United States – -(AmmoLand.com)- Thursday, MSNBC host Nicolle Wallace went on a rant that targeted conservative media and the Second Amendment. It’s one that Second Amendment supporters should pay some heed to, even though Wallace these days is little more than a Beltway version of Regina George.
Wallace may be a NeverTrump “mean girl” these days, but she also was – at least putatively – a one-time Second Amendment supporter (and she worked for a President who appointed two of the five justices in the Heller majority). She also was a White House communications director, and as much as we may want to dismiss her, dummies don’t become White House communications directors. People who show loyalty and competence usually get that job.
This is why her claim that America has a gun crisis needs to be taken on, forcefully. Like David Frum’s lie about responsible gun ownership and the phony bologna claims about the origins of the Second Amendment from Carol Anderson (via the ACLU), we must push back. These lies are not small potatoes.
How do we fight back? With the facts.
Some of these facts come from looking over the latest FBI stats. In 2020, a total of 455 homicides were carried out with rifles, with another 203 carried out by shotguns. To put that into perspective, “personal weapons” (hands, fists, feet, etc.) killed 662 people or more than rifles and shotguns of all types combined. Handguns and “firearms, type not stated” were used in 8,209 and 4,863 homicides, respectively.
There are roughly 150 million handguns in the United States, according to an NRA-ILA Fact Sheet. That means in 2020, .0054 percent of handguns were used in homicides or one in 18,272.627603. It should be noted that since the landmark Heller ruling in 2008, the Supreme Court has held that handgun bans are unconstitutional.
The next fact that Wallace ignores is that we know what has caused the latest upswing in violent crime: No prosecuting the violent offenders. Take some of the outrageous decisions from Chicago, for instance, or for the prosecutors whose campaigns George Soros has funded. Even if authorities can’t get murder charges perhaps some of the rarely-used provisions of 18 USC 922 and 18 USC 924 could make a dent. The problem is, these aren’t used, and similar state-level provisions also aren’t used.
Second Amendment supporters can debate the wisdom of various gun laws, but the laws that Project Exile enforced can and would make a huge difference in the places that are seeing the worst of violent crime. Part of the way dishonest hacks and anti-Second Amendment extremists will sell the false notion of a ”gun crisis” (especially in the “public health” arena) is to point to murder rates and violent crime.
The ultimate task for Second Amendment supporters is to defeat anti-Second Amendment extremists at the federal, state, and local level – not to mention in corporate boardrooms and elsewhere. However, to do that, they need to not only prove claims of a “gun crisis” are phony, they need to show that the solution to the real crisis is not found in attacking the Second Amendment.
About Harold Hutchison
Writer Harold Hutchison has more than a dozen years of experience covering military affairs, international events, U.S. politics and Second Amendment issues. Harold was consulting senior editor at Soldier of Fortune magazine and is the author of the novel Strike Group Reagan. He has also written for the Daily Caller, National Review, Patriot Post, Strategypage.com, and other national websites.
There were more annual murders in 1934 than there are today, when the population was less than a third of what it is today. That was discussed during the passage of the unconstitutional NFA. All gun laws are illegal infringements. The 2nd restricted government authority- that was its sole purpose, per SCOTUS. It did NOT grant the gov any authority or power to limit citizen ownership of weapons. The Left lies. There is no more an epidemic of violence today than there is a gun problem. Firearms are tools. People are the problem, and government exacerbates the issue by disarming… Read more »
Careful with facts like that. They can be a two edged sword as any anti will say reduction is due to proliferation of gun control. Be ready to counter obvious attacks like that before presenting facts.
Personally I suspect changes in demographics (primarily aging) and improved economics have been primary drivers.
Note covid lockdowns reduces interactions with older people and more importantly eliminated economic opportunities for a large swath of the population – hitting younger individuals harder.
To any antis – It’s not the guns – stupid.”
JUST IN – live – Kyle H. Rittenhouse NOT GUILTY on all remaining counts!
Great news for Rittenhouse and all of America!
Thank you God!
Unfortunately no matter how well or often we present the facts and data, the ‘true believers’ pf the ‘gun control’ persuasion WILL simply ignore us. They will fall back on their default positions of ‘it it saves one life’ and ‘it’s for the children’ – end of the discussion as far as they are concerned. There is no one harder to convert than those ‘true believers’ so we are wasting our time and efforts on them. Our target (pun intended) must be on the sheeple who are constantly being bombarded with mis-truths,distortions, and outright lies regarding guns. We might be… Read more »
You’re absolutely right. A really excellent source of information to use with them is Dr. John Lott. He has written great books and his website is filled with facts and statistics. Go to
https://www.crimeresearch.org It’s great.
“with another 203 carried out by shotguns.”
Oh, Harold! How could you? Right out of an Everytown talking point!
Perhaps you might explain to your audience just how a shotgun goes about carrying out a murder.
I’m betting Wayne made some editorial changes to Haroldboi’s article.
Come on! You know it should have “with”.
Harold’s correct in that we must push back with FACTS, not emotion. I’ve been using http://www.justfacts.org as my go-to source for factual information concerning guns, as well as most of the political issues we find ourselves engaged in. The website is informative with supporting documentation for their positions.
As far as gun control issues, check out http://www.justfacts.org/guncontrol.
Make sure you also use https://www.crimeresearch.org You can not lose an argument using Dr. John Lott’s information and statistics. He has also written several excellent books on the subjects.
If you want some excellent ‘ammunition’ to use against “gun control” “gun grabbers” “anti-gun arguers” whatever they call themselves Dr.John Lott’s books or his excellent website with a plethora of statistics will beat them every time. They can’t argue against the statistics or him. Take a look at https://www.crimeresearch.org you will be amazed. MSM will not let people know about Dr. Lott. One great example is….92% of violent crime in the US does NOT involve a firearm, or more law abiding background passing concealed carrying citizens equals a decrease in crime rates. Virtually all mass shootings occur in “no gun”… Read more »