The Fallacy of Gun Control

The internet is full of wonderful stuff.  Some of it is true, some of it is kind of true, and some of it informs us with unintended information.  I found this to be so, today, with an article on the Examiner.com.

First, let me explain that I have no affiliation with Examiner.com but do occasionally read articles on it.  I'm usually captured by the headline, which, of course, is the intent of the headline.

Today's headline was, "DOJ [Department of Justice] Internal Memo Confirms Obama Plan for Gun Confiscation."  OK, I was hooked.  The article that followed was from an organization named Firearms Policy Coalition, which is another outfit with which I have no connection.  Here's the link to the article:  http://www.examiner.com/article/doj-internal-memo-confirms-obama-plan-for-gun-confiscation

You can click through the article to the actual DOJ report.  Or you can access it here:  http://static.infowars.com/2013/02/i/general/nij-gun-policy-memo.pdf

Contrary to the headline and the article's claims, the DOJ memo does not indicate plans for confiscation. What the DOJ report actually does is highlight how little overall crime, gun violence and mass shootings will be reduced by all of the assault weapons bans that have been proposed unless they are coupled with targeted buybacks and/or confiscations.

One of the things I found to be the most compelling in the DOJ memo is in the opening paragraph.  It states that the average number of deaths attributable to mass shootings in America is on average 35 per year.  While every individual matters and the loss of a single life by violence is wrong and should be condemned, the number is 35.  The DOJ memo continues that all of the proposed gun control measures are not likely to have any impact on that number.  Not ANY.  Zip.  Nada.

Did you get that?  If all of the considered and/or proposed firearms bans--assault weapons, semi-automatic weapons, high-capacity magazines, gun registration, sales restrictions--were implemented, they are not likely to reduce the number of deaths attributable to mass shootings.

Remember that number?  35.  By contrast, in 2012, the number of traffic fatalities in America was 34,000.  About 30,000 Americans die annually from accidental prescription drug overdoses.  Cancer deaths were expected to exceed 575,000 in 2012.

The US population is 315,000,000, of which an estimated 65,000,000 are gun owners.  So what? Well, first, gun ownership is one of our inalienable rights, which is codified in the Bill of Rights.  Further, it means there are 65,000,000 gun owners in America who did NOT shoot anybody this year, or last year, or the year before that.

Yet, the prevailing liberal view is that we must control, reduce and limit gun ownership to stop these terrible mass shootings.  Gun control advocates seem to believe this, or at least want us to believe it, in spite of their own studies, analyses, and reports showing their proposed gun control will not have the desired results.

Now you have the facts.  Form your own conclusions.