns don’t kill people, people kill people.” But this week’s attempted slaughter of 10 Amish schoolgirls (as of this writing, five had died) hit me in a place the National Rifle Association had not yet calloused over with the propaganda it so routinely blares through a well-financed bullhorn of a public relations machine.[i][1]
This highlights two aspects of bias of the gun banner. First, there is the unsubstantiated allegation that the NRA instigates and supports mass murder via its advocacy for the Constitution and Bill of Rights. Second, while the author agrees that “Guns don’t kill people, people kill people,” they won’t let the truth get in the way of a good rant.
Two groups of tourists were robbed at gunpoint on the National Mall, just hours after the police chief declared a crime emergency in the city in response to a string of violence that included the killing of a British activist.[ii][2]
This is the third summer in four years that [D.C. Police] Chief Ramsey has declared a crime emergency and the fourth time overall since he became chief in 1998. The chief announced an emergency in 2003 to stem a surge in homicides and in 2004 to curb a spate of car thefts by juveniles.[iii][3]
The
Gun banners would like us to follow the
Here is a partial list of United Nations member countries that, in the 20th century, disarmed the populace and proceeded with government-sponsored mass murder: People’s Republic of
The editorialist includes a quote, which she believes is “so true,” from another gun banner elucidating a new attack strategy for the NRA:
“The NRA is a secular, fundamentalist special interest so focused on gun rights that it dismisses the 30,000 deaths each year as the price of freedom, and this includes the deaths of 14 children every day ... The co-conspirator in this home-grown terrorism is the Republican Party (note: I would add, pro-gun Democrats as well) that allows the NRA to write its gun legislation in exchange for money and votes.”[xi][11]
NRA members are equal to people who blow civilians up in the name of God? Writing legislation in exchange for votes? Gun banners remain in character when calling for repeal of gun owners’ First Amendment rights. It is easier to publicly hate law-abiding citizens than to risk offending a violence-prone culture, as the Pope has recently learned. But let’s focus on the statistical blunders in order to determine the probative value of the source of such vitriol.
Writing legislation in exchange for money? To date, gun rights organizations have contributed $750,979 to federal elections during the 2006 election cycle.[xii][12] Meanwhile, the top 20 industries contributing to the 2006 elections total $576,208,366 in contributions.[xiii][13] (The NRA does not make this list.)
Gun banners repeat the mantra of “14 children every day” supposedly dying from firearms. Oxford English Dictionary defines the word “childhood” as: “the state or stage of life of a child; the time during which one is a child; the time from birth to puberty.”[xiv][14]
It is questionable whether most homicides should be included. Children, being smaller, more trusting, and less physically able to run away or defend themselves, can be killed by many other means. All it takes is a determined larger person.
Gun banners also repeat “30,000 deaths each year” mantra. The Centers for Disease Control notes there were 30,136 deaths from firearms for the year 2003, the latest data available. Of these, 730 were unintentional, 11,920 were homicides, 16,907 were suicides, 347 were due to legal intervention, and 232 were of undetermined intent.[xxi][21]
The
As Dr. Martin L. Fackler, a leading firearms wound ballistics expert, notes:
When anti-gun activists list the number of deaths per year from firearms, they neglect to mention that 60 percent of the 30,000 figure they often use are suicides. They also fail to mention that at least three-quarters of the 12,000 homicides are criminals killing other criminals in disputes over illicit drugs, or police shooting criminals engaged in felonies. Subtracting those, we are left with no more than 3,000 deaths that I think most would consider truly lamentable.[xxiv][24]
The Gun Free Schools Act of 1994 required any public school receiving federal education money–and any private school that participates in programs sponsored by local public schools–to ban firearms from the premises except for certain student sporting events.[xxv][25] (The lone exception is the Amish school, but the Amish are “committed pacifists.”[xxvi][26])
The editorial continues:
Why the gunfire in Nickel Mines,
Other examples she cites are from the 15-year-old who shot his school’s principle, a man who invaded a
The common theme in all these shootings is that they all took place in schools. Therefore, there were no “Second Amendment freedoms” in any of these places, as schools are gun-free zones…at least to law-abiding citizens. Had a responsible, armed adult been present, Roberts never would have had time to segregate children by gender, much less for binding them or shooting them.
The editorial concludes: “What Nickel Mines,
Actually, what this teaches us is that gun control is an abysmal failure. Americans will not be free of the choke-hold of government-created terror zones until we repeal the Gun Free Schools Act of 1994 and provide armed security in our schools.
When one becomes “inured” to “reports of gun violence,” it is time to examine why they became insensitive to the suffering of others, rather than forcing others, who have done nothing wrong, to suffer so that they can feel good about returning to an “inured” state of mind. Such insensitive selfishness highlights the continuing danger gun banners present to our society.
© Howard Nemerov 2005 Reprinted with Permission
Howard Nemerov is a freelance writer and former gun control proponent who is now an ardent Second Amendment advocate. He appears regularly on ChronWatch, a popular online news watch site dedicated to giving an alternative view of the liberal dominated presentation of the news. He is also the developer of Applied Motor Control,. has written a book about the work, and his articles have been featured in professional journals and Triathlete Magazine. Howard has taught AMC and maintained a clinical practice for 15 years, specializing in injury rehabilitation and athletic performance enhancement as well as in Personal Injury and Workmen’s Compensation claims. Contact: hnemerov@comcast.net