Right to carry arms helps keep peace

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by E.L., Feb 16, 2008.


  1. E.L.

    E.L. Moderator of Lead Moderator Emeritus Founding Member

    [SIZE=+2]Dave Workman: Right to carry arms helps keep peace

    [/SIZE] [SIZE=-1]01:00 AM EST on Wednesday, February 13, 2008

    http://www.projo.com/opinion/contributors/content/CT_workman13_02-13-08_ES8JA6P_v17.38cb7f5.html

    [/SIZE] [SIZE=-1]DAVE WORKMAN[/SIZE] WASHINGTON
    WHEN the Detroit Free Press recently revealed that six years under a liberalized concealed-carry law in Michigan have not resulted in higher rates of violent crime, gun battles at traffic stops, more police slayings and other gloom-and-doom scenarios, the newspaper put the lie to all the rhetoric against passage of the statute in Michigan, and every other state where so-called “right-to-carry” (RTC) laws have been adopted.
    Reporter Dawson Bell noted that in the years since Michigan lawmakers passed RTC, “The incidence of violent crime . . . has been, on average, below the rate of the previous six years. The overall incidence of death from firearms, including suicide and accidents, has also declined.”
    The newspaper even quoted Woodhaven Police Chief Michael Martin with the Michigan Association of Chiefs of Police acknowledging that his group’s expectations of increased violence were unfulfilled.
    Translation: Everything foes of self-defense and firearms rights said in their efforts to prevent Michigan from joining more than 40 other progressive states that have adopted sensible RTC laws was patently false. Their hysteria about “Wild West shootouts” and increased death among youths stands refuted by six years of experience, the same kind of experience reported in other states with similar statutes.
    Compare this record with what has been occurring in Britain over the past decade, where a sweeping gun ban has made it difficult to own even a shotgun for sporting purposes, handguns are outlawed and fighting back can get you thrown in prison. According to the Jan. 10 edition of the Guardian, gun crime in the United Kingdom has jumped 400 percent in that decade. The reaction of anti-gun British government officials was nutty enough for American gun-control fanatics to love: The Brits want to ban deactivated firearms; you know, guns that have been rendered inoperable, apparently because such guns were used in a total of eight incidents in 2005-06.
    The British are appalled at what they call America’s fascination with firearms — apparently they still haven’t gotten over what happened on April 19, 1775, when they tried to impose gun control on those annoying liberty-minded colonists in Concord and Lexington — and they have a lot of sob sisters still here who cannot bring themselves to admit that legally armed citizens are a danger to nobody — except perhaps Redcoats and criminals.
    In my new book with Second Amendment Foundation founder Alan Gottlieb, America Fights Back: Armed Self-Defense in a Violent Age, case after case involving average citizens who choose self-reliance over submission and victimization confirm what Michigan has learned: Where citizens fight back, and have the means to defend themselves, crime goes down and neighborhoods are that much safer.
    Today, an estimated 155,000 Michiganders have joined millions of their fellow Americans who are legally armed under RTC laws in 40 states. These people are hardly criminals. Indeed, they go through rigorous background checks and in many states, they must complete gun-safety and firearms-law classes to carry guns. Yet these are the people whom gun-control extremists predict will cause bloody mayhem, and whom they say should not be trusted with guns.
    If there is a lesson to be learned from the Michigan experience it would be that legally armed Americans are a pretty responsible lot, and their presence actually makes their communities safer.
    It is time to challenge the anti-self-defense crowd about its continued opposition to RTC laws, expanded self-defense statutes and private gun ownership in general. Why do these people fight adoption of such laws when they know these laws work? Why do they continually seek more widespread restrictions on private gun ownership?
    Just whose side are they on?
    Dave Workman is senior edito
     
  2. RobertRogers

    RobertRogers Monkey+++

    Of this there is no doubt.
     
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