Category: Paint me surprised by this

Categories
All About Guns Paint me surprised by this

Smith and Wesson Ditches Blue Massachusetts, Moves HQ to Friendlier Tennessee By Bob Hoge

In a move that will surely make my colleagues Jeff Charles and Ward Clark happy, renowned firearms manufacturer Smith & Wesson ditched deep blue Massachusetts and moved its headquarters to friendlier pastures in Tennessee. Although the move was announced in 2021, it was on Saturday that the company officially opened its new 650,000-square feet building in Marysville as part of a $125 million relocation effort.

The company has been in New England since its founding in 1852, but Massachusetts’ strict gun laws are at least partly to blame for their exodus:

The gunmaker had been located in Springfield, Massachusetts, since the mid-19th century, but company officials have said legislative proposals in that state would prohibit them from manufacturing certain weapons. Massachusetts is known to have some of the country’s strictest gun laws.

I’m sure the high taxes didn’t help either; there’s a reason some call the state “Taxachusetts.” It’s also certainly not a coincidence that Tennessee is far friendlier to law-abiding gun owners than Mass.:

Smith & Wesson President and CEO Mark Smith spoke at the event Saturday, which drew a large crowd to the new facility, The Daily Times reported.

“From where I stand, the next 170 years of Smith & Wesson are looking pretty good,” Smith said. “It is something special here in Tennessee.”

He cited a welcoming regulatory environment and close collaboration with the Tennessee state government as a crucial piece of the plan to relocate. The company has said the new facility would create hundreds of jobs.

Tennessee has moved to loosen gun restrictions in recent years under Republican leadership. In 2021, the state passed a law to allow most adults 21 and older to carry handguns without a permit that requires first clearing a state-level background check and training.

The National Rifle Association applauded the move and congratulated the company on their ribbon-cutting ceremony:

“Congratulations to Smith & Wesson on their grand opening in Tennessee. This move is a testament to their enduring legacy, their commitment to firearm excellence, and to the importance of preserving America’s gun industry and Second Amendment rights in a fair environment,” NRA Executive Director of Advancement Tyler Schropp told Fox News Digital in an exclusive comment.

As part of the opening day ceremonies, guns were naturally fired, and shooter Jerry Miculek set a world record:

This is how it’s done, folks. If a state is treating a company badly, they should get the heck out of dodge and relocate to where they’re appreciated. California Gov. Gavin Newsom knows this all too well, as dozens of corporations have headed for the exits during his disastrous tenure. The full list is lengthy, but here are just who have fled the Golden State in just the last three years: McAfee (cybersecurity), Boingo Wireless, American Airlines (flight attendant base), Chevron, Tesla, Charles Schwab, Oracle…

Ok, you get the idea. The point is, just like Bud Light and Target learned, the power of the purse is tremendous. If you’re not wanted, then why not take your money and go elsewhere?

Nice shot, Smith & Wesson.

Categories
Allies Paint me surprised by this

Pity that you guys so willingly gave up your guns, this would be so much easier to do

Londoners Fight Back Against Anti-car Restrictions with a New Army of ULEZ “Blade Runners”

By 

For the first time since the anger of the Poll Tax riots during Margaret Thatcher’s time as Prime Minister or the anti-Iraq war demonstrations under Tony Blair, we are witnessing an outpouring of anger against the government. In this case it is anger at the anti-car measures by the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan. Citizens are attacking and disabling the network of cameras in London that monitors all traffic and fine cars that do not meet certain standards.

The attack on the motorist in London goes back to 2003 when the then London Mayor, Ken Livingstone, implemented the Congestion Zone whereby drivers would have to pay to enter. The public were told that this would cut congestion but many felt it was just anyway to extract money from the motorist. Public transport in London is very good but never before has there been a road charge in the UK. The London Congestion zone was, and probably still is, the largest in the world.

The next attack on motorists was the Low Emission Zone (LEZ) which was also introduced by Ken Livingstone in 2008 and was, as the name suggests, a charge/fine based on vehicle emissions. It was expanded a number of times and now covers all of London. This was to target older trucks and large vehicles. Ken Livinstone was a Labour socialist mayor but the next intrusion came from the so-called Conservative mayor of London, Boris Johnson.

