Oh No! Guns Don’t Kill People; People Kill People

The following article that pushes their anti-gun agenda appeared yesterday in the New York Times. I have juxtaposed excerpts from two other articles that reveal the facts that law-abiding gun owners know instinctively. Sometimes refuting the logic of liberals is like shooting fish in a barrel. No pun intended.

FIRST ARTICLE:

August 14, 2006
Editorial, New York Times

Shoot First — No Questions Asked

If ever a law was designed as a get-out-of-jail-free card for the trigger-happy gun owner, it’s one that comes to us via the gun lobby and the State of Florida. The law, passed in the last year in 15 states and being considered in eight others, allows the extraordinary use of deadly force when a person simply doesn’t want to back away from a confrontation.

There are legitimate kill-or-be-killed situations, but those are defensible in court already. There seems little reason to legally enshrine the right to maim or kill in response to a perceived threat. These laws do just that, and already a creepy picture of “Death Wish”-style justice is emerging.

In one case, a retired police officer shot twice and seriously wounded an apparently unarmed neighbor who had knocked on his door in a dispute over the number of garbage bags put out for collection. The shooter will remain free as long as his self-defense argument holds, and it well may.

The contorted logic of these laws reverses the notions that favored flight over fight and held deadly force to be a last resort. The Florida law holds that a crime victim may “stand his or her ground and meet force with force, including deadly force if he or she reasonably believes it is necessary.” To defend homes and vehicles, an owner can wield lethal force with a freedom not granted to the police.

Redefining lethal force is bad enough, but it also comes with near-automatic immunity from prosecution and civil lawsuits. Florida’s law is a sick cousin of the work of the gun lobby on Capitol Hill, where it has successfully protected the interstate traffickers of guns used in crimes. And it is the evil twin of laws passed in 38 states that allow concealed weapons. After all, what good is packing heat if it just stays in the holster? New York Times

SECOND ARTICLE: (Excerpt)

Bush: Florida crime rate down to lowest level since '71
By BRENT KALLESTAD
Associated Press Writer

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Florida's crime rate dropped for the 14th straight year in 2005 to its lowest mark since 1971 because of tougher laws, increased financial support from the Legislature and law-abiding citizens with guns, Gov. Jeb Bush said Tuesday.
"This report shows that staying tough on crime works," said Bush. "Law abiding citizens that have guns for protection actually probably are part of the reason we have a lower crime rate."

The crime rate, compiled by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, decreased 3.7 percent from 4,855 crimes per 100,000 people in 2004 to 4,677 crimes per 100,000 people last year. The total included 881 murders, 12,230 rapes and 75,204 vehicle thefts.

In 2005, the state's law enforcement agencies reported 838,063 crimes compared to 850,490 in 2004, a 1.5 percent decrease.

Last year Bush signed a bill that allows people who feel threatened on the street, in a bar, at a ball game — or just about anywhere — to "meet force with force" to defend themselves without fear of being prosecuted.

"You send a real powerful signal when you know the citizen has a good potential of being armed and doesn't have to back off anymore," said John Birch, president of the Illinois-based Concealed Carry, Inc...

THIRD ARTICLE: (Excerpt)

NRA-ILA

The Case For Repealing DC's Gun Laws

TWENTY years ago, local politicians in the District of Columbia thumbed their noses at Congress, the 14th Amendment's guarantee of "equal protection of the laws," and the rest of the United States, and began conducting a social experiment of their own design, against the city's law-abiding residents. The experiment, unlike anything known elsewhere in America, took the form of the multi-faceted Firearms Control Regulations Act, imposed by the D.C. Council in 1976. The measure prohibits the possession of a handgun that was not registered with city police prior to Sept. 24, 1976 and re-registered by Feb. 5, 1977. It also requires the registration of all privately owned firearms and that firearms kept at home be rendered useless for protection by being "unloaded, disassembled, or bound by a trigger lock or similar device."

The results of the experiment have been catastrophic. Hundreds of innocent lives have been lost, including many who might have been able to defend themselves if only allowed to. District neighborhoods have been subjected to a degree of crime-inspired terror unheard of almost anywhere in our country. Congress should end this experiment, by abolishing the District's un-American gun laws and in their place adopting for the nation's capital a set of laws consistent with federal laws and the laws of the 50 states. Let's examine the evidence against D.C.'s gun law.

• D.C.'s homicide rate has soared since the city banned handguns in 1976. Homicide had been declining in D.C. before the ban, but increased after the ban was imposed. By 1991 D.C.'s homicide rate had risen more than 200%. By comparison, the U.S. homicide rate rose only 12% during the same period. D.C.'s homicide rate is more than double the rate when its handgun ban took effect. (FBI, Metropolitan Police of the District of Columbia)…NRA

Even though sensible Americans have been largely successful in getting rid of stupid gun control laws (38 states have now reinstated right-to-carry permits), we must not relax our vigilance or stop working to overturn them. The left-wing is always there in the shadows ready to spring.