Americans Lead the World... In Gun Murders
WASHINGTON --- God Bless America. On the eve of the Fourth of July, as Americans reflect on the history of the nation’s founding and contemplate its future, the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence has released the latest edition of its God Bless America poster, documenting that, in one year, guns murdered 17 people in Finland, 35 in Australia, 39 in England and Wales, 60 in Spain, 194 in Germany, 200 in Canada, and 9,484 in the United States.
When compared by gun murders relative to population size, the facts hold true: Citizens of the U.S. are murdered with guns at a rate five times higher than our nearest high-income neighbor, Canada, and at rates 10 to 44 times higher than the other high income nations.
This holiday weekend marks the 11th anniversary of a tragedy that could have been avoided. On the Fourth of July weekend in 1999, white supremacist and anti-Semite Benjamin Smith murdered Northwestern University head basketball coach Ricky Birdsong and Indiana University graduate student Wan Joon Yoon, and wounded nine others before committing suicide. Smith was prohibited from purchasing firearms, and would have been stopped by a Brady background check if the nation required the checks on every gun sale. He bought his “Saturday Night Special” handgun from Donald Fiessinger, a “private seller” who had purchased 65 handguns over two years from the same Pekin, Illinois gun store, the Old Prairie Trading Post.
The store remains open, but no longer sells firearms. The owner and his customer, Fiessinger, were indicted on gun trafficking charges, pled guilty and served jail time.
“We make it too easy for dangerous people, like Benjamim Smith, to get dangerous guns,” said Paul Helmke, President of the Brady Center.
“And we haven’t closed the loophole that allowed this to happen 11 years later - the loophole that says if you buy a gun from a private seller, you don’t have to pass a background check.”
Background information about the statistics, sourcing data, and copies of the poster can be printed here:
http://www.bradycampaign.org/facts?s=2.
The Brady Center believes that the U.S. Congress should extend Brady criminal background checks to all gun sales, particularly those at gun shows. On this July 4th, its leaders call on elected officials in Congress to pass gun show loophole legislation (S. 843 in the U.S. Senate and H.R. 2324 in the U.S. House.)
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Guns were made illegal today and for arguments sake everyone turned in their firearms like good little boys and girls . Now, the next murder that happens cannot obviously be blamed on guns . Once guns are illegal, whats the next step? Make knives, baseball bats, tire irons, hands and feet illegal? Just curious as to what the next target of prohibition would be.
While I am not sure who picks out the pictures that show with each story, even my 6 year old knows stupid when she sees it. She immediately pointed out that one should never have your finger on the trigger until you are ready to shoot. She said to me when she saw the picture, "Daddy, why does that man have his finger on the trigger? Is he bad?" Only the BB would use a picture that a 6 year old could recognize as wrong .
The Australian Experience
Since gun owners in Australia were forced by new law to surrender 640,381 personal firearms to be destroyed by their own Government, a program costing Australia taxpayers more than $500 million dollars. The first year results are now in:
1) Australia-wide, homicides are up 3.2 percent.
2) Australia-wide, assaults are up 8.6 percent.
3) Australia-wide, armed robberies are up 44 percent (yes, 44 percent)!
4) In the state of Victoria alone, homicides with firearms are now up 300 percent. Note that while the law -abiding citizens turned them in, the criminals did not, and criminals still possess their guns !
5) While Australian figures over the previous 25 years showed a steady decrease in armed robbery with firearms, this has changed drastically upward in the past 12 months, since criminals now are guaranteed that their prey is unarmed.
6) There has also been a dramatic increase in break-ins and assaults of the ELDERLY. Australian politicians are at a loss to explain how public safety has decreased, after such monumental effort, and expense was expended in successfully ridding Australian society of guns. The Australian experience and the other historical facts above prove it.
7) You won’t see this data on the US evening news , or hear politicians disseminating this information.The story of the Katrina disaster area survivors disagrees. In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina , gangs, thieves, looters and vandals overran New Orleans, as well as the other affected areas. To defend themselves, the residents banded together to form militia groups. The police and national guard went in, with orders to disarm everyone. They entered the homes of local residents at gunpoint, demanding the weapons. Sadly, these people surrendered their weapons, and were then left defenseless as the police and national guard went away. Once they were gone, the gangs and looters came back. The disarmed people were unable to defend themselves. Many were robbed. Some were killed .
A brief look into history should enlighten the "Progressives" in our fair land. In the early 1900’s there are several historical instances of leaders that insisted on the disarmament of their people. Their names should be familiar to you: Vladimir Lenin, Josef Stalin, Adolf Hitler. All of these men enforced disarmament on their people. All of them are known as some of the most sinister men in history. Notably, Hitler could never have achieved as much as he did without civilian disarmament. He disarmed his people, used the Hitler Youth program to brainwash the young, and “cleansed” his nation, as well as conquered territories of the “undesirables,” whom he referred to as “untermensch” or subhuman. The unarmed civilians were an easy target for his armies, and the SS was used to intimidate and control other Germans and prevent dissension. In retrospect, people lament the atrocities that happened under Hitler, but the German people then never saw it coming. They had been seduced by a charismatic leader, who convinced (and when necessary coerced) them to give up their weapons. The Nazi reign of terror began with false news reports on the Jews, Bohemians and Gypsies who were said to be arming themselves to overthrow the "New World Order" and Hitler demanded that all good people register their guns so that they wouldn't fall into the hands of "terrorists and madmen". Right wing fanatics of the "Old Order" who protested firearms registration were arrested by the S.S. and put in jail for "fomenting hatred against the Government of the German people". Then the Reichstag ( government building) was blown up and Hitler ram-rodded an "Emergency Anti-Terrorist Act" through Parliament that gave the Gestapo extraordinary powers. The leader then declared that for the well-being of the German people, all private firearms were to be confiscated by the Gestapo and the Wermotten (federal law enforcement and military ). When several local ministers spoke out against these atrocities, they were imprisoned and never seen again. In 1911, Turkey established gun control . From 1915 to 1917, 1.5 million Armenians, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated. In 1929, the Soviet Union established gun control. From 1929 to 1953, about 20 million dissidents, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated. China established gun control in 1935. From 1948 to 1952, 20 million political dissidents, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated. Guatemala established gun control in 1964. From 1964 to 1981, 100,000 Mayan Indians, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated. Uganda established gun control in 1970. From 1971 to 1979, 300,000 Christians , unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated. Cambodia established gun control in 1956. From 1975 to 1977, one million educated’ people, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated.