In 2014 Boris announced the creation of the Ultra Low Emissions Zone (ULEZ) which was targeted at car drivers. Five years later the ULEZ zone started in central London and older cars entered the zone to pay for the privilege of driving on London roads for that and every day. The cost of driving an older car into central London was now £12.50 for ULEZ and £15 for Congestion Charge. That’s over $30 a day to drive on a public road.

FDA Approves “Emergency Use” Of Experimental Vaccines – Is It Time To Stockpile Critical Medications Before The Government Restricts Them Again?

The fightback we are seeing today has been dubbed the ULES “Blade Runners.” Hundreds of the ULEZ cameras have been damaged or destroyed across London. Campaigners/vigilantes/angry citizens (take your pick) are cutting wires on the equipment and spraying the lenses with paint. Up to a quarter of all the cameras have been attacked. To combat this fight back, Sadiq Khan has employed an army of CCTV camera vans to drive around and fill these blackspots. But now we are seeing vans parking in front of these vans to block their camera and render them useless.

There is so much frustration against this onslaught in motorists that the legacy media is even running stories on the Blade Runners and interviewing them so their story can get out. This “lawbreaking” seems to be championed by sections of the media which is intriguing and encouraging. The public has been invited to take part in consultations on the introduction of both of these charges but the government was always going to implement them. They claim it is about the environment but it seems to be about something else which the government are always short of. Money!

The congestion charge rakes in £220 million every year. Thats a quarter of a billion dollars every year. A quarter of that is used to administer the zone but the rest is pure profit. A tax on the motorist. The ULEZ expansion is estimated to net Sadiq Khan up to £300m in its first year. Thats half a billion dollars a year. Does anyone believe the lie that this is about saving the planet and nothing to do with raising more tax?

The attacks on this network are only increasing. Not only are the public against the fines but they are also against this new level of surveillance. Sadiq Khan operates a network of 1544 Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) cameras. ULEZ will add another 2700.

This level of intrusion is too much. Enough is enough.

Categories
Born again Cynic! California Paint me surprised by this

California enacts first gun and ammunition tax in the country

California enacts first statewide gun and ammunition tax in the country

by: Sergio Robles

Editor’s Note: This article has been updated to clarify that one of the new laws will require microstamping on cartridge cases every time a pistol is fired.

(KTXL) — California Governor Gavin Newsom signed several firearms and ammunition-related bills into law on Tuesday, including one to tax guns and ammunition and another that places more rules on people seeking a concealed carry weapons permit.

The signings come just days after a Newsom-led campaign to amend the U.S. Constitution passed out of the California Legislature.

The measure passed by legislators calls for a state Constitutional Convention to consider additional federal rules on firearms purchases and use, but two-thirds of states need to pass similar measures in order for the process to advance.

With the signing of AB 28, California will now add an 11% excise tax on the purchase of guns and ammunition, an amount that the bill’s author states is lower than the excise tax on marijuana sales.

There are exceptions to the tax, such as police agencies and businesses with extremely low sales.

The bill’s author, Assemblymember Jesse Gabriel, said that the tax money will go toward preventing gun violence and reducing the costs associated with the health and criminal justice systems when treating patients of gun violence.

Gabriel cited the federal tax on guns and ammunition, which funds hunting and wildlife programs across the country, as a reason to have a statewide tax to fund gun safety programs.

“If we can have a tax to protect wildlife, we can have one that protects people,” Gabriel said.

Another significant bill signed into law on Tuesday is SB 2, by Sen. Anthony Portantino, which will change the rules for carrying concealed weapons.

California’s new law requires permit holders to be 21, bans concealed weapons from most public places, including parks, schools, government buildings, hospitals, and places where alcohol is sold, as well as at public demonstrations and gatherings.

Sen. Portantino said it is common sense to want to protect yourself with a concealed firearm, but that firearms may not be needed at a ballfield or at a restaurant where alcohol is served.

“You as a responsible person with that permit will need to do a little work to know where it is allowed,” Portantino said.

