President Obama’s gun report [1] seems to have churned up results which do not fit with the misguided liberal gun control [2] agenda. The new study crafted by the CDC and Institute of Medicine and National Research Council revealed that violent crime victims attempting to defend themselves without a gun were more likely to be injured than those who were packing a firearm. Intelligent Americans who fully support the Second Amendment [3] will not be shocked at all by the findings, but the likely-to-be-buried report devastates the Obama administration’s gun control agenda.
The Priorities for Research to Reduce the Threat of Firearms-Related Violence [4] report is 124 pages long and was crafted in response to the series of gun control executive orders President Barack Obama signed in January. A paperback version of the report is now available for pre-order for $39. The gun report ordered by the president reportedly shows far more pros than cons in relation to the right to carry either a concealed or visible weapon.
Liberal gun control advocates often cite the number of gun deaths each year to bolster their restrictions on the right to bear arms argument. The CDC gun report reminds readers that “most gun deaths” are caused by individuals who chose to commit suicide by firearm. Although suicide deaths are extremely tragic, an absence of guns would not curtail suicide. Those intent on ending their own lives would simply chose another method if a gun was not available.
The CDC and Institute of Medicine and National Research Council report stated that suicide by gun outweighs gun deaths by violent crime by a margin of 61 percent. President Obama’s gun report also had this to say about using a firearm for self-defense:
“Defensive use of guns by crime victims is a common occurrence. Almost all national survey estimates indicate that defensive gun uses by victims are at least as common as offensive uses by criminals, with estimates of annual uses ranging from about 500,000 to more than 3 million per year, in the context of about 300,000 violent crimes involving firearms in 2008.”
How to hide your guns, and other off grid caches… [5]
As horrific as mass shootings are, especially the ones which involve children, the study also noted that such incidences are the least common of all types of shootings in America. There have been about 547 mass shooting victims since 1983. There have also been another 476 people injured in such shootings during the same time period.
Such a significant loss of life (or injury) has caused heartache for scores of loved ones, but none of the proposed Second Amendment infringing laws would prevent future such atrocities. A law-abiding citizen with a concealed carry permit would do far more to protect innocent lives than a high-capacity magazine ban. As previously reported by Off The Grid News, a hands-on test by one county sheriff proved that even a novice shooter could empty and load any size clip in a matter of seconds. Thousands of Americans also die each year due to violent crime incidents which involved only bare hands and baseball bats.
An excerpt from the “Demographic Characteristics of Victims in the United States” section of the report reads:
“There are major disparities among subpopulations of people in the United States in terms of mortality rates from firearm violence. The patterns for homicide and suicide are vastly different depending on economic conditions and geography, with homicides occurring more frequently among youth in high-poverty urban environments. African American males have the highest overall rate of firearm-related mortality: 32 per 100,000, twice that of white, non-Hispanic males.”
I don’t think it is necessary to spend $39 for a paperback government report to realize that violent crime in urban areas is a major problem in America. Honestly discussing the reasons why urban youth are lead into a violent lifestyle and working on real solutions to correct the problem may curtail gun violence—more laws will not have the desired impact. Government officials and experts of all types will have to cast aside their fear of being labeled politically incorrect to work towards saving the lives of not only urban crime victims, but the youth behind the incidents as well.
The breakdown of the family and a generational entitlement mindset prompted by taxpayer-funded government checks every month has soiled an entire generations of Americans, and the problem is most definitely not race specific. While rural violent crime rates remain extremely low, primarily white country kids are delving more into drugs and petty crimes than ever before.
Perhaps the most unsettling portion of the Priorities for Research to Reduce the Threat of Firearm-Related Violence report is the section which claims gun violence is a public health issue. A visit to your family physician can already include questions about gun ownership. If Second Amendment rights become a part of the public health realm in a greater sense, expect more gun control legislation to be drafted among liberals in Congress.
An excerpt from the “Firearms As Public Health” section of the gun control report reads:
“The complexity and frequency of firearm-related violence, combined with its impact on the health and safety of the nation’s residents, make it a topic of considerable public health importance and suggest that a public health approach should be incorporated into the strategies used to prevent future harm and injuries. A public health approach involves three elements: a focus on prevention, a focus on scientific methodology to identify risk and protective factors, and multidisciplinary collaboration to address the issue.”
The Priorities for Research to Reduce the Threat of Firearm-Related Violence report likens the public health approach to tobacco use and unintentional poisoning incidents as a reason to trust medical governmental agencies with our Second Amendment rights. The report repeatedly states that gun violence occurs more often among specific ethnic and economic groups.
By using the formula for accessing risk detailed in the report, a public health mandate could entail gun restrictions based upon the color of an American’s skin or how many zeros are in their weekly paycheck. Such discriminatory practices sound very far-fetched in our modern society, but appear to fall within the “characterization and motivation for gun ownership” key research topics outlined in President Obama’s gun report.
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