There were 71 murders 361 shootings in June of 2019 in Chicago, did that make headlines? Did politicians cry out for justice, want more gun restrictions in Chicago, or make a political statement concerning the snuffed out lives? You know the answer.
Article; A Native American perspective on gun violence; TRIBE Security Service
“While everyone is screaming “Gun Control” I just had 3 relatives killed in a crash like this due to DRUNK DRIVING!!! Drunk driving isn’t politically convenient to address so NO ONE seems to care that HUNDREDS are KILLED DAILY due to alcohol! So don’t give me this, “how many innocent people must die before…” line of crap!! If Politicians really cared about “innocent lives” they would address the DWI epidemic in NM and the country!! Instead, NM elected a 3 time convicted DWI offender into Congress named Deb Haaland!!! That shows me just how much politicians “care” about DWI, even though it kills more people daily than mass shooters ever have!! Leave my rights alone and work on the REAL killer of innocents!!!!”#DWI #EndDWI #therealkillers#therealkillersareinpolitcalsuits #savelives #alllivesmatter.
Democrat politicians and most democrats want to curtail or eliminate the ownership of guns from the American people. Some of their claims is that; there is no reason for a person to have a semi-automatic weapon, no reason to have hi-capacity clips, no reason that one person should have an arsenal, and the elimination of bump stocks, hi-capacity clips, having stricter gun laws and making gun manufacturers responsible when guns are used in a crime would save lives to name a few of their reasons.
My question is are they really concerned about saving lives, saving children’s lives, making our country safer and a better place to live? If that is so, then why were laws passed, many years ago, making gambling legal (the lottery) when statistics show that gambling causes a multitude of personal and civic problems? Gambling is an addiction; it breaks up marriages, increases the risk of gamblers drinking and becoming an alcoholic which in turn causes more domestic violence, increased poverty (they lose all their money), mental distress, even homicides, and the list could go on. In Michigan, the politicians tricked people into voting for legalized gambling some 40 years ago saying that the profits would go to the schools and education. Guess what, Michigan still has the lottery and the state has taken over many school districts because they went bankrupt. What happened to the money?
For years politicians told us weed was an addicting drug that it is a catalyst that leads users to other, stronger drugs and ruins lives. What happened? Now they say marijuana is OK, many states are passing laws for the use of MJ to treat ailments and other states are passing recreational use laws and allowing the open sale of MJ to the general public! Was everything they said about MJ in the past a lie?
How about alcohol? Is it good or bad, depending on who you talk to and how much revenue it brings in to the community and the same truth goes for marijuana and gambling? It is the revenue they are interested in not what the effects of the use. Most states you must be 21 to legally drink alcohol but in others, the age is 18.
Currently, the Democrats are up in arms over the deaths caused by gun violence. However only selectively – in Chicago over one weekend 59 people were shot and 7 murdered by gun violence. Main street media almost ignored the people of Chicago and their plight the same weekend there were mass shootings in El Paso and Dayton. Headlines make the difference, besides people shoot and kill each other all the time in Chicago, that’s not news!
My question to the democrats is that if you are really concerned about people being killed needlessly and want to pass laws to protect them even if it means taking away some of our rights why are you only interested in those killed by guns? If people are killed by other means are their lives not just as important as those killed by guns? And is not one of the slogans “all lives matter” truthful?
If Democrats are really serious about saving lives it would be helpful if they got their facts straight and put things in perspective. Let’s look at the following statistics that were gathered from many reliable sources.
If they (you) are really serious about saving lives consider the following information;
GUN VIOLENCE
In 2016, there were more than 38,000 gun-related deaths in the U.S. (CDC report). Most gun-related deaths — about two-thirds —in America are suicides, but an Associated Press analysis of FBI data shows there were about 11,000 gun-related homicides in 2016.
Gang Violence Driving Force of Gun Violence
To hear gun control advocates speak, one would be led to believe that gun violence is a widespread problem whereby the mere existence of a gun is as much a problem as the person who intends to wield it. But the reality is that gun homicides are overwhelmingly tied to gang violence. In fact, a staggering 80% of gun homicides are gang-related.
According to the Center for Disease Control (CDC), gang homicides accounted for roughly 8,900 of 11,100 gun murders in both 2010 and 2011. That means that there were just 2,200 non-gang-related firearm murders in both years in a country of over 300 million people and 250 million guns.