Another new law, SB 452, will require beginning in 2028 that all pistols have microstamping technology, which will leave unique markings on cartridge cases when the pistol is fired, making it easier to trace which weapon was used in a shooting.

California has some of the lowest gun death rates in the country, ranking 43rd out of 50 states with 9 deaths for every 100,000 people, according to 2021 data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But violent crimes have increased recently. The violent crime rate increased by 6.1% in 2022, according to the California Department of Justice.

The Associated Press contributed to this article.

————————————————————————————-

California: “Yes, the Second Amendment affirms your Right to keep and bear arms, but we’re going to make sure you can’t afford it, nor are you going to be able to afford ammunition to learn to shoot safely.”

Categories
Paint me surprised by this Uncategorized

Biden Creates New Office to Funnel Taxpayer Funds to Gun Control Advocacy

Professional gun control advocates have always had a seat at the table in the Biden White House. Now, however, they will not only sit at the table but determine its menu, set it, and compile the guest list for it. This comes under a new initiative launched by Joe Biden last Friday to establish an Office of Gun Violence Prevention, to be overseen by none other than Kamala Harris.

But while the effort is supposedly being run by the White House “to reduce gun violence,” its real purpose is to employ professional gun control advocates and amplify their propaganda and agenda with taxpayer dollars.

There are different ways to look at this effort.

One is to dismiss it as a publicity stunt and a way to appease the always demanding, never satisfied gun control lobby, which is a key constituency of the Biden-Harris Administration. After all, the new office has no congressional authorization, no dedicated congressional appropriation, no policy-making or enforcement authority, and no clearly defined reason for being, other than a vague mandate to “coordinate” the administration’s efforts on guns.

The appointment of Harris as its nominal head is perhaps telling, as she has a dismal favorability rating (including with Democrats), a reputation for speaking incoherently, and precious little success in shepherding consequential legislation through Congress. Even the administration’s collaborators in the press can’t seem to settle on a consistent narrative about her, sometimes portraying her as a liability to the Biden ticket and the party and sometimes trying to rehabilitate her image. Harris’ “oversite” portfolio also includes “stemming the migration on the southern border,” where the situation has only gotten worse from national sovereignty, human rights, and law enforcement standpoints.

Besides unchecked illegal immigration that strains infrastructure and social services (leading even the Democrat mayor of New York City to characterize is as an existential crisis for the city), America’s porous border promotes smuggling of contraband and persons, often with deadly consequences. If there is a more disliked and ineffectual politician in D.C. than Kamala Harris, it’s hard to imagine who it is.

But it would be foolish to dismiss the fact that the office’s creation represents a new milestone in an ever-expanding gun control infrastructure that encompasses the legacy media, academia, the digital technology sector, and significant portions of institutional medicine and the entertainment industry. Meanwhile, the executive branch itself is increasingly being weaponized against gun owners and the gun industry in the form of persecutory rulemakings and enforcement policies.

Having a dedicated office of fulltime zealots to interface with this infrastructure could indeed go a long way toward provoking the generational change in hearts and minds necessary to disrupt long-established freedoms, traditions, and legal regimes. The U.S. is currently undergoing its own Cultural Revolution, of sorts, and our Second Amendment rights are not immune to its effects. The newly-created office, if competently administered, could help nudge that process along.

But what is clear is that Biden is determined to use the White House’s own (apparently vast) budget to employ professional gun control advocates at the public’s expense. Previously, the most blatant and egregious example of this was its nomination of a “senior policy advisor” and paid shill for the gun control lobby to head the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, which enforces federal firearm laws. The effort to nominate David Chipman to that role fortunately went down in flames, thanks to your NRA’s all-out opposition.

But the deputy directors of the new office include Robert Wilcox, who will also serve as special assistant to the president. Wilcox previously worked as the senior director of federal government affairs at Everytown for Gun Safety. There, his salary was underwritten by billionaire anti-gunner Michael Bloomberg. In his new role, however, it will be paid with YOUR federal taxes. Wilcox as an anti-gun lobbyist pushed such radical policies as banning America’s most popular rifle, the AR-15; banning private firearm transfers; holding law-abiding firearm dealers accountable for the acts of criminals; and limiting the capacity of magazines used in self-defense firearms.

