America is being fed 4 great lies about gun violence by corrupt and frightened politicians, firearms manufacturers, the gun lobby and the news media portals they control.
In the wake of the horror of recent mass shootings, self-serving firearms manufacturers, the NRA and corrupt (or frightened) politicians are doing everything in their power to corrupt the system in favor of corporate profits.
They do so by telling 4 great lies about gun violence in America:
- “The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun;”
- States with the least firearms restrictions enjoy the nation’s lowest crime rates;
- There is no need for further gun laws as the current ones are ineffective;
- Americans don’t support further gun restrictions.
And on top of all that, these supporters of less restrictions on guns are not telling the truth about the movement to regulate firearms – nor are their own stated opinions consistent.
The Fallacy Of The Theory Of “A Good Guy With A Gun”
As we reported in November, websites run by the NRA and other gun-rights groups prove that the theory of the “good guy with a gun stopping bad guys” is a myth – an unsupportable lie.
Mike Weisser of the Huffington Post, had an interesting post this September entitled: “The Gun Lobby’s Own Publications Expose the Fantasy of the ‘Good Guy With a Gun.” Breaking the numbers down for us, Weisser notes – with incredulity – that
In a country of 319 million people, in a country where civilians own more than 300 million guns, in a country in which at least 12 million good guys have concealed weapons permits, how in God’s name is it possible that only six or seven people use a gun each month to defend themselves or others from a crime?
Discussing the fact that gun lobby publications are notorious for publishing stories about crimes that have absolutely nothing to do with firearms – Weisser concludes:
Here’s the bottom line: If the same bunch which assures us that guns are used to stop crimes ‘millions’ of times each year tries to prove it by publishing stories about cars driving through playgrounds or man rapes dog, then the argument about good guys stopping bad guys bears no relationship to the truth. And maybe it’s time to stop advancing cogent, reasoned and researched arguments against gun fantasists like Gary Kleck and John Lott, and step back to take another look.
States With Fewer Gun Restrictions Do Not Have Lower Crime Rates
The gun lobby and their pet politicians along with other notable gun nuts – like Ted Nugent – are fond of saying that: “Where you have the most armed citizens in America, you have the lowest violent crime rate. Where you have the worst gun control, you have the highest crime rate.”
However, as FactCheck.org reports, looking at the numbers – they are wrong”
President Barack Obama claimed [on October 1, 2015] that “states with the most gun laws tend to have the fewest gun deaths.” Republican presidential candidate Carly Fiorina, meanwhile, has made nearly the opposite claim, saying states with stringent gun control laws have “the highest gun crime rates in the nation.”
In looking solely at the numbers of gun deaths and gun crimes, the data backs up Obama, not Fiorina.
Enough said.
The Nation Does Need More Restrictive Gun Laws
As NBC News reports, the weapons that were used in last week’s massacre in San Bernardino, California, “were purchased legally, raising questions about how preventable gun violence is under current U.S. firearm laws. Eighty-two percent of weapons involved in mass shootings over the last three decades have been bought legally, according to a database compiled by Mother Jones magazine that defines a mass shooting as taking the lives of at least four people in a public place. Using that criteria, Mother Jones found 73 mass shootings since 1982.”
Then there’s the counter-intuitive argument that since current gun laws have not prevented mass shootings we should abandon them all – at the very least not enact any meaningful new laws restricting access to firearms or requiring background checks, etc. Suffice it to say that were those claims true – we should repeal laws prohibiting murder and mayhem, robbery and rape… pretty much any and every law in the land that someone at some point in time has ignored.
Americans Overwhelmingly Support Gun Restrictions
Don’t be fooled by the claims that private citizens do not want meaningful gun-control laws in place. The gun lobby and their “bought and paid for” politicians love to point to polls such as a recent one conducted by Pew that found only 45% of Americans favor the broad idea of stricter gun laws. However, polls asking more specific questions consistently paint a completely different picture.
For example, take a look at these figures from some of the more recent polls regarding firearms [FYI – there aren’t very many that are more recent]:
- 88 percent want to prohibit those on the terror watch list from buying guns (January 2011 American ViewPoint/Momentum Analysis poll)
- 86 percent believe in further background checks, regardless of where a gun is purchased (January 2011 American ViewPoint/Momentum Analysis poll)
- 69 percent want to limit the number of guns a citizen can buy in a period of time (April 2012 Ipsos/Reuters poll)
- 66 percent want a National Gun Registry (January 2011 American ViewPoint/Momentum Analysis poll)
- 63 percent want a ban on high capacity clips (January 2011 CBS News poll)
Conclusion
Just last week, Republicans showed a complete disregard for the safety and security of Americans in voting down two “Democratic measures – one to close background check loopholes to make it harder for felons and the mentally ill to buy guns, another to ban those on the terror watch list from buying guns – went down the toilet against nearly unanimous GOP opposition.”
Americans are getting sick and tired of all the gun violence plaguing the nation, and the media is starting to take note of the gun lobby’s complicity:
- On Saturday The New York Times published a page-one editorial demanding greater gun restrictions – their first page-one editorial since 1920.
- The New Yorker magazine’s December 14, 2015 cover takes on “America’s obsession with firearms.” The New Yorker quotes artist Eric Drooker as saying that the cover asks the question: “What would it look like if I took America’s obsession with firearms to its logical extreme?”
- Geraldo Rivera of Fox News posted a tweet in the wake of recent mass shootings saying that “the NRA is full of shit.”
- The New York Daily News accused Wayne LaPierre of being a terrorist on the front page of a recent edition, adding that “Syed Farook [deceased suspect in the San Bernadino massacre] joins long list of murderous psychos enabled by NRA’s sick gun jihad against America in the name of profit.” Most recently, the New York tabloid launched a bold attack on the NRA using just three words on the cover of their November 18, 2015 print cover: “NRA’S SICK JIHAD.”
Americans are tired of the continued mass shootings and gun violence; so are the victims and their friends and family members; and so is the media. When are our city and state and federally elected officials going to take notice? Are they too afraid? Too bloated with bribes and promises?
ENOUGH!
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