Shooting in Butte, Montana
Butte , Montana November 5, 2007 — Two illegal aliens, Raphael Resindez, 23, and Enrico Garza, 26, probably believed they would easily overpower home-alone 11 year old Patricia Harrington after her father had left their two-story home. It seems the two crooks never learned one thing; Patricia had been a clays shooting champion since she was nine. She quickly ran to her father’s room and grabbed his 12 gauge Mossberg 500 shotgun. Resindez was the first to get up to the second floor, only to be the first to catch a near point blank blast of buckshot from the 11-year-old’s knee crouch aim. He suffered fatal wounds to his abdomen and genitals. When Garza ran to the foot of the stairs, he took a blast to the left shoulder and staggered out into the street where he bled to death before medical help could arrive.It was found out later that Resindez was armed with a stolen 45 caliber handgun he had taken from another home invasion robbery . That victim, 50-year-old David Burien, was not so lucky. He died from stab wounds to the chest. She is still alive, the bad guys are dead, and you probably never heard the story before now. Ever wonder why this sort of positive gun story never makes NBC, CBS, PBS, & MSNBC, CNN, or ABC news ? Pretty obvious, isn’t it? This story doesn’t fit the liberal mainstream media view that guns are bad and need to be controlled. Had this story happened in California or any other state with gun lock and storage laws , and had the father obeyed those counterproductive, unconstitutional laws, the girl would be raped, dead or both, the home looted, and two dirtbags would’ve been out on the street to rob, rape and murder again.
August 24, 2009 / Richmond Times Dispatch
Long time Anti-Gun Advocate State Senator R.C. Soles, 74, shot one of two intruders at his home just outside Tabor City, N.C. about 5 p.m. Sunday, the prosecutor for the politician’s home county said. The State Bureau of Investigation and Columbus County Sheriff’s Department are investigating the shooting , Gore said. Soles, who was not arrested , declined to discuss the incident Sunday evening. The Senator, who has made a career of being against gun ownership for the general public, didn’t hesitate to defend himself with his own gun when he believed he was in immediate danger and he was the victim. It has prompted some to ask if the Senator believes his life and personal safety is more valuable than yours or mine. But this is to be expected from those who believe they can run our lives, raise our kids , and protect our families better than we can.
August 24, 2009 / Richmond Times Dispatch
Long time Anti-Gun Advocate State Senator R.C. Soles, 74, shot one of two intruders at his home just outside Tabor City, N.C. about 5 p.m. Sunday, the prosecutor for the politician’s home county said. The State Bureau of Investigation and Columbus County Sheriff’s Department are investigating the shooting , Gore said. Soles, who was not arrested , declined to discuss the incident Sunday evening. The Senator, who has made a career of being against gun ownership for the general public, didn’t hesitate to defend himself with his own gun when he believed he was in immediate danger and he was the victim. It has prompted some to ask if the Senator believes his life and personal safety is more valuable than yours or mine. But this is to be expected from those who believe they can run our lives, raise our kids , and protect our families better than we can.
In addition to what's been posted above, Brady conveniently "forgets" that not all countries report such data, and not all that do report accurately. For example, you may not get killed by a mugger with a gun in China, but the government may handle it instead. And insinuating that the U.S. is more dangerous than Darfur is beyond outrageous.
Brady, grow up if you want to sit at the grown up table.
How many human beings must die worldwide before we all realize that governments are the mass murderers we should all fear. How many of their own people do you think the governments of China, Russia , and Germany (now praised as a bastion of civility) have killed . I'm not even talking about those who have been killed as solders of another county fighting them in times of war . Trust us we know what's best for the slaves. Government employees used to be called public servants in the USA, now, they're called the "authorities". Only free people have a choice to own a firearm, or not.
and in South Africa, which has the kind of gun grabbing laws the Brady Bunch would love to see, the murder rate is ten times higher than in the US:
http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/cri_mur_percap-crime-murders-per-capita
And, of course, as usual, the Brady Bunch loves to pick out anecdotal examples of criminals, that doesn't have a damn thing to do with their true agenda, which is to keep guns out of the hands of law abiding citizens.
It was great fun seeing the Brady Bunch get their asses kicked for trying to keep a 70 year old man, who's home had been broken into 5 times, from buying a gun to protect himself.
Why don't these gun grabbing commies move to South Africa? South Africa already has the kind of government and laws the Brady Bunch loves, so there's no reason they should waste another minute in a free country.