Rense.com



Gun Facts - Firearms Ownership
And Responsible Behavior
By John Russell <atdaylong@yahoo.com>
http://www.geocities.com/atdaylong/index.html
6-25-00
 
 
 
Following are facts about guns, gun-related crimes, crime, and gun owners in the United States. These facts are indisputably true and correct. No one who recognizes the realities of human nature and criminal behavior can successfully argue a differing point of view. These facts stand apart from passionate rhetoric and speak for themselves:
 
1. For every one person who shoots another without cause, there are millions of gun owners who do not....and will not.
 
2. If a person is suitably enraged to commit a crime of passion and that person cannot obtain a gun to do it, they will utilize other means: knives, bludgeons, feet, fists, choking, run the victim down with a car, etc. If you don't believe this, simply ask abused women or crime victims who have survived such an attack, or, the relatives of the deceased victim. Many times, guns are simply not a factor.
 
3. Many people fall victim to crime every single day in this country, crime that is not gun-related: people are robbed at knifepoint, people are beaten (assaulted by one or more assailants using their hands and/or feet) and robbed, people are bludgeoned and robbed, and recently it made the news when a man was robbing people by threatening them with a supposedly venomous snake. No guns are involved in these circumstances, which occur daily.
 
4. If a law was passed requiring every single person who owned or bought a gun to license and/or register it, no criminal would comply with that law.
 
5. Criminals do not currently obey any of the gun laws that we now have.
 
6. Most criminals obtain their guns illegally, and regardless of any laws passed in the future, will continue to do so.
 
7. It's a parent's responsibility, regardless of any laws that do or don't exist, to responsibly ensure that their children do not have access to any firearms in the home. You can pass laws until the cows come home, and if parents do not act responsibly, those laws will have zero positive effect.
 
8. Children of all ages in this country commit violence on a daily basis without using any type of gun.
 
9. In countries where guns have been banned (such as the recent actions in England and Australia), crime rates have risen dramatically. (Why? Criminals know there's much less chance of their getting their asses shot off.)
 
10. In areas where gun ownership is not only legal but encouraged, crime rates drop significantly. (Why? Criminals realize there's a pretty high probability that they'll get their asses shot off.)
 
11. A criminal will be significantly less likely to try and assault or rob a person if they suspect the potential victim may be armed.
 
12. Adults in this country commit violence on a daily basis without using any type of gun.
 
13. Hitler's first actions were to call for the licensing and registration of all guns. He then confiscated all guns, leaving the populace unarmed, and unable to resist. We all know what followed. No governmental authority, including our own, is sufficiently benign as to be deserving of our complete trust.
 
14. There are many victims of serial killers. Many of these serial killers never used any type of gun.
 
15. Passing any type of gun law to legislate responsible action is senseless and useless: we have laws on the books in every state of the Union now forbidding robbery, burglary, assault, murder, etc., yet robberies, burglaries, assaults, murders, etc., continue year after year. (Again, in many of these crimes guns are not a factor.)
 
16. If every gun in the U.S. were confiscated, crime in all its forms would continue.
 
17. For the elderly, infirm, handicapped, etc., whose strength and bodies are ravaged by age, illness, crippling deformity, etc., a gun is the only possible way they have of protecting themselves from an assault or robbery.
 
18. Some people (including children) will naturally gravitate toward violence. If guns are removed from the equation, they can (and do) find other means with which to express their violence.
 
19. Guns, in the hands of violent people, do kill people. So do rocks, baseball bats, knives, ropes, cars, fists, feet, sticks, chains, bricks, letter openers....
 
20. Some people have an inherent tendency toward violence. These people do not seem to respond to any efforts to rehabilitate them. From those people, we need an effective means of protection when we encounter them on the street, or when they break into our homes. A gun is the most efficient means of securing that protection.
 
21. The Second Amendment clearly and unequivocally states that all Americans have the right to keep and bear arms. Period.
 
22. I have been a gun owner and a hunter all my life. I've never had a gun-related accident. I have never accidentally harmed anyone with a gun. My daughter grew up in a household with guns, and was simply never allowed access to them. Growing up with guns did not predispose her toward violence. I have never shot anyone. I have no plans to do so, unless my life or the lives of my loved ones are threatened. Of all the responsible gun owners and hunters I know, and there are many, the statements above can be equally applied to their lives.
 
23. You know, or know someone who does, someone who behaves in a violent manner and/or has harmed someone....without ever using a gun.
 
24. Countries who quote remarkably low gun-violence and gun-death statistics, don't seem too interested in telling you about the number of victims knifed, beaten, run over, strangled, set on fire, boiled, etc.
 
25. People are murdered every day somewhere in the U.S. In many of these murders, guns are not a factor.
 
26. Criminals are deterred by the threat of force, lethal if necessary. They are not deterred by displays of kindness or reason, nor is pleading for your life effective. They will, however, run when you pull a gun.
 
27. Most women (and many men), even if trained in the martial arts, simply do not have the strength to successfully defend themselves from a huge, strong, muscular attacker, particularly if that attacker is drunk, doped-up, or both. A gun provides them a reasonable and effective means of defending their lives. I have known many women for whom a gun literally proved to be the tool that saved their lives.
 
28. The talk of "Taking guns off the streets" is useless: you can remove every single gun there is in America, but until you remove the criminals from the streets, you're still going to have crime. We need to take the criminals off the streets.
 
29. A gun does not teach a person to act in a manner which disregards another's right to life and freedom from bodily harm; it simply provides a tool with which an attacker can engage a victim. Remove the gun from the equation, and the attacker will find another tool.
 
30. There have been many bloody wars fought, and many heinous crimes and murders committed, before guns were invented.
 
31. If a person has an evil, violent nature, whether that person is a child or an adult, no gun law (or lack thereof) will ensure that person will act in a moral, responsible, ethical manner and obey the law.
 
32. Believing that passing more gun laws (when there is already an abundance of enforcable laws on the books) will eradicate violent behavior is wishful thinking. Criminals will find outlets for their violence: criminals are not allowed to have guns in prisons, but many assaults and murders occur inside prisons. Guns have proven to be an effective means of protection against the criminal element.
 
33. Licensing and registering guns does nothing to solve the inherent problems of human nature.
 
34. Confiscating guns is a violation of the Second Amendment. It also removes many people's only legitimate hope and means of self-defense. It deprives sportsmen and competitive shooters of the joys of competition and hunting for food. It removes a significant deterrent to violent criminal behavior. It would leave the populace without any means of self-defense if our government were ever to turn on us, as Hitler's government did.
 
35. The removal of guns would not cause crime to decrease significantly. It might cause gun-crime to decrease an insignificant amount, for criminals do not obey the law and would still find ways and means by which to obtain guns. The rest of us would be totally defenseless against them. Additionally, other crime, utilizing tools such as knives, bats, bricks, rocks, feet, fists, etc., would continue.
 
36. The problem is not guns: the problem is human nature.
 
The bottom line is: For every one person who shoots another without cause, there are literally millions of us who don't.... and never will.
 
And, taking away guns as one of the means of violence, will not solve the problems of violence we face in our society.
 
These are indisputable facts.
 
Copyright 2000 by John Russell. All rights reserved.

 
 
MainPage
http://www.rense.com
 
 
 
This Site Served by TheHostPros