Please report broken hyperlinks using the Reply option at the bottom of each page.
—
Interested readers and researchers will find usefully similar information over on the Self Defense page as well.
———————
Joe Biden Admitted in 1985 Criminals Will Get Firearms ‘With or Without Gun Control’
[Well, even blind squirrels stumble over acorns once in a while. That was, perhaps, the only time in Joe Biden’s entire life that he was right about something. At least at the time. He no longer believes that truth about criminals who get guns , though. Not surprisingly, since 1985, Biden also intentionally ignored the most important issues in the gun control debate during his 2022, post-Uvalde school shooting speech.]
and…
and…
The 2022 gun control bill supported by numerous Republicans was signed into law by Joe Biden — despite his having acknowledged years earlier that it will do absolutely nothing to prevent the very kinds of mass public shootings which motivated it, and will likely increase suicides. Regarding the ‘red flag’ portion of the new law, it requires a hearing in which you have the right to know the opposing evidence and can confront adverse witnesses, but only after your guns have been confiscated. Regarding the increased federal funding for mental health screening, more funding for mental health is fine, but don’t expect it to stop mass public shootings. Over half of those committing mass public shootings in the last 25 years saw mental health care professionals before their attack. Yet in not one single case were these mental health professionals able to identify these murderers as a danger to themselves or others. The new law also completely ignores any discussion of gun-free zones where ninety-six percent of all the mass public shootings occur — intentionally, because the murderers depend on the victims being defenseless where the the murderers know their plans will succeed.
———————
States with higher rate of gun ownership do not correlate with more gun murders
https://www.foxnews.com/us/states-higher-rate-gun-ownership-not-correlate-more-gun-murders-data-show
and…
———————
U.S. Department Of Justice Report:
Guns Carried During Crimes Most Frequently Obtained Illegally
and…
“In 2021, 12 cities set new record homicide rates… These cities all had Democrat mayors. Many of them claim that the guns largely come from outside the cities and/or states. In other words, they are illegally obtained… In fact, the majority of guns used in crimes are obtained illegally. [But] if guns [rather than criminals are] the cause of crime and guns [are] obtained from states with laxer gun laws, why are those latter states not inundated with gun crimes? Logic and common sense do not support the Left’s position… [Back] to the [Democrat-run] cities [with record murder rates: What is causing all this carnage?], Robert Boyce, retired Chief of Detectives in NYC said ‘Nobody’s getting arrested anymore,‘ Boyce said. ‘People are getting picked up for gun possession and they’re just let out over and over again.‘ The so-called woke prosecutors pushed and elected by the alleged progressives are failing to enforce our laws, i.e., failing to maintain or teach discipline.“
https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2022/07/does_the_presence_of_guns_cause_crime.html
———————
8 Stubborn Facts on Gun Violence in America
1) Violent crime is down and has been on the decline for decades. ***
2) The principal public safety concerns with respect to guns are suicides and illegally owned handguns, not mass shootings.
3) A small number of factors significantly increase the likelihood that a person will be a victim of a gun-related homicide.
4) Gun-related murders are carried out by a predictable pool of people.
5) Higher rates of gun ownership are not associated with higher rates of violent crime.
6) There is no clear relationship between strict gun control legislation and homicide or violent crime rates.
7) Legally owned firearms are used for lawful purposes much more often than they are used to commit crimes or suicide.
8) Concealed carry permit holders are not the problem, but they may be part of the solution.
https://www.heritage.org/crime-and-justice/commentary/here-are-8-stubborn-facts-gun-violence-america
[*** That changed dramatically in 2020 with the sudden onset of mass rioting , looting , and murdering due to the leftist lies from the likes of Black Lives Matter as well as the lockdown lies from the likes of Anthony Fauci .]
[All other supporting, official government statistics are provided in the cited article.]
and…
“[L]ess than 8% of violent crimes [in the U.S.] involve guns… So, while it’s true that firearms are the weapon of choice in more than half the murders in this country, it’s also true that only 7.9% of violent crimes were committed with guns.”
and…
“We know the real reason why the left dismisses talk of enhancing security at our schools: The U.S. government wants to disarm American citizens. Because a disarmed citizenry is a more compliant citizenry.“
https://www.westernjournal.com/real-reason-democrats-refuse-harden-schools/
and…
and…
Guns Don’t Kill People, Gun Control Does
Over the past two decades, the number of gun-related crimes in the U.S. has dropped dramatically, while the number of guns bought and sold has increased.
http://thefederalist.com/2018/05/23/guns-dont-kill-people-gun-bans/
and…
and…
FBI: More People Killed with Knives, Hammers & Clubs Each Year Than Rifles
https://dailycaller.com/2021/03/24/knives-kill-more-people-than-rifles-every-year/
&
https://dailycaller.com/2018/02/19/knives-gun-control-fbi-statistics/
&
http://nation.foxnews.com/gun-rights/2013/01/03/fbi-more-people-killed-hammers-clubs-each-year-rifle
[As always, ASND simply asks, “Where, then, are all the liberals screaming and clamoring for bans on knives, hammers and clubs?” Oh, my bad. They’re not yet popular in the U.S. but they are in Europe . ]
… &
CDC: Unintentional Car Deaths 27 Times Higher Than Unintentional Gun Deaths Among Children
[Well then, BAN CARS!]
and…
The 2019 Colorado high school murderers used illegally possessed handguns — again — that one must be 21 to purchase or carry.
Liberals, please explain how making already-illegal gun possession illegal-er will ever change anything.
https://twitter.com/DLoesch/status/1126202063694831619
and…
The United States is 3rd in murders throughout the world.
But if you remove
1) Chicago
2) Detroit
3) Washington DC
4) St Louis and
5) New Orleans
the United States is then 189th (out of 193) countries in the entire world.
All 5 cities have STRICT Gun Control Laws.
https://twitter.com/RyanAFournier/status/974458374845853696
… &
America Doesn’t Have a Gun Violence Epidemic – Democrat-Run Cities Do
“Accidental gun deaths have decreased over the last decade… 824 total accidental gun deaths in 1999; 489 in 2015…
[T]wo out of three of the annual total of 37,353 gun deaths, nationwide, are from suicide… [and] 2 million [gun] purchases were denied, since 1993 [from background checks]…
[W]hat the NRA has spent in the last two decades on all political activity is a pittance compared to what other organizations in unrelated industries spent in 2016 alone.”
… &
“The US has by far the highest number of privately owned guns in the world… [with] more firearms than people… [But] America’s gun problem comes [not from too many guns but rather] from the fact that not enough people carry guns at any given time at any given place. An armed society is a polite one, and [here are some of] the numbers to back it up… [D]id you know that 98 percent of mass shootings that occurred since the 1950s happened in gun-free zones? Did you know that over a million people in Texas are licensed to carry a firearm and that 0.4 per 100,000 have committed a homicide? Compare that to the .99 per 100,000 homicide rate in jolly ol’ Britain where guns are banned… What we need to do is emphasize training with firearms, not complete distancing.”
