AR-15s Save Lives -- Here’s Proof

Townhall ^ | 12/21/2012 | Celia Bigelow

[SeekAndFind]

Why does the media make it so difficult to find news stories of Americans employing guns--more specifically, semi-automatic guns (including AR-15s)--to save their lives?

I set out to write a piece this morning to highlight heroic instances in which people have used semi-automatic weapons and assault rifles in desperate attempts to defend themselves and others. To my surprise, Google didn’t take me very far.

Conservatives know that the mainstream media has engaged in a biased war on the Second Amendment over the last few decades, but this morning’s search opened my eyes to the extremity of their bias.

Instead of a quick Google search, it took me three hours of investigative research to find the tremendous instances of where these demonized weapons have saved lives.

Here are three heroic instances that involved armed-defenders that the media scarcely reported on:

On October 1, 1997, after fatally stabbing his mother at their home in Pearl, Mississippi, 16-year-old Luke Woodham opened fire at Pearl High School, killing two and injuring seven. When Vice Principal Joel Myrack--a US Army Reserve Commander--caught wind of the attack, he quickly ran to his car and grabbed his Colt 1911 .45 semi-automatic pistol. Mr. Myrack was able to stop and detain the shooter until police arrived on scene--without having to shoot his gun.

On January 16, 2002, 43-year-old Peter Odighizuwa opened fire at Appalachian School of Law in Grundy, Virginia. Three people were killed and three were injured. Two students that witnessed the shooting ran to their vehicles to retrieve their firearms—a 9mm pistol and a .375 Magnum pistol. The two armed students and one unarmed student approached the shooter, demanded that he drop his gun, and proceeded to secure him to the ground.

On June 29, 2010, a 15-year-old boy and his 12-year-old sister were home alone in Houston, Texas when two burglars attempted to enter their home. Around 2:45pm, the burglars unsuccessfully tried to kick open both the front and back doors. They proceeded to knock out a window, when the 15-year-old--in defense of himself and his younger sister--grabbed his Father’s AR-15 assault rifle and shot at one of the burglars. The intruders fled the scene.

The Vice Principal, the two armed students, and the 15-year-old are heroes, yet the American people don’t know who they are because the mainstream media neglected to these tremendous stories.

In fact, out of the 280 stories written about the law school shooting, only four mentioned the students were armed with guns.

The mainstream media’s sole purpose in reporting on devastating shootings is to drive their anti-gun political agenda that places innocent gun-carrying people and heroes in the same category as crazed-murderers.

This is why the general public is oblivious to statistical reality. Do you ever hear the media reporting that 99.9 percent of all guns in America are not used in violent crimes or that 99.8 percent of all guns in America are not used in crimes at all? No.

You also won’t see them report on these statistics:

· The ratio of guns used in situations of self-defense compared to crime is 4:1

· After guns were banned in Australia, crime rates spiked 44 percent

· 98 percent of the time a gun is used in self-defense it isn’t shot

· Only 4 percent of guns used in crimes were obtained legally.

Additionally, the media avoids reporting the crime statistics of cities with the least gun control—the same cities whose crime rates are consistently and significantly below the national average. Why do we never hear Kennesaw, Georgia reported in the news?

The small Georgia city passed a law in 1982 that required each household to keep a loaded firearm. After the law was passed, burglaries dropped from 65 in 1982 to 26 in 1983, and down to 11 in 1984. In 2010, Kennesaw’s violent crime rate was 85 percent lower than the national rate. The property crime rate was 57 percent lower than the national rate.

I am not saying that American’s should be required to own firearms, but facts don’t lie: American’s are safer when they are given the choice to defend themselves.

The media is insisting that we have an open discussion on gun-laws after the Newtown incident—and we should. But having an open discussion is reporting all the facts and all the relevant stories. Before they tell us we need to have an open discussion, they need to do more open reporting.

[expat2]

Not only unsuited, but illegal for deer hunting in many states, because it does not kill reliably enough. I’m told that the Army reduced the caliber of their rifles on the basis that a wounded enemy soldier is more of a drag on his unit than a dead one.

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

He mixed up the AK47 with the AR15-—he kept saying AK15.

And this is the level of intelligence we are supposed to be having an 'open discussion' with on firearms.

Gimme a frakkin' break.

As former UCONN basketball Coach Jim Calhoun once said to a LibWeenie at a press conference;

"Go back and get some facts, then come back and see me!"

[ßuddaßudd]

of course and thanx...

[Hieronymus]

Self ping

[marktwain]

A link to a compilation of 15 incidents of armed citizens stopping mass killings, sometimes before they were started.

http://gunwatch.blogspot.com/2012/12/mass-killings-stopped-by-armed-citizens.html

[KeyLargo]

POLL NEEDS FREEPING:

Reader Poll

Did you recently or will you soon buy a gun?
Yes, for self-defense.
Yes, before regulations increase.
Yes; I was just planning to.
I’m thinking about it.
No, I don’t need to or don’t want one.
No way; they should all be banned.

http://www.dailyherald.com/news/region/

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[Wonder Warthog]

This absolutely needs its own thread!

[petro45acp]

“BLISS-NINNIES!!!”

Perfect! Rolls off the tongue as nicely as another favorite...

ass-hat (never fails to bring a smile)

[MtnMan101]

[Spok]

Think of how many lives could have been saved if Eisenhower had just declared Normandy a Gun Free Zone in 1945?

[Red Steel]

LoL.

[Mack the knife]

You forgot to include the recent Oregan Mall incident - a 22yo male with CC heard shooting, put his wife/child into a safe position, advanced until he saw the shooter, aimed his weapon ... did not fire because he saw civilians behind the shooter ... the shooter saw him and his gun, retreated to a stairwell and killed himself.