I love so much about my home state of Georgia. It’s rich in history, nature, and culture. My hometown is the birthplace of people like Ray Charles, Ray Stevens, Paula Dean, and Alice Coachman, the first black American woman to win Olympic gold, among many others. It’s got problems, of course, as does the rest of the state.
One problem, though, plagues every state, and that’s our own breed of anti-gunners.
It seems one of those wrote an op-ed for the Georgia Sun, and it’s so filled with ridiculousness that we’re going to dive into it a bit, take it all apart, and look at not just the stupid but the outright misrepresentations that anti-gunners engage in to try and make a point.
It starts with a headline that reads, “Guns: When is Enough Killing, Enough?”
This is, of course, a common enough tactic by anti-gunners. They routinely act like they’re just fed up with the murder and imply from the jump that guns are exclusively to blame for that. Of course, we also know that the United States has a non-gun homicide rate that is higher than that of other developed nations’ total homicide rate, meaning everything, including guns.
So even if enough was enough–and I assure you, no one on this side of the divide is happy about murders–banning guns entirely wouldn’t do jack squat, because only an idiot would think that so-called gun homicides wouldn’t translate to some number of non-gun murders.
And we still haven’t gotten beyond the headline.
No, things don’t get better from here.
The piece itself starts:
“The existence of evil is one of the very best reasons to arm law-abiding citizens,” – Trump to NRA convention in Texas, 5-28-22
Over the last few decades, GOP politicians like Donald Trump and Gov. Brian Kemp have pushed for less gun control. Kemp has pushed the issue here, running campaign ads with him holding a shotgun and saying- “I own guns, and no one is taking them away.”
They have succeeded and our gun laws have weakened both here and in the USA. If Trump’s assumption is true, then more Americans owning more guns should lead to less evil, i.e., less shootings. But that is not the case.
Except for the fact that, since the Bruen decision put an end to “may issue” concealed carry schemes that were used to keep the public disarmed, we’ve seen a downward trend to the homicide rate. In fact, we could potentially hit historic lows when 2025 is over.
If guns cause crime, why are more guns on the streets correlating to fewer homicides on those same streets?
Funny how he didn’t mention that, isn’t it?
For example, take the recent shooting of a man and his dog in Simpson Park in Hall County (https://fox8.com/news/man-shot-and-killed-after-dog-fight-in-georgia-park/). Two men were walking their dogs and the dogs got into a fight. Then, one of the men took out a handgun and murdered the other man and his dog. Would this have happened if we did not permit open carry, ignoring reasonable gun control in Georgia?
Now, I’m not going to excuse the shooting. I’ll also note that the man accused of murder seems to have been a lawful gun owner and was carrying a firearm lawfully.
So what?
While there’s no excuse for what happened, can we take precisely one incident like this and somehow extrapolate it over the entire state or nation? Especially when there are many times more cases of people in the same situation acting in self-defense, and doing so as a result of those laws. That’s not making the case.
But it’s not about that. It’s about eliciting outrage over what happened and trying to paint gun rights in a negative light.
Over three fourths (79%) of murders were committed by a firearm. And per capita gun deaths are up and “active shooter” incidents have skyrocketed as our firearms ownership has skyrocketed (https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2022/02/03/what-the-data-says-about-gun-deaths-in-the-u-s/ . Further, over the last few decades, shooting deaths of children are way up (https://www.nbcnews.com/data-graphics/6-charts-show-rise-guns-us-people-dying-rcna30537 ).
Killing kids is the definition of pure evil. The fact is that the more guns Americans have, the more evil there is in our nation, as measured by gun deaths.
Of course, California has the most active shooter incidents of any state, despite the strongest gun control laws in the nation. Further, as noted above, the other 21 percent of homicides still make up a total higher than that of other developed nations’ total homicide rate, which tells you the problem is more systemic than that.
Then we have “gun deaths,” a particular pernicious number that anti-gunners love to invoke that includes things like suicides, which are clearly a mental health issue.
Plus, that whole “shooting deaths of children” thing is another favorite talking point. Yes, killing kids is pure evil. However, those “kids” include 18- and 19-year-olds, many of whom are involved in gangs and other criminal enterprises. They’re not children. They’re legal adults who are responsible for their own actions.
But why let facts get in the way, right?
Meanwhile, the number of American guns has gone from 90 million to 400 million. In 1998, less than a million guns were sold in the USA. Gun sales are now up to 40 million annually due to weak gun laws (https://americangunfacts.com/gun-ownership-statistics/ ). We now have 466 million guns, with handguns being the most frequently purchased.
And the homicide rate has been trending down over the last few years.
Of course, the author has failed to actually mention that. Funny, ain’t it?