… &
Democrats Announce All Future Candidates Will Forego Armed Security To Protest Gun Violence
[Once again, ASND reminds readers that satire, done well, is both tragically sad and painfully funny because it reveals grotesque, willful ignorance through humor.]
… &
“[W]hy do heartland states [in the U.S.] with the highest levels of gun ownership have some of the lowest murder rates in the U.S.?“
———————-
Why Carrying A Gun Is Almost Always An Act Of Love
http://thefederalist.com/2018/12/20/carrying-gun-can-act-love/
———————-
We Don’t Need Red Flag Laws, We Need More Good Americans To Get Guns And Protect Themselves And Their Communities
https://thefederalist.com/2019/08/08/dont-need-red-flag-laws-need-good-americans-get-guns/
[Speaking of Red Flag Laws…]
“A red flag law, a waiting period for gun purchases, licensing requirements, and numerous other gun controls did not prevent the July 4, 2022, Highland Park attack.“
and…
New York’s red-flag law failed in Buffalo too.
and…
“Red flag laws are in place, to varying degrees, in 17 states [including Florida] and the District of Columbia [which, despite those Red Flag laws, has the 11th highest violent crime and murder rates in the U.S.]… Floridians have already had to endure the confiscation of their private firearm property due to mistaken identity and First Amendment speech abridgement.”
https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2019/09/red_flag_laws_too_good_to_be_true.html
[See, also, the Red Flag Laws section on this page .]
and…
———————-
Gun Myths Regarding Accidents:
Accidental gun fatalities are a serious problem
Handguns are unsafe and cause accidents
Innocent bystanders are often killed by guns
Citizens are too incompetent to use guns for protection
Gun accidents are flooding emergency rooms
“Junk” guns are dangerous and should be banned
Guns should be made to conform to product liability laws
http://www.gunfacts.info/gun-control-myths/accidental-deaths/
[Yes, all those “myths” — lies, really (myths can evolve accidentally while lies are always and only intentional — are falsified with referenced research data.]
and…
A car is more likely to kill you — or anyone else in the U.S. — than a gun.
But 99.4% of car deaths are accidental.
98.5% of gun deaths are intentional.
And 64% of gun fatalities are suicides.
http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2015/02/12/which-is-more-likely-to-kill-car-or-gun.html
and…
“[T]he simple statistical approach so commonly used [by liberals] to ascertain the “cause” of gun deaths [presumably gun ownership] is [categorically and statistically] inadequate.”
https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2019/02/fun_with_statistics_and_the_gun_control_debate.html
———————-
I used to think gun control was the answer. My research told me otherwise.
[Amazingly, the far-left Washington Post published that well-referenced Op-Ed.]
[ASND thanks Wintery Knight for that image.]
———————-
Gun Ownership vs. Gun Violence
“[Even t]he Washington Post explains that there is no direct relation between the number of firearms in circulation and the number of ordinary gun-related murders. ‘Most Americans incorrectly think gun-murder rates have gotten worse [as the number of guns owned has increased], not better… To be explicit: This is wrong . Data from the FBI breaks out reported murders by type of weapon, showing a drop in the raw count of firearm murders since a peak in 1993… But remember, too… the number of murders as a function of the population. In that regard, the drop is even steeper. In 1994, the FBI data suggest a rate of about 6.2 firearm murders per 100,000 people. In 2017, the rate was 3.38 murders, [just slightly] up from the 2014 low in which the rate was less than half of that in 1994.’“
https://pjmedia.com/richardfernandez/mass-killings-vs-mass-shootings/
and…
America Is Awash In Guns, And Crime Is At Record Lows
For the average American alive today the odds of being murdered have never been lower — even though Americans possess millions more firearms.
http://thefederalist.com/2016/06/22/america-is-awash-in-guns-and-crime-is-at-record-lows/
and…
http://www.aei.org/publication/chart-of-the-day-more-guns-less-gun-violence-between-1993-and-2013/
[Not surprisingly, the New York Times made a laughably, but predictably biased attempt at debunking that graph shortly after it was first published by the AEI. The intentionally false, diversionary claims made in that attempt are detailed here .]
and…
A 2012 Congressional Research Service (CRS) report shows that while gun ownership climbed from 192 million firearms in 1994 to 310 million firearms in 2009, crime fell–and fell sharply.
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2013/12/04/congressional-research-service-more-guns-less-crime/
… &
Gun-Homicide Rate Decreased as Gun Ownership Increased
and…
“… the majority of Americans believe that gun violence is proliferating when it is in fact dropping.“
and…
We’ve had a massive decline in gun violence in the United States
Why? Not one of the reasons has anything to do with gun control.
and…
Think ‘Gun Violence’ Is On the Rise in the U.S.? Think Again
https://pjmedia.com/trending/2015/12/6/think-gun-violence-is-on-the-rise-in-the-u-s-think-again
[That article was published in late 2015, over four years before the decline in gun violence began to reverse. What reversed it? Liberal control of all the gun-controlled cities where Soros-funded prosecutors stopped prosecuting gun criminals.]
and…
Don’t Tell the Left: More Guns Means Fewer Homicides
https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2017/10/dont_tell_the_left_more_guns_fewer_homicides.html
[The only error in that article is in that headline. ASND exists precisely because there are, in fact, a very rare few on the Left who see truth for the first time from independent sources (they will never be provided any truth — about anything — from their own sources) and stand aghast and dumbfounded at the intentionality of deceit from their peers. When that happens — and it occasionally does — the scales occasionally fall from their eyes and their lives begin anew as informed citizens rather than indoctrinated minions. I know. Nobody Important went through the exact same process several decades ago and I have been immeasurably blessed to have been instrumental in the conversion from deceitful slavery to truthful liberation for several tens of thousands of grateful brothers and sisters, now, through this Web site. “Don’t tell the Left“? Wrong. Dead wrong. Tell the Left. And then, on rare but amazingly wonderful occasions, watch them walk from darkness into light.]
———————-
[Former] Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam confessed to 762 high school seniors visiting Radford University that none of his gun control proposals would have prevented the tragic murders in Virginia Beach.
[Liberal Democrat Northam was soundly defeated in 2020 by conservative Republican Glenn Youngkin in 2021.]
———————-
Gun-Free Zones:
[See, also, the Gun Free Zones section on this page .]
