U.S.A. –-(Ammoland.com)- The Washington Post is reporting that the Giffords PAC part of the gun control group has launched a $300,000 advertising campaign blasting Virginia Republican lawmakers for opposing more restrictions on law-abiding citizens, but what the newspaper isn’t saying is that the message may be misleading.
According to one of the ads financed by Giffords PAC, “Guns kill more than 1,000 Virginians every year.” That number appears to combine homicides, suicides and perhaps even accidents because the recently-released FBI Uniform Crime Report for 2018 tells a far different story.
According to the FBI data, last year saw 391 murders, of which 297 involved firearms. Handguns are linked to 141 of those slayings, rifles accounted for eight and shotguns were used in five more. There were 143 murders in which the firearm was not identified. That’s down from the 453 murders reported by the FBI in 2017. Of those, 338 involved firearms, with 156 committed with handguns, and 11 each with rifles or shotguns. There were 160 slayings in which the firearm was “unknown.”
A Washington Post-Schar School survey released several days ago says “gun policy is the top issue for Virginia voters,” the newspaper reported. Results of that poll, conducted by telephone Sept. 25-30, may be viewed here.
As reported by the Washington Post, a spokesman for Virginia Republican House Speaker Kirk Cox said the GOP majority in Richmond “knew Virginia Democrats would be well funded by out-of-state liberal PACs.”
Spokesman Parker Slaybaugh told the newspaper, “The outside gun control groups have meddled in our elections for years, so this is nothing new and doesn’t change our strategy.”
According to the American Society for Suicide Prevention, using 2017 data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, suicide is the 11th leading cause of death in Virginia.
Combining firearm-related suicide and homicide numbers has been a strategy of the gun prohibition lobby for many years. When anti-gunners talk about 30,000 to 33,000 deaths annually from so-called “gun violence,” they are mixing the numbers to produce a more dramatic figure.
That’s what Alan Gottlieb, chairman of the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms said in a recent news release about the latest FBI crime report.
“In order to create the impression that this country is awash in violent crime,” he asserted, “gun grabbers routinely combine the number of homicides and suicides, plus accidental deaths and call them all acts of so-called ‘gun violence.’ It is deliberately misleading and downright dishonest.”
Virginia voters head to the polls Nov. 5 for the off-year legislative elections. Democrats are hoping to take control, and gun control appears to be one of their priorities after Republicans earlier this year shut down a special session aimed at passing more gun restrictions. Anti-gun Gov. Ralph Northam had called that session in reaction to a mass shooting that occurred in Virginia Beach May 31. A dozen people were killed in that incident, which primarily occurred in a government building where employees are not allowed to have defensive firearms. One person was killed in the parking lot outside.
A link on the Giffords website takes visitors to the list of “gun safety champions” the group has endorsed in an effort to help Democrats take the majority next month. Virginia Second Amendment activists may be using that list to determine who they should vote against.
At the website, Giffords PAC political director Joanna Belanger makes the following statement: “Voters in Virginia are primed to turn out this year on gun safety. With current state leadership paying lip service to the issue, this year Virginia voters will say ‘enough is enough.’ The status quo of thoughts and prayers is no longer acceptable, and these ads show just what’s at stake if elected leaders in the Commonwealth continue to block progress. This is an important moment for Virginia. Carrying gun safety champions to victory in November will be the first step in creating a safer Virginia free from the dangers of gun violence.”
This is what many activists call an example of “camo-speak,” substituting the term “gun safety” for the less acceptable term “gun control.”
About Dave Workman
Dave Workman is a senior editor at TheGunMag.com and Liberty Park Press, author of multiple books on the Right to Keep & Bear Arms and formerly an NRA-certified firearms instructor.
Democrat Jared Loughner shot Gabby Giffords because he felt she was not pushing communism hard enough. Loughner killed six and wounded 14. Loughner had POSTED that he wanted to kill people and “shoot 165 bullets in a minute”. Loughner was a mental patient taking psychotropic meds. Giffords and her idiot husband have been amassing arms & ammo and creating a private armed group. 99% of all mass shooters/mass murderers have been democrats. Just like mass murderer Nikolas Cruz, a member of the Young Democrats Club at Stoneman Douglas HS, Loughner and Cruz BOTH TOLD everyone what they were going to… Read more »
Always keep in mind, anyone that wants to disarm Patriotic Citizens has an agenda that is, probably bad for most citizens and they have something to gain from it. Anybody that supports UnConstitutional laws is a Traitor to this Great country!! Your very own FBI stats will tell you that where gun ownership goes up,,,,the Crime Rate Goes DOWN!! I ask you, why would anybody support HIGHER Crime Rates?? Only people that stand to gain when Good Citizens can NOT fight back! Shame On You!!
Typical Dem/libtard ad… Compulsive liars to the bitter end.
Gun grabbers, lying to the public, who would have ever thought.
The problem with half truths is they are complete lies. People that use tactics such as this should not be trusted — for anything. If they are willing to lie to get votes there is very little they are useful for save jail but certainly they are not fit for office. Know the truth and the truth will set you free. The fact is more people are murdered with hammers than with all rifles combined. To that add those crossing the street, car accidents, impaired drivers, drowning, murder for convenience (abortion), drug addiction, fentanyl etc. It they really wanted to… Read more »
And you expected a DemocRAT to tell the truth ? They are ALL habitual liars ! It’s in their DNA !
Here is an Oldie but goody that explains a lot of what these GUN CONTROLLING FREAKS ARE DOING: “If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of… Read more »
Why aren’t these gun grabbers being prosecuted under 18 US §241 Conspiracy Against Rights? This is a question we all need to be asking.
Must pass an apology to VA from AZ. The Gabboid and her Mini Me spouse are spending Bloomberg money all over the nation in their quest to turn the USA in to the PRC. Their war on individual liberty and self-reliance is well funded but totally fueled by fake information. WE have been on the receiving end of this misinformation campaign for years here in AZ. So if you are confused on any issue, here is a hint. Follow the money. If the money leads back to a progressive billionaire like Bloomberg, Steyer or Soros then you know which side… Read more »
According to the poll, Democrats’ opinions about who to vote for are more concerned about their opinion of Trump, by more than double, than about their Governor. These same people claim Trump is a Nazi, a White Nationalist, and a racist – without any proof to support such non-sense. Yet Governor Northam – as an adult in medical school – was photographed in in blackface. Who is the racist? Additionally, Mark Herring also later admitted, he had worn blackface as an adult. I remember, back in 1993, Ted Danson wore blackface and was vilified. Today, Northam and Herring are just… Read more »