- est 2010 -
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The Amazing Truth About Guns in America
A Piece by Perrin Lovett, C.F. Floyd Feature Writer of National Affairs
It was downright embarrassing. Especially for me. Perrin Lovett, the gun guy, … was wrong about guns. I was wrong for the better part of two decades. Horribly wrong.
Specifically, I had been citing a rounded, general statistic: 1 million defensive gun uses every year in America (sometimes phrased as a million lives saved every year by guns). It was a very handy number to refute the claims by various gun control freaks that guns take X number of lives per year (usually in the 10,000 - 30,000 range). It was an order of magnitude of positive difference. And it was dead wrong.
Guns do not save 1 million lives each year in America.
They save 2.5 million lives. The CDC says so. Well, they say it quietly and only when pushed. You see, dear readers, the CDC did a study from 1996 through 1998. They discovered 2.46 million defensive gun uses each year. With inflation, let’s call it 2.5 million. Every. Single. Year.
That’s about one life saved every 12 seconds. That’s two or three saved since you started reading this article, you speed reader.
The left, in their zeal to disarm the people and enslave them in the chains of communism, somehow miss these stats. The CDC part was easy to overlook; it was unpublished for some reason. (I can’t imagine why…). But, Gary Kleck, John Lott, and others had presented similar numbers - always unrefuted. Curious.
The Founders had this crazy idea that the people should be armed. That’s why we have the Second Amendment. They believed the old adage: “When the government fears the people, there is liberty; when the people fear the government, there is tyranny.” Wait. That explains the CDC silence.
That’s why some gun grabbers want to repeal the Second Amendment. At least the more honest ones, like John Paul Stevens, do. Some, like Young Hogg, want to make noise, blame the NRA, and agitate with pre-planned marches and rallies. Others, like Stacey Abrams (Georgia’s next governor?), want to do it by executive order or some other fiat. Rumor has it she wants assault rifles banned in the Peach State. But why?
Here, again, the numbers are against her. Some people are wrongfully killed by assault rifles, it’s true. One life is too many. But, in the numerical order of the killings, rifles are one of the most miniscule sources one could center on. The facts (from 2014, a relatively “modern” year):
248 people murdered with rifles (all types including “assault” rifles);
435 people murdered with baseball bats and hammers;
660 people murdered with punches and kicks;
8,124 people murdered with guns of all kinds (offset by 2,500,000 lives saved);
14,249 murders of/by all weapons (and unarmed murders);
32,744 killed by automobiles;
Approximately 200,000 killed by doctors and medical professionals;
Approximately 300,000-500,000 killed by obesity and fat-related issues; and
652,639 murdered by “legal” abortions.
435 people murdered with baseball bats and hammers;
660 people murdered with punches and kicks;
8,124 people murdered with guns of all kinds (offset by 2,500,000 lives saved);
14,249 murders of/by all weapons (and unarmed murders);
32,744 killed by automobiles;
Approximately 200,000 killed by doctors and medical professionals;
Approximately 300,000-500,000 killed by obesity and fat-related issues; and
652,639 murdered by “legal” abortions.
Maybe it’s not just the guns. Not to worry - or really to worry - the gun grabbers are starting to whisper about knife control too. And, hey, knives are used to murder more people every year than all rifles and shotguns combined.
But we’d better ban ARs and AKs first, right Stacey?
Americans are far and away the most heavily armed people in the world. Yet, when gun murder rates are tallied by nation, we’re not even in the top 100.
Better repeal the Second, huh Justice Bow Tie?
Young Hogg, personal experience and book presales aside, should consider that America’s schools are safer now than they were before the Columbine shooting. He won’t.
But, anyway, back to the good news! What, exactly, is a “defensive gun use?” Simply put, it’s an incident involving a gun that ends well - from the perspective of the law-abiding participant(s) in said incident. The vast majority do not involve anyone being shot, even in self-defense. It’s 2.5 million lives saved. Not taken. If 2.5 million criminals were killed each year, then the uniparty would soon run out of voters.
Usually, there is no shot fired. Usually, the gun is never drawn. Frequently the criminal or would be criminal doesn’t even see the gun. He just sees a hardened would be victim, a woman emboldened to resistance by the mere fact she knows Smith and Wesson have her back. Think of the young lady who (because she’s packing) has the wherewithal to assertively tell the thug to back off. The thug, sensing he’s picked the wrong victim, leaves without committing a crime. Without anyone getting killed. Without anyone getting hurt. He might even, thanks to the encounter, rethink his ways and life. Everyone wins.
Those who ramble ineloquent about “common sense” gun control have no sense. Or at least they are ignorant of the real facts. That, or they are evil and have an agenda. If the latter is true, then it’s likely the same agenda of mass control and slavery practiced by Hitler, Stalin, Mao, and every other gun-hating, people-hating dictator in history.
That’s what free people in America are up against. Fortunately, we have the guns and those amazing benefits. Hallelujah!
Picture by Perrin.
Fellow Terry College of Business (UGA) grad Brother Perrin Lovett is a true renaissance gentleman & scholar. A recovering attorney, he's into guns & cigars, and the US Constitution. A published author, Prepper columnist & YouTube personality, and an acclaimed blogger, TPC is very proud to have our old friend on board as the C.F. Floyd Feature Writer of National Affairs.
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