“[G]un control groups… say [things like], ‘gun-free zones have helped make K–12 schools even safer, significantly reducing gun violence in these places‘… [and] ‘there is no evidence that shooters target [gun-free] areas.‘ But none of these anti-gun organizations offers solid and transparent empirical research to support their claims. Meanwhile, there [are] plenty of empirical data that prove how dangerous gun-free zones actually are. The Crime Prevention and Research Center also has examined mass shootings and found that ‘between 1950 and 2018, 97.8 percent of all mass public shooting occurred in gun-free zones‘… [As well,] students having become 9 times more likely to be killed and almost 3 times more likely to be injured at school by gunfire in an active and mass shooter situation since the passage of the Gun-Free School Zones Act.”
and…
Washington Post: Gun Violence Declining, Except in Gun-Free Zones
and…
97.8% of violent gun attacks since 1950 have occurred in gun-free zones
and…
Q: How’s that gun-free zone working out for Starbucks?
A: It’s not. At all.
http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2013/12/hows_that_gun-free_zone_working_out_for_starbucks.html
———————-
Women Now Make Up the Largest Group of New Gun Owners
https://www.thefirearmblog.com/blog/2022/07/07/women-new-gun-owners/
and…
———————-
Eight Provable Facts Regarding Gun Violence in America:
1. Violent crime is down and has been on the decline for decades.
2. The principal public safety concerns with respect to guns are suicides and illegally owned handguns, not mass shootings.
3. A small number of factors significantly increase the likelihood that a person will be a victim of a gun-related homicide.
4. Gun-related murders are carried out by a predictable pool of people.
5. Higher rates of gun ownership are not associated with higher rates of violent crime.
6. There is no clear relationship between strict gun control legislation and homicide or violent crime rates.
7. Legally owned firearms are used for lawful purposes much more often than they are used to commit crimes or suicide.
8. Concealed carry permit holders are not the problem, but they may be part of the solution.
https://www.heritage.org/firearms/report/fact-sheet-gun-violence
———————
Teacher shot after Baltimore school board votes against arming school security officers
———————
Gun Control vs. Logic:
There’s No Such Thing As ‘Common Sense’ Gun Control
Ignorance of guns and a desire to ban them seem to be directly related
[ASND thanks Wintery Knight for that image.]
and…
“[Liberals’] rationale for gun control is diametrically opposed to the arguments they typically present for policies concerning provocative social issues… Liberal ‘logic’ has always been that the law can’t control human behavior; people are going to do what they’re going to do whether it’s legal or not. That sort of ‘they’re going to do it anyway‘ reasoning is what the left uses to justify legalizing marijuana, providing welfare to able-bodied individuals who refuse to work, and decriminalizing the millions of intruders who slipped across the border into America illegally… In other words, liberals believe that if an individual wants to do something bad enough, nothing will stop him. With that in mind, left-leaning Democrats have successfully advanced a progressive agenda by promoting ‘safe‘ promiscuity, ‘safe‘ debauchery, ‘safe‘ illegal immigration, and ‘safe‘ eradication of human life… Yet when it comes to the Second Amendment, leftist logic controverts what progressives espouse for most social policies… The anti-gun left [also] zealously argues that if the government places restrictions on an established constitutional right [i.e. firearm ownership], corrupt individuals like Devin Kelley will magically choose to tell the truth on background checks… [Obviously, however, t]his sort of ‘thinking‘ [flies in the face of reality]. Either it’s human nature to seek out illicit means to fulfill an illegal desire, or laws are successful at stopping nefarious behavior. Liberals can’t have it both ways. If leftists believe that women will seek out illegal abortions, then why don’t leftists believe that shooters with ill intent will seek out illegal guns?… Either way, if liberals eventually succeed at manipulating Americans into rejecting the Second Amendment, those determined to do damage will undoubtedly ignore any formal decree and procure “back-alley” guns. Evil perpetrators may even venture south to acquire weapons bestowed on drug cartels via the largesse of former attorney general Eric Holder and his gun-running cohort, Obama. However, if smuggling fails to deliver, and back-alley gun deals don’t work out, the Devin Kelleys of the world can fulfill liberal predictions and abort their victims with wire hangers. If hangers are in short supply, the depraved can smother country music concertgoers with government-issued condoms or skewer ordinary Americans with hypodermic needles provided by liberals who – except for when it comes to firearms – understand that laws have never stopped evil people from doing evil things. ”
http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2017/11/a_liberal_gun_paradox.html
[BTW, after reading the citations above (and, we hope, below as well), if anyone remains unconvinced of the inanity and stupidity of liberals vis-a-vis gun control, check this out.]
Progressives Demand Gun Control After Knife Attack At Ohio State University
———————
Democrats Announce All Future Political Candidates Will Forego Armed Security
To Protest Gun Violence
[Not. That would be consistent with their long-held position on gun control.]
[And yes, for those who do not know The Babylon Bee, that “article” was satirical.]
and…
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo Takes Part in Anti-Gun Die-In Protest –
Surrounded by Armed Guards
… &
Gun-toting cops protect exploited student gun protesters
[Yep. Consistency (the opposite of hypocrisy). Very “liberal.”]
and…
Gun control advocates hide behind the rhetoric of ‘common-sense gun laws,’ but sometimes the mask sometimes slips off and their real goal is revealed.
http://thefederalist.com/2018/05/08/proof-left-really-want-abolish-legal-gun-ownership/
———————
The Nazi Weapons Law of 1938 was the blueprint for the U.S. Gun Control Act of 1968
https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2018/04/chipping_away_at_the_second_amendment.html
and…
Hitler’s Nazis Supported Gun Control, Abortion, And Speech Codes.
That Agenda Describes The Modern Left
At every level, the beliefs and goals of the white supremacist, alt-right, Nazi movement directly oppose conservatism.
http://thefederalist.com/2017/08/21/nazis-support-abortion-gun-control-speech-codes-describes-left/
———————
No, Government Isn’t ‘Banned’ From Studying Gun Violence
Gun control advocates want to lift the ban on politically motivated gun research because they’re interested in politically motivated research.
http://thefederalist.com/2018/03/09/no-government-isnt-banned-from-studying-gun-violence/
———————
Fewer guns or more gun control laws do not equal less murder.
The worst three percent of [gun murder] counties [in the U.S. produce] almost 60 percent of the murders. Almost all of these counties are in large urban areas, where Democrats [and therefore ‘gun control’ laws] rule.
Additionally… the overall murder rate for the top 101 [counties] of highest and lowest rates of gun ownership is virtually identical.
