So-called gun violence–any violent crime committed with a firearm, because it’s so much nicer when someone is beaten to death with a hammer–is a problem. Violence itself, though, is the issue. So long as we have a single murder in this nation, it’ll continue to be a problem. Just my take on it.
The weapon is irrelevant to me.
Yet for millions of other Americans, it most certainly matters. They rally against guns and do everything they can to remove guns from our presence–often while claiming they still support the Second Amendment without a hint of getting the irony–and it’s because, to them, it matters.
One thing they want to do is try and hammer people with the scope of the problem with “gun violence.” Things like this memorial in New York.
A new gun violence memorial was unveiled in New York City on Monday to commemorate the thousands of lives lost annually in New York state.
Former Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords’ advocacy group, Giffords, brought their regional tour to Manhattan’s Battery Park, where 1,050 vases were displayed to represent each New York resident who died from gun violence last year.
Over the previous year, gun violence has risen 29 percent in the state. Data shows that in New York, someone dies from gun violence every 11 hours and gun violence is the third leading cause of death for children.
…
“One-thousand and fifty New Yorkers lost their lives because of a bullet from a gun. Yet, instead of action, the gun lobbying and Republican legislators are doing everything they can to weaken the gun laws that we already have on the books,” former Congresswoman Debbie Mucarsel-Powell of Florida, who lost her father to gun violence, said at a Tuesday press conference.
“This memorial reminds us that Congress has let down each and every one of the families that has lost a loved one because its failure to enact meaningful gun control legislation,” New York Representative Jerry Nadler added.
The new memorial follows the national installation unveiled at the National Mall in Washington, D.C., which was covered in 40,000 flowers representing the number of Americans who die from gun violence each year.
Sure, but they’re ignoring the other side of the coin here.
Yes, some people do horrible things with guns. It’s not unlike the things they do with cars, knives, bats, or even cell phones. Horrible people can twist anything toward evil purposes.
But firearms also allow ordinary people to intervene when someone evil tries to cross the line. A man with a shotgun in a church in Texas found that out for the split second he had to realize that instead of committing a mass shooting, he was the one whose death was going to make headlines.
While the numbers on defensive gun uses vary widely depending on who is doing the estimating, even the most conservative estimates show guns are used to protect human life far more often than it’s used to kill innocent people.
Where is that in the memorial?
It’s not there. It’s not there because the people who do these things don’t want you to think about that. They don’t want to acknowledge that two-thirds of that “gun violence” are people who have taken their own life. They don’t want you to understand that out of the third that remains, most of those were criminals gunned down by other criminals.
None of that is stuff they want you to know because they want you so afraid that you’ll give up your basic, constitutionally protected right to keep and bear arms in the name of safety.
So they put up these supposed memorials as a way to try and make people feel awful. It’s only too bad we’re not putting up stuff showing how many more people are being saved by firearms.
