-
- 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:
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- 1. For every one person who shoots another without cause,
there are millions of gun owners who do not....and will not.
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- 5. Criminals do not currently obey any of the gun laws
that we now have.
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- 6. Most criminals obtain their guns illegally, and regardless
of any laws passed in the future, will continue to do so.
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- 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.
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- 8. Children of all ages in this country commit violence
on a daily basis without using any type of gun.
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- 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.)
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- 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.)
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- 16. If every gun in the U.S. were confiscated, crime
in all its forms would continue.
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- 21. The Second Amendment clearly and unequivocally states
that all Americans have the right to keep and bear arms. Period.
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- And, taking away guns as one of the means of violence,
will not solve the problems of violence we face in our society.
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- These are indisputable facts.
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- Copyright 2000 by John Russell. All rights reserved.
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