At the state level… the numbers reveal the same: there’s no correlation between the presence of guns and the rate of murder.
https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2018/03/guns_men_and_murder_the_data.html
… &
Chicago Murder Rate Reveals False Narrative on Strict Gun “Control” Laws
Chicago has the highest gun murder rate and the strictest gun “control” laws
http://insider.foxnews.com/2018/03/28/chicago-murder-rate-sky-high-despite-strict-gun-control-laws
———————
Background Checks:
“[E]very [mass shooting] attacker [in the last 15 years] but three got his guns via a background check. Two of the three who avoided background checks… stole their guns, so no amount of point-of-sale gun checks would have stopped them. Only one individual… acquired his gun via a private sale [which liberals — including many Republicans — want to now require also conduct background checks]. The list of mass public attackers who acquired their guns via background checks includes the [2022] Uvalde attacker and the Buffalo attacker.”
and…
“It’s not inherently a bad thing to require that all private [as opposed to retail] commercial [gun] sales be required to go through the background check process [which they do not have to currently do]. There are, however, two important things to keep in mind. First, even if 100% successful [at preventing sales to likely criminals — which current background checks do not even come close to doing as most mass-shooters actually passed background checks ], this is a low-reward endeavor. Private commercial sales simply are not a major way in which would-be criminals acquire firearms… [Now] Let’s be clear about what existing [background check] law already demands. Any person or entity who is ‘engaged in the business of dealing firearms‘ must obtain a federal firearms license and conduct background checks before completing a gun sale or transfer, regardless of whether that sale or transfer takes place at a gun show, in a brick-and-mortar store, or over the internet. The only time federal law does not require a background check is when the sale or transfer is conducted by a person who is not ‘in the business‘ of selling guns, AND both parties are residents of the same state.“
https://www.dailysignal.com/2021/03/01/blowing-4-factual-holes-in-the-biden-gun-control-agenda/
and…
26 mass murderers since 2007 have legally obtained firearms in the U.S. after passing background checks. Several of those same murderers were also Islamic immigrants known by the FBI to be potential threats.
and…
House Democrats are, once again, attempting to pass a bill requiring so-called ‘universal background checks’ at the federal level, which would effectively outlaw private sales throughout the country.
Here Are The Top 9 Reasons This Latest Gun Control Bill Is A Terrible Idea
1. Gun Dealers Already Conduct Background Checks
2. In-State Commerce Is — Contstitutionally — a States’ Rights Issue
3. Demands For New Gun Control Are An Admission That Gun Control Doesn’t Work
4. There Is No ‘Gun-Show Loophole’
5. There Is No ‘Online Gun Sales Loophole’
6. Universal Background Checks Won’t Stop Criminals From Getting Guns
7. Background Checks Haven’t Stopped And Won’t Stop Mass Shootings
8. Universal Background Checks Are Exceedingly Burdensome
9. This Creates a De Facto Federal Gun Registry, Just Like The Nazis, Soviet Communists and Current Venezuelan Socialists Have
and…
Even Liberal Vox Admits Universal Background Checks Won’t Solve Gun Violence
https://stream.org/liberal-vox-admits-universal-background-checks-wont-solve-gun-violence/
and…
Mandatory background checks prior to gun purchases in California had no impact on gun deaths
https://mobile.wnd.com/2018/12/foundation-uncovers-report-that-defies-anti-gun-agenda/
and…
“The number one solution that Democrats go to all the time are the background checks on private transfers of guns. If that type of law had been in effect, it wouldn’t have stopped any mass public shooting this century or even years before that. And yet [Democrats] keep pushing it.”
http://mobile.wnd.com/2018/03/these-17-million-americans-can-stop-mass-shootings/
and…
Universal Background Checks: Shouldn’t We Review the Statistics?
and…
“I used to think gun control was the answer. My research told me otherwise.”
and…
Obama criticized for using dated, disputed gun stat to sell background checks
———————
The Congressional Baseball Shooting Only Proves We Need *Less* Gun Control
http://thefederalist.com/2017/06/14/alexandria-shooting-proves-need-less-gun-control/
———————
Why ‘Gun Control’ Will Never Prevent, Or Likely Even Reduce, Mass Killings
Mass killings are very rare, accounting for only 0.2 percent of homicides every year and approximately 1 percent of homicide victims.
Only 12 percent of mass killings are mass public shootings. Most mass killings are familicides (murders of family members or intimate partners) and felony-related killings (such as robberies gone awry or gang-related ‘turf battles’).
Although there has been a slight increase in the frequency of mass public shootings over the past few years, the rates are still similar to what the United States experienced in the 1980s and early 1990s.
Over 90 percent of public mass shootings take place in ‘gun-free zones’ where civilians are not permitted to carry firearms.
A complete ban on “assault weapons” will save very few lives: Six out of every 10 mass public shootings are carried out by handguns alone, while only one in 10 is committed with a rifle alone.
The average age of mass public shooters is 34, which means that increasing the minimum age for purchasing firearms would not target the main perpetrators of mass public shootings.
Few mass public shooters have used “high-capacity magazines,” and there is no evidence that the lethality of their attacks would have been affected by delays of two to four seconds to switch magazines. In fact, some of the largest mass shootings in U.S. history were carried out with “low-capacity” weapons:
The Virginia Tech shooter killed 32 and injured 17 with two handguns, one of which had a 10-round magazine and the other a 15-round magazine. He simply brought 19 extra magazines.
Twenty-three people were killed and another 20 injured in a Killeen, Texas, cafeteria by a man with two 9mm handguns, capable of maximums of 15-round and 17-round magazines, respectively.
A mentally disturbed man armed with two handguns and a shotgun shot and killed 21 people in a San Ysidro McDonald’s and injured another 19. The handguns utilized 13-round and 20-round magazines, and the shotgun had a five-round capacity.
60 percent of mass public shooters had been diagnosed with a mental disorder or had demonstrated signs of serious mental illness prior to the attack.
A large body of research shows a statistical link between mass public killings and serious untreated psychiatric illness.
The United States does not have an extraordinary problem with mass public shootings compared to other developed countries.
After adjusting for population differences, many other developed countries have worse problems with mass public shootings than the United States has.
There were 27 percent more casualties per capita from mass public shootings in the European Union than in the U.S. from 2009 to 2015.
Mass killers often find ways to kill even without firearms [see examples in article].
In other countries, bombings, mass stabbings, and car attacks frequently kill more people than even the deadliest mass shootings in the United States [see examples in article].
https://www.dailysignal.com//print?post_id=400248
and…
“In an average year 4 to 5 times more people are knifed to death… 30 times more people are killed by drunken drivers… and 200 times more die from drug overdoses than are killed with [so-called] ‘assault’ rifles.
More people are killed every year with blunt objects, or are simply beaten to death, than are murdered using [so-called] ‘assault’ rifles.
