More anti-gun tripe

[enichols]

My dad picked up this book the other day, "The World's Most Dangerous Places" by Robert Young Pelton. Last night I skimmed through a few pages and the author includes the United States in his list of Dangerous Places. Of course, it's damned near the bottom of his list (if not, the very bottom), yet one of his "Dangerous Things" you're likely to encounter in our country is guns (naturally). Here's what Mr. Pelton had to say:

There are more than 200 million guns in the possession of Americans, and few of them are owned by upright pioneers seeking to defend their wagons from marauding Indians.

also:

"Guns don't kill people," observes the hoary NRA canard. "People kill people." Despite this backyard wisdom, few coroners insist on typing "Death by People" on 26,000 to 30,000 or so gunshot death certificates issued every year in America. Guns just make the death process a little quicker and more likely... something our less-armed Euro and Canuck neighbors have been whining about for years. There are more than 220 million constitutionally protected firearms owned by Americans, and they use them. In 2000, 10,417 Americans were murdered with firearms- that's 28 every day. Another 16,418 individuals killed themselves with firearms, and 808 were killed in accidents with firearms. In the twentieth century, more Americans were killed by guns in America than were killed by guns on foreign battlefields.

another gem:

In Los Angeles, fast cars and even faster weapons have elevated gangs into small armies. The weapons of choice are assault weapons, like the AK-47, Tec 9, MAC, or Uzi.

wait, there's more:

America: Land of Bush 'n' Son and reality shows that never quite live up to the 6-o'clock news. Over 70 people killed a day and over 220 million guns ready to party. And we tell other people how to run their countries?

Naturally, he doesn't tell you how many gun deaths were police shootings, criminals killing each other, and so forth, and he makes the mistake of assuming that without a gun, those people who committed suicide wouldn't have killed themselves. Furthermore, he doesn't tell you how many crimes are prevented and lives are saved each year by guns, nor does he provide proof that
"assault weapons" are really the "weapon of choice" for gangbangers.

In his chapter on Pakistan:

Cheap weapons and heroin, freely available from neighboring Afghanistan, have fostered a massive gun culture that almost equals that of the United States.

There's another little zinger in there comparing Sudan to the "trigger-happy" U.S. Now, I'm not saying America's perfect, but how can you possibly analyze gun use in third-world war zones on the same plane as gun use in the United States?

The irony, of course, is all this apparent anti-gun babble while in the first chapter he has a chart which clearly shows that gun deaths in the U.S. each year are less than those by car crashes, falls, and drowning. Even more hypocritical is that the picture of him in the "about the author" section shows him on one of his many excursions accompanied by two men... armed with M4s.

So, in summary, the book is a detestable piece of anti-gun filth that makes me wish my paper shredder had a wider intake port.
Please excuse me for venting, but I just had to get this one out of my system. I've gotta go read some John Lott to cleanse my now tainted eyes and mind.
-Nic

 

[cracked butt]

Its too bad that we aren't disarmed and civilized like Europe and Asia, as we all know mass murders never happen on those continents.

 

[El Tejon]

Nic, not hypocritical of Mr. Pelton to go about armed with M4s instead of a song in his heart. All anti-gunners own guns--Ted Kennedy, Chuckie Schumer, DiFi, or Oprah.

These people do not want YOU to own guns. You are a lesser and should not be allowed to resist them. They know what is best for you.

Isn't that nice.

 

[Mark Tyson]

That book is a good source of information on a lot of conflict zones around the world. He also mentions the studies made on defensive gun use. Pelton says that in most war zones he goes unarmed so as not to appear to be a combatant. He pokes as much fun at the other countries in that book as he does at the United States.

 

[P95Carry]

Wonder if you could drag the likes of him to the range and achieve a ''conversion'' .......

Naw ....... way too far gone. Cerebral mutation has occurred .. irreversibly.

 

[Standing Wolf]

Calling that book tripe gives a bad name to tripe, which is, after all, edible.

 

[Stickjockey]

"Guns don't kill people," observes the hoary NRA canard. "People kill people." Despite this backyard wisdom, few coroners insist on typing "Death by People" on 26,000 to 30,000 or so gunshot death certificates issued every year in America. Guns just make the death process a little quicker and more likely... something our less-armed Euro and Canuck neighbors have been whining about for years. There are more than 220 million constitutionally protected firearms owned by Americans, and they use them. In 2000, 10,417 Americans were murdered with firearms- that's 28 every day. Another 16,418 individuals killed themselves with firearms, and 808 were killed in accidents with firearms. In the twentieth century, more Americans were killed by guns in America than were killed by guns on foreign battlefields.

Let's see:

10, 417 murders+16,418 suicides+808 accidents=27,643 total.

27,643 deaths/220,000,000 guns=0.00012565.

Two questions. One, is this correct?(Math was never my strong suit.) Two, while this in no way paints a complete picture, is it just me or is .012565%an amazingly small number?

 

[P95Carry]

Stickjockey

I'm just too plumb lazy to check your math!! But I have worked out these sorta figures before and yeah .... the numbers are almost infinitesimally small. Of course each and every case of ''death by gun'' is in itself a tragedy ... for someone ...... but this does keep things in perspective.

Even more ... it makes a joke of the fact that anti's want to penalize the HUGE majority - for the ''sins'' of the few. Benefits FAR outweigh any disadvantages ... when you look at this - the WHOLE picture. All too often, the ''crime control'' aspect is all too conveniently over looked too.

Not to mention also .... a man's innate right to defend himself....... invariably, against scumbags who will always have guns .. anyways!

 

[BenW]

Cheap weapons and heroin, freely available from neighboring Afghanistan, have fostered a massive gun culture that almost equals that of the United States.

Yet according to our anti-gun politicians, Taliban are flying to the US to buy their weapons at our guns shows.