Right to keep and bear arms, part 2
Yesterday I introduced you to Part One of the Right to Keep and Bear Arms (RKBA), as well as Guy Smith's factual and informative Gun Facts: Thoughts About Proposed Legislation.
Here's an example of why I did so -- thoughts actually vomited forth in my presence by a well-meaning but wrong-headed acquaintance. He stated, "It's law enforcement's job, and not citizens' responsibility, to provide protection for citizens and police the neighborhoods." Nothing could be further from the truth.
Just this year, 2005, the Supreme Court of the United States reaffirmed the ruling that police departments have no responsibility to protect anyone, even if the victim had a restraining order against the offender.
The police cannot and will not stop crimes from happening or protect someone prior to the actual crime being committed. This is an indisputable fact. It is the individual's responsibility to defend person and property -- it is a fact that NOBODY is going to do it for you. So read on to learn yet more facts that debunk the lies and myths promulgated by the Radical Left hate groups, their political cronies and enablers, and well-meaning but easily-led and uninformed citizens:
DELUSION: Children are in danger from guns.
Fact: Of accidents killing children, car accidents kill 56 percent, drowning 22 percent, pedestrian accidents 15 percent, firearms 3 percent (according to The Centers for Disease Control).
Fact: 0.1 percent of all deaths of U.S. children between the ages of zero to 14 are from firearms, according to the National Safety Council.
Fact: In 2000, there were only 86 accidental firearm deaths for children under age 15. Contrast this with 40 children under age five that drowned in buckets (yes, buckets!) and 80 that drowned in tubs.
DELUSION: The gun show loophole must be closed.
Fact: There is no "loophole." A Federal Firearms License (FFL) is required to deal guns at gun shows. Guns sold at gun shows by federally licensed dealers must be sold using the exact same rules as those sold at a gun store.
DELUSION: Criminals prefer Saturday Night Specials and Pocket Rockets, and they should be banned.
Fact: "Saturday Night Specials" were used in less than 3 percent of crimes involving guns, according to FBI Uniform Crime Statistics. In fact, fewer than 2 percent of all "Saturday Night Specials" made are used in crimes.
DELUSION: Most Americans favor gun control.
Fact: Surveys in 1999 and 2000 by CBS, Zogby, Time, the Associated Press, ABC, Washington Post, and CNN all showed the majority of Americans believe enforcing existing laws is the best solution to gun violence. None of these surveys showed a majority favoring new or stricter gun control laws.
DELUSION: Other countries register guns to fight crime.
Fact: Most of these laws were in fact enacted in the post World War-I period to prevent civil uprisings as had occurred in Russia. A report titled "Committee on the Control of Firearms," written by the British Home Office officials in 1918 was the basis for registration in the U.K., Australia, Canada, and New Zealand.
DELUSION: Gun registration works.
Fact: Not in Canada, Britain, Germany, Australia, or New Zealand. In Canada, Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba have dumped both the administration and the enforcement of all federal gun-control laws, throwing the Canadian government into a "paper" civil war. Cost overruns are three times the original projected cost (Dr. Paul Gallant and Dr. Joanne Eisen, "Civil Disobedience In Canada: It Just Happened To Be Guns").
In Germany, between 17,000,000 and 20,000,000 guns were to be registered, and in fact only 3,200,000 surfaced, leaving some 80 percent unaccounted for. New Zealand repealed their gun registration law in the 1980s because police acknowledged its worthlessness. "It seems just to be an elaborate system of arithmetic with no tangible aim," according to Chief Inspector Newgreen, Registrar of Firearms.
DELUSION: Gun registration will help police find suspects.
Fact: There is registration in Hawaii, Chicago, and Washington, D.C. Yet there has not been even a single case where the laws have been instrumental in identifying someone who has committed a crime. Would-be criminals virtually never get licenses or register their weapons (Prof. John Lott, "Gun Licensing Leads to Increased Crime, Lost Lives," L.A. Times, Aug 23, 2000). Criminals very rarely leave their guns at the scene of the crime. Leaving a registered gun at a crime scene would be unthinkable.
DELUSION: Guns should be regulated like other products for safety.
Fact: Firearms are one of the most heavily regulated industries in the U.S. You cannot build or sell firearms without complying with Federal regulations.
Fact: Guns are well-built and do not need "consumer safety" regulations. In the entire history of California, not one lawsuit has been filed against a gun maker due to a defective product, according to the California Trial Lawyers Association.
Fact: Product safety laws are designed to protect the user of a product. Few owners/users of firearms are hurt by the firearms they own.
DELUSION: Trigger locks and smart-gun technology should be required by law.
Fact: California has a trigger lock law and saw a 12 percent increase in fatal firearm accidents in 1994. Texas doesn't have such a law and experienced a 28 percent decrease, according to the National Center for Health Statistics. Trigger locks do, however, render guns inaccessible for self-defense.
Fact: In 1996, even though there were around 80 million people owning guns, there were only 44 accidental gun deaths for children under age 10, or about 0.0001 percent.
Fact: Children as young as seven (7) years old have demonstrated that they can pick or break trigger locks, or operate a gun with a trigger lock in place (General Accounting Office).
Fact: No "smart-gun" technology currently exists. You cannot mandate the use of something that does not exist.
Fact: Most proposed "smart-gun" technologies would make a firearm for a husband unusable by a wife, leaving households more vulnerable to criminal assault.
Fact: It would be better to teach gun safety in the schools than to require trigger locks.
DELUSION: Guns are not a good deterrent to crime.
Fact: Guns prevent an estimated 2.5 million crimes a year, or 6,849 every day, according to Dr. Gary Kleck, Criminologist, Florida State University. Often the gun is never fired and no blood (including the criminal's) is shed. Every day 550 rapes, 1,100 murders and 5,200 other violent crimes are prevented just by showing a gun. In less than 0.9 percent of the time is the gun ever actually fired.
Fact: 60 percent of convicted felons admitted that they avoided committing crimes when they knew the victim was armed. 40 percent of convicted felons admitted that they avoided committing crimes when they thought the victim might be armed. ("Armed and Considered Dangerous: A Survey of Felons and Their Firearms").
Fact: Washington, D.C., has banned gun ownership and has a per capita murder rate of 56.9, according to the FBI report "Crime in the United States." Across the river in Arlington, Virginia, gun ownership is not regulated, and the murder rate is a mere 1.6 per capita.
DELUSION: Guns are not effective in preventing crime against women.
Fact: When women are armed with a gun or knife, only 3 percent of attempted rapes are successful, compared to 32 percent when unarmed (U.S. Department of Justice, Law Enforcement Assistance Administration, Rape Victimization in 26 American Cities).
Fact: Of the 2,500,000 annual self-defense cases using guns, more than 7.7 percent are by women defending themselves against sexual abuse.
Fact: In 1966 the city of Orlando responded to a wave of sexual assaults by offering firearms training classes to women. The number of rapes dropped by nearly 90 percent.
So go ahead, you condescending elites -- I dare you to post an email that will serve as a pompous or vitriolic tribute to your cluelessness about RKBA -- you know you want to. Or simply admit the fact that you learned a few things these past two days and tune in for tomorrow's RKBA, Part Three.