Only about 3-4% of murders using firearms (out of about 11,000 annually) in the US involve rifles
The average number of people killed per year in all types of public mass shootings (3+ killed, not including shooter) over the last 38 years was 25. The average number of people killed at schools in mass (3+ killed) school shootings, adult and child, over the same 38-year period was 4 per year.”
https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2018/03/some_thoughts_on_banning_assault_rifles.html
———————
4 Reasons The Federal Congress Doesn’t ‘Act’ on Gun Violence
The reality is Congress isn’t, and can’t be, responsible for anyone’s personal safety.
https://stream.org/4-reasons-congress-doesnt-act-gun-violence/
———————
Gun Control Across The World Only Leads To Acid, Knifings, And Bombings
http://thefederalist.com/2018/02/21/gun-control-across-world-leads-acid-knifings-bombings/
and…
Gun control for teenagers? Hardly. Teenagers need cell phone control.
https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2018/03/gun_control_nope_teenagers_need_cell_phone_control.html
and…
“If we banned every private firearm in America, they would reach back to that traitor and murderer Timothy McVeigh. He used a fertilizer bomb [and a rented truck]. If we banned all fertilizer, then degenerates who craved fame would use pressure cookers. You know, like the Muslim refugees who blew up the Boston Marathon. Evil will find a way. It always does… Why is it, do you think, that Muslim colonists feel free to maul, rape, and assault women in Norway, Sweden, Germany, the Netherlands, and Britain? They know perfectly well that none of the helpless natives in the area will be armed or could resist them… Stripping the population of the means to protect itself renders them helpless before the barbarians whom our [elected liberal politicians] keep inviting in. In America, that would mean not just jihadis, but members of the drug cartels that control our southern border. Their native land, Mexico, has draconian gun control. How’s that working out for them?… [Liberals] want to preen as promoting ‘high-minded’… policies that impair the nation’s safety. They also want protection, so many of them have their own private or government security. But the citizenry as a whole must be kept defanged and helpless, dependent on faraway riot police to come and collect the corpses… It’s telling that in America, after the Civil War, one of the key goals of the Ku Klux Klan was to use gun control laws to disarm black citizens.”
https://stream.org/school-shootings-gun-rights-and-the-imitation-of-evil/
… &
“[E]qual citizenship has frequently been denied to black Americans through the use of gun control laws. Such laws were used to keep firearms out of the hands of African-Americans — to deny their very equality as human beings — from the earliest colonial days through the end of Jim Crow in 1965… [E]ven today, blacks continue to suffer disproportionate harm from gun control laws, as major cities deny legal firearms to the residents of high-crime urban neighborhoods… Blacks are eight times more likely to be victims of homicide and two and one-half times more likely to be rape victims. For robbery, the black victimization rate is three times that for whites… Reducing gun ownership among law-abiding citizens may significantly reduce the proven deterrent effect of widespread civilian gun ownership on criminals, particularly in regard to such crimes as residential burglaries and commercial robberies. Of course, this effect will be most widely felt among the poor and minority citizens who live in crime-ridden areas without adequate police protection… A look at crime statistics confirms [the] contention that widespread civilian ownership of firearms has a deterrent effect on criminals. Washington, D.C., a majority black city formerly known as the murder capital of the U.S., has enjoyed plummeting crime rates following the Supreme Court’s 2008 Heller decision, which found that the Second Amendment establishes an individual right to keep and bear arms exclusive of participation in a militia… Many black political leaders need to rethink their opposition to the Second Amendment. By supporting government infringement of the right to bear arms, they are not only violating the Constitution, they are robbing their fellow blacks of the ability to defend themselves, and relegating them to second-class citizenship.”
https://www.theacru.org/wp-content/uploads/The-Truth-About-Gun-Control.pdf
———————
There just is no correlation between gun ownership and murder rates
https://amp.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2012/dec/18/great-gun-control-fallacy-thomas-sowell
[That article was written by a black American hero .]
and…
Myths About Gun Control
http://www.ncpa.org/pdfs/st176.pdf
and…
The ‘40 Percent’ Myth
http://www.nationalreview.com/blogs/print/338735
———————
Black males have the highest death rate among U.S. teenagers.
Homicide is the leading cause of death for black male teenagers.
The deaths of these black males are usually caused by other black males using illegally obtained guns.
and…
After Parkland, FL massacre, the Left want to disarm ‘gun-clingers‘ yet ignores gun violence in black community
———————-
6 More Reasons Why Conservatives Aren’t Changing Sides On Gun Control
http://thefederalist.com/2017/10/06/6-reasons-right-wing-friend-isnt-coming-side-gun-control/
[Yet, there are reasoned, evidence-based changes that should be made.]
A Gun-Control Measure Conservatives Should Consider: GVROs
https://www.nationalreview.com/2018/02/gun-control-republicans-consider-grvo/
———————-
California gun sales jump; gun injuries, deaths fall
http://www.sacbee.com/2012/12/27/5079151/california-gun-sales-increase.html
and…
Amid California’s strict gun laws, a massacre
http://www.cnn.com/2015/12/05/us/california-gun-laws-san-bernardino/index.html
and…
ATF Says Weapons Used in San Bernardino Shooting Were Illegal in California
and…
Post-San Bernardino, Democrat Gun-Control Dishonesty Reads Loud and Clear
———————-
False Anti-Gun Narrative Continues to Develop Against Laser Sights
https://thewashingtonstandard.com/anti-gun-narrative-continues-to-develop-against-laser-sights/
———————-
The NRA:
The NRA Makes a Wise, Principled Decision to Support Gun-Violence Restraining Orders
https://www.nationalreview.com/2018/03/nra-gun-violence-restraining-order-support-good-move/amp/m
and…
The NRA contributed $1.1 million to candidates in the 2016 election cycle.
By comparison, one million dollars just isn’t that much money.
———————-
“Among state and federal prison inmates convicted of using a firearm, less than 2 percent used a military-style semi-automatic.”
&
“… studies show guns stop more crime than they cause…”
&
“The best empirical research on the matter finds that, where gun ownership levels are highest, in fact, homicide rates are far lower.”
&
“Somewhere around 0.8 to 2.0 million violent crimes are deterred each year because of gun ownership and use by civilians. In addition, another 1.5 to 2.5 million crimes are stopped by armed civilians.”
[The only error in that article was the claim that “semi-automatic“ firearms are “military-style“. That is patently false (see ASND’s “Assault” Rifles page. ]
———————-
America Doesn’t Have a Gun Problem, It Has a Gang Problem
———————-
“Gun controllers want you to believe a suppressor [a.k.a. silencer] can… make criminals more lethal. Nothing could be further from the truth… Suppressors aren’t cheap, they aren’t easy to conceal, and it’s really difficult to find guns that can even accept them. When you know these facts, you can understand why suppressors are never used by criminals. They’re just not worth the cost or the hassle.”
———————-
Liberal Dilemma: When Gun Rights Meet Victim Groups
http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2013/01/liberal_dilemma_when_gun_rights_meet_victim_groups.html
———————-
Ex-Burglars Say Newspaper’s Gun Map Would’ve Made the Job Easier, Safer
———————-
The Second Amendment:
MSNBC Accidentally Makes Case for 2nd Amendment During Report on Venezuela
[MSNBC most certainly wouldn’t have done so intentionally.]
