America and the Myths of Gun Violence

Jun 24, 2015 | 0 comments

The myth of American gun violence

Via John Lott at New York Daily News

Anders Behring Breivik, the man in the photo above, killed just under 70 innocents with his guns and wounded over 100 more.  If you’re having difficulty recalling this attack it’s because it happened in Norway.  Why bring this up? The general public is being exposed to false gun control rhetoric in the wake of the attack in Charleston, South Carolina.

In his address to the nation, Obama claimed that, “We as a country will have to reckon with the fact that this type of mass violence does not happen in other advanced countries. It doesn’t happen in other places with this kind of frequency.”

The incident in Norway completely disproves the President’s first point. The second point, which claims other advanced countries don’t have mass violence as frequently, is also enormously false. Since the year 2000 fully half of the worst K-12 school shootings have happened in Europe, two in Germany where 34 people lost their lives.  In fact, if you take into account the US’s large population we don’t have even 1 death per one million people from mass shootings.

Via Crime Prevention Research Center

It’s sad enough that gun control activists are using Charleston to push their political agendas, but what really pisses me off is obvious misinformation. Recently, anti-gunners are relying more and more on blatant lies in an effort to expand background checks and further compromise our Second Amendment rights.  Background checks wouldn’t have even made a difference in Charleston! Mass murderers often plan their attacks out carefully and with plenty of time to obtain their weapons legally or illegally.

There is no evidence to support the claim that gun control reduces gun violence, America or otherwise.  Switzerland happens to enjoy widespread gun ownership while maintaining one of the lowest homicide rates in Europe.  The US’s homicide rates are considerably lower other industrialized countries like Brazil and Russia, where gun ownership is all but impossible.  France’s restrictive firearm laws didn’t stop the terrorists who attacked Charlie Hebdo from acquiring handguns, rifles, a rocket launcher, smoke grenades, or  15 sticks of dynamite. Even in the US we see the worst gun violence in Chicago, a city dedicated to keeping guns out of the hands of responsible citizens.

There is a common thread: Many of these attacks occur in places where general citizens can’t carry guns. According to one of his friends, the Charleston killer initially considered targeting the College of Charleston but decided against it because it had security personnel.

I’m not going to try and prove that gun-free zones attract mass murderers like moths to the flame, but they certainly don’t save lives.  In fact, how could a gun-free zone save a life? Even if a gun-free zone somehow magically prevented any gun from entering a certain space a murderer would just go kill elsewhere.  I think most of would agree magic isn’t stopping any mass murderers right now though, the only thing gun-free zones do is provide a safe environment for criminals with guns.  The chances of mass murder would drop immediately if gun control advocates would just concede this one point.