As a result, shooting deaths per capita in the US are much higher than other nations (https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2022-us-gun-violence-world-comparison/ ). For example, the US gun death rate is 4 deaths per 100,000 while Germany and Denmark (where there was a recent mass shooting, used by gun fanatics as an excuse to say gun control does not work) are 0.1. In other words, our rate is 40 times higher.
Of course, I’ve already addressed this little tidbit. I’m not even sure this guy knows, though, about our non-gun homicide rate being higher. It’s not like the mainstream media has ever reported any such thing.
It doesn’t make it less true, though.
So, what can we do to lower gun deaths that is within the Constitution, which does not prohibit regulation of firearms? Here are a few suggestions to start, for both Georgia and our nation-
That whole “shall not be infringed” thing would suggest otherwise, of course.
But let’s look at some of his suggestions.
-We must ban military assault weapons like AR 15s, the guns repeatedly used to mow down peaceful people. There is no way to get out of the way or to defend yourself when a rifle is firing virtually non-stop. I have shot this weapon numerous times in target practice. There is no skill involved — it is simply a death tool.
I’m calling BS here. First, if he’s shot one of these “numerous times in target practice,” then he’d be aware that yes, skill is involved. Marksmanship is a skill. Learning how to manipulate the weapon quickly and efficiently is a skill.
To say that there’s no skill involved is an outright lie.
Plus, let’s be real here. Rifles of all kinds, not just “assault weapons,” are used in about three percent of all homicides. They just get a lot of attention because the powers that be in the media are terrified of them. Bondi Beach showed a bolt-action rifle can be used to kill a lot of people, and handguns are still the most common weapon used in a mass shooting.
So yeah, this is all BS.
-The US should outlaw extended, high-capacity magazines.
They’re the standard magazine capacity. They’re not “extended” in any way. The author just thinks that because he’s been told that 10 rounds is the only acceptable number of shots a person should have in a magazine, even though literally no one thought so before anti-gunners started pushing it.
-Teenagers should not be able to buy rifles when they can’t buy a beer; raise the age to purchase all weapons.
Here, we actually find some room for agreement, but only to a point. I, too, also think that teenagers shouldn’t be able to buy rifles when they can’t buy a beer.
We should immediately lower the drinking age to 18.
Problem solved.
-Expand background checks to cover everyone and take enough time to do them right.
They do them right. However, expanding background checks won’t stop criminals from getting guns because they’re not buying them from ordinary people selling an unwanted firearm lawfully. They’re going to black market dealers or stealing them for themselves.
What “take enough time to do them right” means, for the record, is that he wants to eliminate the law that says no negative results on a NICS check after three days should be taken as a passed background check. Doing so, though, would mean that NICS could be reduced in funding to the point that people wait years to get their checks back.
The time limit is a check on that and, generally, it’s a non-issue.
-Stop unregulated gun show sales (to felons and the mentally ill, among others).
There aren’t unregulated “gun show sales.” There are face-to-face transfers, sure, but those can just be moved to across the street and nothing changes. Most people at gun shows who are selling guns are licensed dealers, and they conduct background checks. I know, because I’ve bought guns at gun shows, and guess what?
That’s right. Background checks.
The author doesn’t know what he’s babbling about here.
Or anywhere else.
Moving on…
-Halt all private sales except to direct family members.
Does he want to halt private sales or expand background checks? Or does he not realize that these two things are actually counter to one another?
Does he not understand that the only sales that are conducted now in a lawful manner without a background check anywhere in Georgia are private sales?
-Prohibit selling arms through the mail and shipping them from one state to another.
Already prohibited.
If you want to do any of that, it goes through an FFL and has all the required background checks. I’m assuming the author isn’t thinking that guns can only be sold in the state they’re made in, which might be too generous of me. If he does intend that, then he’s even more mentally disabled than I thought and I apologize for making fun of someone with special needs.
-Restrict open carry. In Georgia, a citizen cannot bring a gun into the General Assembly. So, why can that person bring a gun into a church?
You can’t unless the church expressly allows it, which many don’t bother to.
See, one thing you start to see with people like this is that they have a long list of demands, but they don’t even know what the laws on the books actually are. Look at these demands, then think back to how many other anti-gunners you’ve run across who seem to make similar demands. They want things because they’ve been told they should want them. They don’t actually know enough about the topic to dig any deeper.
Or, conversely, they know and are lying to others to get them to make demands.
Of course, the author here also thinks Congress should raise taxes on guns and ammo to “offset” the indirect costs of guns, which are primarily the result of criminals who won’t pay the taxes, which tells you plenty there, too.
If you’re still reading this, thank you. I know this is a long piece, but I had to break down some of the stupid here, in part because it annoys me seeing stuff like this come out of my own home state, but also because this brand of stupidity has no geographic limit.
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