“… gun-control efforts, while noble, would only have a modest impact on the rate of gun violence in America. Why? Because it’s too late. There are an estimated 280 million to 300 million guns in private hands in America — many legally owned, many not. Each year, more than 4 million new guns enter the market… America’s level of gun ownership means that even if the Supreme Court — which ruled in 2008 that the Second Amendment gives citizens the individual right to own firearms, as gun advocates have long insisted — suddenly reversed itself and ruled that the individual ownership of handguns was illegal, there would be no practical way for a democratic country to locate and seize those guns.”
and…
The Second Amendment is Not about Hunting
http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2013/01/the_second_amendment_is_not_about_hunting_1.html
[ASND thanks The Babylon Bee for that image.]
and…
The Role of the Militia in the Development of the Englishman’s Right to be Armed — Clarifying the Legacy
http://www.constitution.org/2ll/schol/jfp5ch04.htm
and…
How The Second Amendment Prevents Tyranny
http://thefederalist.com/2018/03/22/how-the-second-amendment-prevents-tyranny/
and…
Why We Need the Second Amendment Now More than Ever
https://pjmedia.com/rogerlsimon/need-second-amendment-ever/
and…
Even The Far-Left Ninth Circuit Court Of Appeals Says Open-Carrying A Gun Is A Constitutional Right
and…
Second Amendment Foundation
Journal on Firearms & Public Policy: Table of Contents
https://www.saf.org/new-jfpp-table/
———————-
Peer-Reviewed Sociological Gun Research:
“… according to The Journal of the American Medical Association: ‘Our analyses provide no evidence that implementation of the Brady Act was associated with a reduction in homicide rates. … We find no differences in homicide or firearm homicide rates to adult victims in the 32 states directly subject to the Brady Act provisions compared with the remaining control states….‘ [A] CDC report said, ‘Studies that directly assessed the effect of actual defensive uses of guns (i.e., incidents in which a gun was ‘used’ by the crime victim in the sense of attacking or threatening an offender) have found consistently lower injury rates among gun-using crime victims compared with victims who used other self-protective strategies.‘ … Almost all national survey estimates indicate that defensive gun uses by victims are at least as common as offensive uses by criminals, with estimates of annual uses ranging from about 500,000 to more than 3 million per year, in the context of about 300,000 violent crimes involving firearms in 2008.‘
and…
“One may infer from [the U.N.’s global homicide vs. gun ownership] data that homicide, including massacres, is not a matter of hardware but rather of software: weapons are not conducive to violence; what makes them dangerous is a violence-oriented culture.“
http://pjmedia.com/blog/gun-control-its-the-software-stupid-not-the-hardware/?print=1
and…
“During 2000–2002… an independent nonfederal task force conducted a systematic review of scientific evidence regarding the effectiveness of firearms laws in preventing violence, including violent crimes, suicide, and unintentional injury… The Task Force found insufficient evidence to determine the effectiveness of any of the firearms laws or combinations of laws reviewed on violent outcomes.”
http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/rr5214a2.htm
and… [several years later]
“Based on identified studies reviewed in this report, the evidence is insufficient to determine whether the United States firearms laws affect violence.”
https://www.ncjrs.gov/App/publications/Abstract.aspx?id=209529
Yet…
Liberal Academics Continue Assault on Pro-Gun Research
http://cnsnews.com/news/article/liberal-academics-continue-assault-pro-gun-research
and…
Despite the [Liberal] Rhetoric, Research Shows Decline in Gun Culture, Gun Violence
and…
“… tens of thousands of crimes are prevented each year by ordinary citizens with guns.”
http://www.cato.org/pubs/wtpapers/WP-Tough-Targets.pdf
… &
“The purpose of this map is to draw more attention to this aspect of the firearms policy debate.”
http://www.cato.org/guns-and-self-defense/
and…
California gun sales jump; gun injuries, deaths fall
http://www.sacbee.com/2012/12/27/5079151/california-gun-sales-increase.html
[Those data, btw, were published by the state Attorney General’s office, the most left – wing AG office in the U.S.]
and…
‘Gun Control Fails,’ Say Statistics from … Gun-Control Advocates
http://pjmedia.com/blog/gun-control-fails-say-statistics-from-gun-control-advocates/?print=1
and…
“… correlations [between more guns and more death & fewer guns and less death] are not observed when a large number of nations are compared across the world.“
http://www.law.harvard.edu/students/orgs/jlpp/Vol30_No2_KatesMauseronline.pdf
———————-
“[There were] twice as many robberies [in D.C.] at gunpoint than at this time last year.”
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/feb/19/violent-crime-dc-surges-2012/
[Wait a minute. W.D.C. Has the strictest “gun control” laws in the country. What ‘s wrong with this picture?]
“Newly released data for Chicago shows that, as in Washington, murder and gun crime rates didn’t rise after the bans were eliminated — they plummeted. They have fallen much more than the national crime rate.”
http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2011/09/30/media-silence-is-deafening-about-important-gun-news/
———————-
The “March For Our Lives” (3/24/18):
The Incoherent ‘March for Our Lives‘
https://pjmedia.com/trending/the-incoherent-march-for-our-lives/
and…
March For Our Lives Crowd Count Well Below Expected And Initial Reports
http://dailycaller.com/2018/03/25/report-march-for-our-lives-crowd-count-low/
[Despite…]
MTV, Hollywood “stars” including Oprah Winfrey paid for busloads of young people to anti-gun violence march
and..
Who’s Really Behind March for Our Lives?
A professional class of leftist political activists
https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/269649/whos-really-behind-march-our-lives-daniel-greenfield
[While we’re on this subject…]
‘March For Our Lives’ Now Operating Under Dark Money Nonprofit Advocacy Group
http://freebeacon.com/issues/march-lives-now-operating-dark-money-nonprofit-advocacy-group/
… &
Why did sponsors of ‘March for our lives’ spend so much money to hide their identities
and…
“[T]he Nuremberg Rallies [were] held annually by the Nazi Party for a period of fifteen years in the 1920s and 1930s. The rallies were mass events, attended by hundreds of thousands. Children – the Hitler Youth – were prominently featured, along with stagecraft and pageantry. The purpose of the rallies was to whip the masses into an emotional fervor while Hitler denounced the Jews. It worked. And something similar is happening in the recent spate of children’s anti-gun marches, typified by the “March for Our Lives” just concluded in Washington, D.C… Oddly enough, they don’t seem too concerned about the 64,000 annual deaths from overdoses, the 6,000-12,000 annual AIDS deaths, or 37,000 deaths in car crashes. The ‘March for Our Lives‘ is exposed as ridiculous, over-the-top hysteria when you logically look at the statistics of what is actually more likely to kill them… in the U.K. since 1970, we find that 390 people have been killed with bombs and only 34 with handguns and ‘assault rifles.’ Yet they [Britain] banned the guns. Fancy that.”
