Deception

            If you happened to read today’s HJ (4/27/07) AP article on gun control. If so, you might be confused on the statistical chart used. In this chart they used an old technique. If you read the find print you will notice that the chart includes not only murder, but “homicide, suicide, accidental and undetermined deaths.” Wait a minute you say isn’t homicide and murder the same thing. No! Homicide includes all deaths perpetrated by another. This includes defense shootings, involuntary manslaughter, etc. Also note the inclusion of suicides in this chart. This makes it very misleading. Countries like Japan have high suicide rates, but since firearms are very rare they simply use other means. It has been demonstrated, time and time again, that if the intender wants to commit suicide they simply use whatever is most easily available. I submit that if you remove drug murders and gang turf battles from the US stats., our murder rate would not be that different from other countries.

Whoever rights something sets the tone. By being selective in what points one makes and what information is included you can always mislead the reader. Britain and many other developed countries have always had low murder rates, regardless of when and if they instituted gun control. What the writer very cleverly avoided talking about was all violent crime, not just murder. To someone raped or robbed at gun point this is a very relevant matter. Gun control in Great Britain, Australia, South Africa, Brazil etc. has lead to skyrocketing rates of violent crime. In Great Britain self defense has become a lost right and I submit the oldest right. Often, prosecution for self defense is stiffer than the robber or rapist. One of the better kept secrets about England is how the police cook the books to make their crime stats look better than the are.

            I do not know how people in England stand living there. I could not submit to living in a country that gives thugs more rights than its law abiding citizens. Maybe that is why many there are leaving or express the wish to do so. One of the other tricks used in the aforementioned article is concentrating on mass murders, which are sensational but rare. Also using biased sources for your stats is another old trick. The reporter used the Geneva based Small Arms survey (2004). This group is very anti gun and statistics from them should be viewed with skepticism. Particularly the number for Switzerland is highly suspect. This is another country which the gun banners are concentrating on. Some of the most strident proponents for gun control are themselves very elitist. People like Chuck Schumer, Ted Kennedy, Rosie O’Donnell and Richard Daley never travel anywhere without armed bodyguards. They wish to deny you the right to protection while insuring it for themselves.

            Finally, I learned last night that Thad Box’s proposed list of gun control issues, that is registration, gun licenses, etc was taken directly from a proposed gun control law introduces by Senator Schumer. I do not think that this happened by accident.

Peace