By Don McDougall
United States -(AmmoLand.com)- I believe we need to come together as a country, we are as divided as I can remember. To be blunt anti-gun activism is a serious part of the problem. Also to be blunt most gun owners just was to be left alone.
If you were to stop using gun control as a political wedge, gun owners would be at the range, and out not fighting you to preserve our right. Over the past 20 years, the number of times guns have been used in crimes has dropped by 67%.
There IS NO EPIDEMIC OF GUN VIOLENCE! I mean honestly, why do you keep saying that there is when you know that gun related crimes are down? Why do you propose laws and changes in laws that would not have any effect on crime or gun deaths?
If you look at the last highly televised mass shooting, NOT ONE of your proposed changes would have stopped any of it. If all your new rules were enacted, not one life would have been saved! Not one.
So why push for changes that would make no difference?
There are already laws on the books banning gun running and illegal gun sales. What we see historically is that administrations’ that call for new laws, are also the same administrations that reduce the prosecution of the existing laws. From 2004 to 2013 the number of ATF cases prosecuted DROPPED 42%. So all you’ve done is let criminals keep committing gun crimes, and then blame the average gun owner for the problem.
Why don’t you enforce the laws we have? If you do that, and they fail, THEN come back to us to ask to diminish our rights. We might listen. Yes, we all believe in background checks, what you don’t get is that it Is YOU we don’t trust. You’ve so clearly stated “Background checks are a good start!”. Where do you plan on planting your flag for the finish?
The existing laws IF enforced would meet all of your needs. But you choose not to enforce the current laws. The new laws you propose would not save a single life. Your actions would only serve to degrade our rights. NRA members are not the people doing the shooting. We are however the people you blame. 54% of all gun-related deaths are committed by black men under 30. That’s 4% of the population doing more than ½ of the killing. We don’t have a gun problem in America – we have trapped an entire generation in poverty due to liberal failed social programs. The solution to half or more of all gun deaths is to create jobs in the inner cities, fight gangs and drugs, and enforce the laws that are on the books. You blame us, law abiding gun owners for the carnage of Baltimore and Chicago and other cities.
The carnage that YOU created. Before you get too defensive here, Chicago has a murder rate 7X that of the rest of the country. This is an example of the future for America if you succeed.
You’re in for a surprise come election day. In the past seven years, the number of guns in the country are up 50%. While you claim that there has been a decrease in the number of people owning guns. (Seriously!) Some States count the number of people who have a guns. Those states are showing an annual INCREASE in gun ownership of 7% over the past few years. What this means is that the number of gun owners is a minimum of 30% HIGHER than you think. The fasting growing demographics are women and minorities. So while in 2008 there were 120 million gun owners, a rate once declining, there are now 160 million plus gun owners AND GROWING! Oh and I believe they will all be voting to preserve their right to own a gun come November.
Why? Because you force the hand of honest law abiding gun owners to get active in politics, you sell out our rights for no benefit except to use us as a get out the vote program. Warning ,,, new gun owners tend to be a bit more passionate about preserving their new found rights.
There ARE solutions we could work together on, gun safety, working to prevent gun run running. But none of that seems to matter when the goal of the anti-gun groups always leads to confiscation.
Hillary Clinton’s promise to overturn Heller and McDonald and eliminate the 2nd amendment seems a lot more plausible after the loss of Anthony Scalia. So I’ll close with an open question to the gun grabbing left.
If Stare Decisis does not exist for the 2nd Amendment does it also not exist for Roe V Wade? You may yet be hoisted on your own petard. (I know you’re going to have to look that up.)
About Don McDougall:
Don McDougall is an NRA instructor and member of the Los Padres “Friends of the NRA” committee. If he’s not at the range you will find him setting the record straight with on gun issues and gun safety on AmmoLand Shooting Sports News.
I believe everyone who are sure of their second amendment rights, should get a free education on the Constitution and the bill of rights at Hillsdale College on line. There will be no question about what the founding fathers truly meant.
When the UK banned guns, “hot” burglaries defined as burglaries committed while residents are home, increased form 13% to 50% and are climbing. Gun bans and Gun Free Zones just don’t work.
Can you tell me where the number 160 million gun owners comes from? Possibly the NSSF? You didn’t cite a source. I wanted to email you but you don’t list your contact information in any of your articles.
The answer to every one of the author’s numerous questions on why committed pro-controllers do what they do in support of gun control can be found in what they are supporting. Remove “gun” from “gun control” and you end up with “control”, and that’s what they’re after. They seek a country where those in charge of government have unlimited control over the population – no messy Constitution, individual rights, or armed population blocking their way. This is the exact opposite of what the Founders established. The controllers underlying purpose is not to prevent crime, about which they do virtually nothing,… Read more »
The 54% number comes from the FBI Unified Crime Report.
Don: If I may, you appear to be missing the basic point. The movers and shakers of “Anti Gun-ism”, I disregard the “lumpen” those who are, and or who permit themselves to be led around by the nose, are concerned with one thing and one thing only, CONTROL, the ability to order others around, preferably with no responsibility for the results, most often very poor, of the idiocy that they peddle. Your presentation is thoughtful and perfectly reasonable. Problem is that you are essentially talking to a brick wall. By the way, the anti gun cabal aside, some gun owners… Read more »
I can’t find any source for either the quote from Hilliary or the statistic of 54% of the gun deaths are committed by black men under the age of 30. What are your sources for this?
I agree that Ms Clinton is anti gun as they come but your quotes are false and therefore don’t help your cause.
Lou, Jim,
It is not the policy to here to respond to every comment. But you two had something worthwhile to say.
Please remember that the audience in more than gun owners, and that it is the goal of the anti-gun left to define the NRA and to define the state of gun ownership and gun violence in America. We cannot let them define us or present their untrue version of the world.
This article is educational, and it speaks the truth as best possible. Not every article is written for your eyes.
BGB – I have two sources but they are both weak. The comment was apparently made to the reporter after the formal interview but it was not part of the article. . I’d brought your concerns to the attention of the editor. I also read the Snopes site that said it was unconfirmed.
Here is the normal crap from organizations such as the National Education Association (NEA). Their daily paper tries to sensationalize a shooting, then in the second paragraph try to report truth hoping no one will read it was a murder/suicide. Two Students Killed In Shooting At Arizona High School. ABC World News (2/12, story 8, 0:30, Muir) reported that on Friday, the bodies of two teenage girls were found in a remote area of the Independence High School campus in Glendale, Arizona with single gunshot wounds and in the presence of a firearm. NBC Nightly News (2/12, story 6, 0:20,… Read more »