https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2018/03/mass_hysteria_and_the_antigun_marches.html
and…
Singer Who Survived Bataclan, Spain Massacre Condemns Gun Control March
http://thefederalist.com/2018/03/26/bataclan-survivor-jesse-hughes-condemns-gun-control-march/
———————-
Change in Justifiable Homicides Per Million: 2001 – 2005 & 2006 – 2010
———————-
“This is the city with one of the most restrictive gun control programs in the country.“
———————-
“This is not a one-year anomaly, but a steady decline in the FBI’s violent-crime rates. It would be disingenuous for anyone to not credit increased self-defense laws to account for this decline.“
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/jun/18/gun-ownership-up-crime-down/
———————-
Georgia Town Mandating Gun Ownership Had Only One Murder in Six Years
———————-
“Klein didn’t perform an objective analysis of all the data; his ‘research‘ is an op/ed.“
http://pjmedia.com/blog/ezra-kleins-facts-about-guns-tell-slanted-story/?print=1
———————-
Armed bystander stops stabbing outside school
———————-
The truth about Costas, Belcher and guns
http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2012/12/03/truth-about-costas-belcher-and-guns/
———————-
“… between 2009 and 2011, gun ownership among Democrats increased by 33% compared to less than 4% for Republicans.”
http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2012/12/people_are_buying_guns_and_ammunition_for_a_reason.html
and…
Baltimore Woman Says She’ll Use Gun Buyback Cash to Pay for an Even Bigger Gun
https://reason.com/blog/2018/12/19/baltimores-gun-buyback-program-is-insane
———————-
Confiscation:
California Confiscated 2,290 Guns In 2018
But Of Course, That Failed To Stop Criminals With Guns
and…
Democrat gun-confiscator tacitly admits gun control wouldn’t work
[Here’s just one of several reasons why…]
Maryland Gun Owners To Gun Grabbing Legislators: We Won’t Comply!
https://freedomoutpost.com/maryland-gun-owners-to-gun-grabbing-legislators-we-wont-comply/
and…
“… the Obama administration… consider[ed] a ‘national database’ of all firearms in the United States to track the movement and sale of weapons.’ If such a database [ever] comes to fruition the database will lead to confiscation.”
http://www.theblaze.com/contributions/registration-will-lead-to-confiscation/
[ASND is not sure how Mr. Lilley knows that for sure, but he does provide a reasonable example why he thinks he knows it for sure.]
and…
Innocents Betrayed – Genocide By Gun Control – True History of Gun Confiscation
———————-
The Truth About Law Enforcement & Gun Violence Prevention
———————-
Weighing the Gun Control Argument
http://www.americanthinker.com/2013/02/weighing_the_gun_control_argument.html
———————-
Felons for Gun Control
http://www.americanthinker.com/2013/02/felons_for_gun_control.html
———————-
Tell Everyone That Your House Is Completely Unprotected
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wt1Zy_ASNyA&feature=youtu.be
———————-
Does ‘Gun Show Loophole’ Actually Result in Gun Crime?
http://pjmedia.com/blog/does-gun-show-loophole-actually-result-in-gun-crime/?print=1
———————-
Gun Problem? 2013 Had Fewest Police Deaths by Firearms since 1887
http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/Police-Deaths-fewest-since/2013/12/30/id/544380
———————-
Detroit police chief James Craig says more citizens should be armed
———————-
“… states with restrictions on the carrying of concealed weapons had higher gun-related murder rates than other states. It was also found that assault weapons bans did not significantly affect murder rates at the state level. These results suggest that restrictive concealed weapons laws may cause an increase in gun-related murders at the state level.”
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13504851.2013.854294#.UsiJibTl7o_
———————-
Yes, Liberals, The First Amendment Protects Digital, 3-D Printed Firearm Blueprints
http://thefederalist.com/2018/08/01/yes-washington-first-amendment-even-protects-firearm-blueprints/
… &
The liberal fearmongering over ‘downloadable firearms’ has little to do with reality.
http://thefederalist.com/2018/08/01/lets-debunk-misleading-panic-3-d-guns/
———————-
Where Gun Controllers Control Legislation:
Eliminating DC’s Handgun Ban Did Not Lead To More Homicides, Report Says
Many gun control advocates had predicted D.C. residents would be less safe
and…
Four years after sweeping gun control laws were passed in Maryland, Baltimore homicides on pace for all time high.
https://twitter.com/CamEdwards/status/870696563772751875
and…
Seattle Gun Tax Another Gun Control Failure
http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2017/06/seattle_gun_tax_another_gun_control_failure.html
and…
1 million NJ gun owners refuse to obey unconstitutional multi-round magazine ban
https://mobile.wnd.com/2018/12/1-million-gun-owners-refuse-to-obey-ban/
———————-
The Bible & Gun Control:
“In Genesis 4:1-8 we read about the first murder… There were no guns available, although there may well have been a knife. Whether it was a knife or a rock, the Bible does not say. The point is, the evil in Cain’s heart was the cause of the murder, not the availability of the murder weapon. God’s response was not to ban rocks or knives, or whatever, but to banish the murderer. Later (see Genesis 9:5-6 ) God instituted capital punishment, but said not a word about banning weapons…
One conclusion which can be drawn from [ Exodus 22:2-3 ] is that a threat to our life is to be met with lethal force… At night it is more difficult to discern whether [an] intruder is a thief or a murderer. Furthermore, the nighttime makes it more difficult to defend oneself and to avoid killing the thief at the same time. During the daytime, it better be clear that one’s life [is] in danger, otherwise, defense becomes vengeance, and that belongs in the hand of the [civil] magistrate…
In Proverbs 25:26 we [are taught] that ‘A righteous man who falters before the wicked is like a murky spring and a polluted well.‘ Certainly, we would be faltering before the wicked if we chose to be unarmed and unable to resist an assailant who might be threatening our [or someone else’s] life. In other words, we have no right to hand over our life which is a gift from God to the unrighteous. It is a serious mistake to equate a civilized society with one in which the decent people are doormats for the evil to trample on…
Psalm 144:1 [says God] ‘trains my hands for war and my fingers for battle‘… Those who trust God should also make adequate provision for their own defense even as we are instructed in the passages cited above. For a man to refuse to provide adequately for his and his family’s defense would be to defy God… It may seem pious to say that one is trusting in God for protection, and we all must, but it is tempting God [see Mt 4:7 ] if we do not take the measures that He has laid out for us in the Bible…
[C]onsider [as well] Nehemiah and those who rebuilt the gates and walls of Jerusalem [each section rebuilt by the residents adjacent and proximal to that section]. They were both builders and defenders, each man — [and] each servant — armed with his own weapon ( Nehemiah 4:17-18 )…
Many people, [some] Christians included, assume that Christ taught pacifism. They cite Matthew 5:38-39 for their ‘proof’… [But t]he Sermon on the Mount from which this passage is taken deals with righteous personal [rather than civil, or governmental] conduct. In [this] passage, Christ is clearing up a confusion that had led people [during Christ’s time on Earth] to think that conduct proper for the civil government — that is, taking vengeance — was also proper for an individual… Christ was correcting the religious leaders on their teaching that ‘an eye for an eye‘ applies to private revenge [It did not. It applied — then and now — only to civil magistrates]… The reference to ‘an eye for an eye‘ was taken from Exodus 21:24-25 which deals with how the [civil] magistrate must deal with a crime. Namely, the punishment must fit the crime. The religious leaders of Christ’s day had twisted a passage that applied to the government and misused it as a principle of personal revenge… Resisting an attack is not to be confused with taking vengeance, which is the exclusive domain of God ( Romans 12:19 )… Private vengeance means one would stalk down a criminal after one’s life is no longer in danger as opposed to defending oneself during an attack… Christ was not teaching something different about self defense than is taught elsewhere in the Bible. Otherwise, He would be contradicting Himself… The Bible distinguishes clearly between the duties of the civil magistrate (the government) and the duties of an individual. Namely, God has delegated to the civil magistrate the administration of justice. Individuals have the responsibility of protecting their lives from attackers. Christ was referring to this distinction in the Matthew 5 passage… The Christian pacifist may try to argue that God has changed His mind from the time that He gave Moses the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai. Perhaps they would want us to think that Christ canceled out the Ten Commandments in Exodus 20 or the provision for justifiably killing a thief in Exodus 22. But the writer of Hebrews makes it clear that this cannot be, because ‘Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever‘ (Hebrews 13:8). In the Old Testament, the prophet Malachi [also] records God’s words this way: ‘For I am the Lord, I do not change.’ ( Malachi 3:6 ).
