Posted on 03/25/2019 12:58:07 PM PDT by gattaca
We have all heard the oft-repeated assertion by American media that so-called “gun violence” — especially mass public shootings — is almost exclusively an American phenomenon. This claim is almost always connected with our “lax” gun laws compared to other countries, particularly European nations.
Faulty Analysis Most so-called “research” uses worldwide “gun violence” data — deaths due to firearms — as a way to measure a particular area’s “safety.” By that standard, when almost a million of its people were hacked to death with machetes, Rwanda would have been calculated as safer than the United States!
Mass Shootings Occur Worldwide The deadliest mass shooting in history was the Beslan (Russia) school massacre in 2006, in which 334 people were killed. Yet it is seldom even mentioned when “gun violence” or “mass shootings” are discussed.
The media and anti-gun-rights activists conveniently ignore worldwide mass shootings, such as those in France. And how many Americans have even heard of the 77 people who perished in a bombing and shooting rampage in supposedly “peaceful” Norway in 2011?
Mass shootings aren’t anything new. In April 1996, a mass shooting in which 35 people were killed and 23 wounded occurred in Port Arthur, Australia. It was the deadliest mass shooting in the country’s history. It also led to some of the most extreme gun-control measures anywhere in the world.
During the massacre of 50 people in a New Zealand mosque last week, the shooter ghoulishly live-streamed the slaughter on Facebook. He also left a rambling, incoherent 70-page “manifesto” in which he expressed bizarre views on a wide range of subjects. Topics included everything from radical environmentalism to praising China to hoping to ignite a civil war in America.
Media Frenzy Predictably, the establishment news media seized on the event to imply that the killings were somehow related to American politics. Some even blamed President Trump’s rhetoric on immigration for the shooting.
Thankfully, not everyone followed the liberal party line. The staunchly liberal writers at The Atlantic took exception to their media colleagues: “Significant portions of the manifesto appear to be an elaborate troll, written to prey on the mainstream media’s worst tendencies.”
But barely had the dust settled on the New Zealand case when a gunman in the city of Utrecht in the Netherlands opened fire at a tram (trolley) station. The attack killed three and wounded a number of other innocents. The shooter, identified as a Turkish national, has been captured.
Exposing the Failures of Gun Control Ironically, these mass shootings prove something that Second Amendment activists have been saying all along: No amount of gun control will ever prevent a determined killer from getting a gun.
Note that all of these countries have considerably more stringent gun control than the United States. The New Zealand shooter was an Australian who bought his guns legally.
But make no mistake, even shootings that occur halfway around the world will be used to justify ever-more-restrictive gun laws in the United States. Which is why we must continue to be vigilant, aware and active in defending our rights.
They just never get it. The problem is the person, not the gun.
That is also why the 2020 election will be very important next year. Chose wisely.
At Cannae nearly 100,000 men died in one day.
Not a single gun was involved.
One could make the argument that the hackings in British towns and cities are uniquely British. Take away guns, and they just use something else.
All of my guns have killed fewer people than Ted Kennedy’s Oldsmobile.
Kennedy’s Oldsmobile did not kill anyone. Ted Kennedy did.
How ‘bout those murdering tribal gangs in the third world?
You are correct, sir.
And if any of my guns were stolen and used by a criminal, it wouldn’t be the gun’s fault.
Arrogant lefties like to point out the lower violent crime rate in Europe compared to the U.S.
The problem with that comparison is the fact that the violent crime rates among say, Norwegian-Americans, is comparable to those in Norway.
So while the U.S. is indeed blighted by the acts committed in a few areas infested with violent subcultures, violent crime is not at all wide spread.
I have read that Japanese Americans have an even lower crime rate than Japanese in Japan. I bet it is true.
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