Armed citizens really do save lives
Reflections by Brian Kearsey
The CBS story below sums up my headline; the LA Times cited the same statement from the local police, adding the quote that the armed citizen saved a lot of lives.
We can and must screen people who want to carry a handgun, but we must fight the knee-jerk impulse so prominent among certain political partisans to ban handguns. Every accidental and intentional killing is a tragedy, but we must put the big picture in perspective given the fact that a significant majority of Americans – 65% according to Rasmussen – “think the purpose of the Second Amendment is to make sure that people are able to protect themselves from tyranny.” The same poll revealed that “only 17% disagree” with that statement. Polls six years apart by Gallup and ABC News each reflect even higher support for the 2nd Amendment – 73%. Huffington Post reports that a poll by “Mayors Against Illegal Guns” (including the liberal Bloomberg) found yet even stronger support for our inherent right to carry arms – 79%. (see links below)
According to the FBI, armed private citizens got credit for 40% of all justifiable homicides in America in 2011 – law enforcement officers justifiably killed 393 felons, while private citizens justifiably killed 260 people during the commission of a crime. Common sense dictates that citizens prevented many, many more crimes than that – only a small percent of criminals are going to put up a fight once a gun is drawn on them! (See the last bullet on page 2 of the FBI report below.)
The neutral to left-leaning PolitiFact notes that “only” about 33 murders are committed a day in America with guns (see below). That’s horrific, but in a nation of over 300 million, we are relatively extremely safe from guns compared to all the other tragedies nature holds in the potential cards – unless we live in a liberal city with draconian gun control laws. The bloodshed is drastically disproportionately higher in these urban areas. In addition, if you are not engaged in criminal activity, even in these urban areas you are relatively safe – the neutral to left-leaning research organization ProPublica notes that shooting victims are “disproportionately young men of color who are living unstable lives and often involved in underground markets or criminal activity.” (see below)
Banning handguns is not going to help the plight of poor urban communities any more than banning sleeping pills is going to help the over 100 people a day who commit suicide in America, or banning alcohol and cigarettes will help the exponentially more Americans killing themselves slowly with these methods every day.
The change must arise in individual hearts and the family is the central unit to begin that change.
Sources:
CBS News Story About Beheading
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/police-woman-beheaded-at-oklahoma-workplace/
LA Times Story About Beheading
http://www.latimes.com/nation/nationnow/la-na-nn-woman-beheaded-oklahoma-20140926-story.html
Rasmussen Poll: 65% See Gun Rights as Protection Against Tyranny
http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/current_events/gun_control/65_see_gun_rights_as_protection_against_tyranny
Gallup Poll: 73% Say 2nd Amendment Guarantees Right to Own Guns
http://www.gallup.com/poll/105721/public-believes-americans-right-own-guns.aspx
ABC Poll: 73% Say 2nd Amendment Guarantees Individual Right to Carry
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/story?id=120984
Liberal Mayors Poll: 79% Say 2nd Amendment Protects Individual Right
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/01/18/poll-americans-gun-owners-stronger-laws_n_810069.html
FBI Data: Armed Citizens Prevent Almost as Many Crimes as Police
http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/crime-in-the-u.s/2011/crime-in-the-u.s.-2011/offenses-known-to-law-enforcement/expanded/expandhomicidemain.pdf
PolitiFact: About 33 Murders Daily with Guns
http://www.politifact.com/new-jersey/statements/2012/dec/27/cory-booker/cory-booker-says-34-americans-are-killed-guns-ever/
ProPublica: Shooting Victims Disproportionately Young Black Criminals
http://www.propublica.org/article/why-dont-we-know-how-many-people-are-shot-each-year-in-america
Brian Kearsey
Brian Kearsey is a well respected educator and founder of Crossroads, a private school. Kearsey, a former resident of Simi Valley California, now resides in Kent New York with his family.
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Ask a Liberal: How is it that a woman, who has the right to vote, may sit as a judge, as a juror, is somehow deemed to be so irresponsible that politicians can determine that SHE does NOT have the Right to choose to carry a gun for hewr self-defense.
Clearly the politicians do not think that A WOMAN is capable of making such a decision and being capable of handling a gun and defending herself ( OK except women cops?). Women are most at risk to violent crime and most li attack. So why do the politicianms want women to be defenseless victims? The ‘Why” is a big question, but the fact is that they do want women to be victims and do not trustr women to make their own choices.
I argue the right to self-defense from a woman’s perspective as women are most at risk; it is a self-less position; no woman or man will argue that a woman does not have the Right to…..