We must also consider what Christ told his disciples in his last hours with them: ‘…and he who has no sword, let him sell his garment and buy one.‘ ( Luke 22:36 ) Keep in mind that the sword was the finest offensive weapon available to an individual soldier — the equivalent then of a military rifle today. The Christian pacifist will likely object at this point that only a few hours later, Christ rebuked Peter who used a sword to cut off the ear of Malchus, a servant of the high priest in the company of a detachment of troops. [But l]et us read what Christ [actually] said to Peter in Matthew 26:52-54 … While Christ told Peter to ‘put your sword in its place,’ He clearly did not say get rid of it forever. That would have contradicted what he had told the disciples only hours before. Peter’s sword was to protect his own mortal life from danger. His sword was not needed to protect the Creator of the universe and the King of kings…
Years after Pentecost, Paul wrote in a letter to Timothy ‘But if anyone does not provide for his own, and especially for those of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever‘ ( 1 Tim. 5:8 ). This passage applies to our subject because it would be absurd to buy a house, furnish it with food and facilities for one’s family, and then refuse to install locks and provide the means to protect the family and the property. Likewise it would be absurd not to take, if necessary, the life of a night-time thief to protect the members of the family. ( Exodus 22:2-3 )…
A related, and even broader concept, is found in the parable of the Good Samaritan … It was the Good Samaritan who [saved the life] of the mugging victim… The others who walked by and ignored the victim’s plight were not acting as ‘neighbors‘ to him… In the light of all we have seen the Scriptures teach to this point, can we argue that if we were able to save another’s life from an attacker by shooting the attacker with our gun that we should ‘turn the other cheek‘ instead? The Bible speaks of no such right. It only speaks of our responsibilities in the face of an attack — as individual creatures made by God, as householders or as neighbors…
Nowhere in the Bible does God make any provision for dealing with the instruments of crime. He always focuses on the consequences for an individual of his actions… Responsibility only pertains to people, not to things… The wisdom of the framers of the Constitution is consistent with the lessons of the Bible. Instruments of defense should be dispersed throughout the nation, not concentrated in the hands of the central government… The government has no cause to want a monopoly of force; the government that desires such a monopoly is a threat to the lives, liberty and property of its citizens.”
and…
[The record of Abraham rescuing Lot and his family, the entire book of Nehemia (beginning here), and the social justice law of protecting private property in Exodus 2 are all clear examples of God’s commands to and expectations of the righteous strong to protect the innocent weak. Some object that those examples — while explicit and obviously in support of defending the helpless — are from the Old Testament, which the coming of Jesus Christ expunged. However, since defending innocents is the preservation of life, it is classifiable as a moral law, clearly distinct from the Old Testament civil and ceremonial laws. Since every citation of God’s moral laws in the New Testament are affirmations of the same laws from the Old Testament, self defense is therefore affirmed (i.e. intentionally perpetuated) by the New Testament. In fact, Jesus explicitly commanded His disciples to purchase and posses weapons for the obvious purpose of self defense. To somehow force that command into a contextual box limited only to the disciples He taught in his physical presence (for those who don’t know, Jesus calls all Christians His disciples) is to commit the interpretive sin of eisegesis. Since Jesus also commands Christians (in the second greatest of all commandments) to love our “neighbors“, we cannot obey that command if we intentionally allow abuse or slaughter of our innocent “neighbors” by not defending them when they are threatened (which, btw, also applies to the wicked slaughter of helpless unborn children in abortion). Defending our innocent “neighbors“, therefore (including family & friends), is clearly commanded by God for all Christians in all societies and all generations. Defending our “neighbors” against criminals carrying guns (or even potentially carrying guns) requires defending them with weapons of equal or greater power to destroy, else the power to deter — which weapons inherently possess — is completely lost. Defending innocent life, therefore — including with guns (at least in cultures where guns exist) — , is clearly and unequivocally commanded for all cultures and epochs by the God who created life. These points are made eloquently in the following sermon series:]
———————-
Barack Obama:
“[CNN failed to identify t]he obvious cause for the increase in murders during the last years of the Obama administration… the Black Lives Matter movement, which was enthusiastically endorsed by the [Obama] White House. It led to numerous unfair attacks on law enforcement, which in turn caused officers to police less aggressively. When police officers are afraid to do their jobs for fear of career-ending charges of racism, criminals prosper. Baltimore is the most notorious example, but the same phenomenon has happened in other cities where law enforcement has been besieged by the Left.”
https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2018/07/homicide-rate-is-rising-do-tell.php
and…
School Obama’s Daughters Attend Has 11 Armed Guards
and…
“… the Obama administration is considering a ‘national database‘ of all firearms in the United States to ‘track the movement and sale of weapons.’ If such a database comes to fruition the database will lead to confiscation.”
http://www.theblaze.com/contributions/registration-will-lead-to-confiscation/
[ASND is not sure how Mr. Lilley knows that for sure, but he does provide a reasonable example why he thinks he knows it for sure.]
and…
Obama ‘rules’ would suspend 2nd Amendment even for ‘outpatient’ mental health treatment
http://www.wnd.com/2014/01/see-a-shrink-lose-your-gun/print/
and…
The most frequently used assault weapons in the U.S. are not only legal, you pay many of the people who use them (via taxes) to commit their murders.
———————-