Cities such as Chicago, Detroit, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Cleveland, and New Orleans all have very high per-capita murder rates. Individual police estimates usually find at least 65% and often more than 80% of all murders in those cities are gang-related. Solve the problem of gang violence, and a huge chunk of the gun homicide and violence problem is solved. And what national gun control measures would slow the gang violence problem, when local gun control laws have failed in cities like Chicago? If politicians were really worried about gun deaths, wouldn’t they be specifically targeting where a majority of the problems exist?
The reality remains that in a country of over 300 million people (and almost as many guns) very few of the guns are ever used in any crime. If the mere existence of guns made people more violent, more likely to murder, and more likely to commit crime, the gun problem in America would be much worse.
MOTOR VEHICLE DEATHS
There are 276.1 million registered vehicles in the US in 2018. There are 270 million guns in the US. While the population of the US is 327 million. The CDC reports;
(1) In 2016, there were 34,439 police-reported fatal car accidents – a 5.8 percent increase from 2015.
(2) These fatal crashes led to 37,461 total fatalities, including 25,096 vehicle occupants, 5,286 motorcyclists, and 7,079 non-occupants.
(3) In 2016, speeding accounted for 10,111 fatalities – more than 27 percent of all traffic deaths that year.
(4) In 2016, there were 10,497 fatalities from crashes involving alcohol-impaired- or drunk-driving.
(5) In 2016, 1,233 kids 14 and under were killed in drunk driving crashes.
(6) Repeat offenders account for about one-third of all drivers arrested or convicted of driving under the influence of alcohol.
With this information in mind for comment #2 statistics show that there were 26,461 more people killed in traffic deaths than there were killed by guns. So if we are serious about saving lives we must do something to reduce the number of vehicles on the road and have stricter laws governing who can drive, their qualifications to drive and limit the number of vehicles a person can have.
Comment #3 shows that speeding accounted for 10,111 fatalities. Democrats want to limit the number of weapons a person can have, the amount of ammunition that can be stored in a clip and the amount of fire-power gun owners can have. If excessive fire-power is a real concern then why don’t the democrats complain and want to limit the amount of horsepower in vehicles? I have a truck that can go 140 MILES PER HOUR and some vehicles can reach speeds of 200mph. Why in the world do I need a truck that can go 140mph and do people really need cars that can go 200mph on roads that have a max. speed limit of 85mph? If people are interested in saving lives we need to make a law forcing automakers to build cars and trucks that can only go 85mph!
Then we have comment #4 and 5. There were 10,497 people that died in crashes that involved alcohol including 1,233 of our children! To quote a liberal that wants stricter gun laws even if they take away some of our rights who said “if these laws will save the life of just one of our children then it will be worth it.” If it is OK to save the life of a person by loosing some of our rights and restricting rights, then the same principle should apply to lives lost to drugs, alcohol, and high powered vehicles.
We also need stricter laws governing the sale and improper use of knives (1,604 killed), blunt objects (clubs-hammers etc.; 472 killed), and personal weapons (hands-feet-fists; 811 killed). These are FBI statistics for 2016. I guess we need to have laws against the improper use of and government-backed training for the use of knives, hammers, clubs and our hands, feet, and fists.
I guess what I am saying is that we can’t legislate morality. We can have all the laws imaginable, all the training material, government-sponsored advertisement on what we should and should not do, and even the strictest punishment available but these things will not stop a person hell-bent on murdering someone or doing harm. A person with no moral character or value of life will carry out their evil deed one way or another.
Yes, we need laws, restrictions, and consequences to unlawful acts. But it seems when an unspeakable violent act is carried out all many people can think and talk about is more laws and restrictions. These ideas will only affect the law-abiding citizen and have not reduced the amount of violence. Maybe it is time to try something else, like looking at the root of the problem and what makes these people want to do the things they do and try to offer solutions from that perspective. But that would take thinking seriously about the problem and that does not get votes!
This just in; FBI: More people killed with ‘blunt objects’ than rifles, including assault-type weapons
By World Tribune on August 12, 2019
Just my thoughts,
Dennis, 08/08/2019
Manos de Dios, Hands of God Ministries 