Wilcox is not just another policy wonk or expert bureaucrat whose job is to serve the public at large. He is an activist dedicated to the destruction of Americans’ Second Amendment rights. And now money coming out of YOUR pocket will fund his life’s work.

Chipman’s appointment was subject to Senate approval. Wilcox’s is not. But it is just as clearly a thumb in the eye to hardworking Americans who are struggling to get by in Joe Biden’s economy and who believe in the Right to Keep and Bear Arms.

What can best be hoped for Biden’s new antigun office is what can often best be hoped for other unnecessary and politically-charged appendages to the federal bureaucracy: that it spend money while doing and accomplishing nothing. Your NRA will be monitoring its operations carefully and will report on any noteworthy developments.

Categories
Born again Cynic! Paint me surprised by this

NY AG Seeks Supplemental Deposition From Willes Lee by John Richardson

By tradition, Willes Lee should have been the next President of the NRA. Instead, Charles Cotton was given a third term and Willes was replaced as 1st Vice President by Bob Barr.

As one might imagine, this did not sit well with Willes. He had been a loyal supporter of the existing regime within the NRA for four years as 1st and 2nd Vice President, had served as the attack dog for the powers that be, had supported the abortive bankruptcy filing as a member of the Special Litigation Committee, and the list goes on.

Not only had he been blindsided by the move to keep Cotton as President for a third term but he only found out he was being ousted as an officer when the Nominating Committee report was slipped under his door.

Since his ouster, Willes has take to social media to give his side of the story as well as make teasing remarks about what really was going on. His posts have appeared on Facebook, X as Twitter is now called, and Instagram. I, like others such as NRA In Danger, have been following his posts on an almost daily basis. It was like watching a train wreck and you can’t look away.

You know who else was following his posts on Facebook? The New York Attorney General’s Office and now they want to know more. Yesterday, they filed a motion to compel the “post-note of issue supplemental deposition” of him. The motion makes note of his Facebook postings and how they seem to be at odds with his prior testimony before the US Bankruptcy Court and in his deposition in the New York case. Alexander Mendelson, Assistant Attorney General (of New York), argues that “unusual and unanticipated circumstances” allow a supplemental deposition even though the time for deposition of witnesses has nominally closed.

The circumstances that Mendelson refers to are Willes’ Facebook posts and his ouster as an officer. It is argued that this supplemental deposition can be done before the beginning of the trial and this would be better than wasting time on an exhaustive cross-examination during the trial itself.

If Judge Cohen approves this motion and I have no reason to believe he won’t, it is going to get interesting. For example, you have Willes complaining about being left off of committees while at the same testifying in his deposition that it was OK for Tim Knight, Esther Schneider, and Sean Maloney to be excluded. Moreover, given the numerous posts complaining about Charles Cotton and David Coy and their roles as heads of the Audit and Finance Committees, you can be sure that his questioners are going to be digging deeper. I just wonder how much that the NRA’s attorneys will be able to prevent from being on the record.

There is a great lesson here for all of us. Don’t put stuff out on social media and expect it to stay private. What you say there lives forever and it will come back to bite you at the worst possible time. As for Willes who normally has multiple daily posts on Facebook, Instagram, and X, he has gone silent since yesterday. Frankly, I’m glad he hasn’t been silent in the past as his comments will force the truth to come to light.

Categories
Grumpy's hall of Shame Paint me surprised by this The Horror!

Isn’t it amazing on how we have all met this guy!

Categories
Paint me surprised by this Well I thought it was funny!

Missing F-35 found dead after breakup with pilot Suicide or murder? Investigators considering all possibilities Author Robin Berger

The F-35 Lightning II was known to be highly emotional.

WILLIAMSBURG COUNTY, South Carolina — Search and Rescue crews confirmed the remains of an F-35 Lightning II fighter have been located after the most advanced airplane in the world either committed suicide or was murdered during a mid-flight breakup with its pilot, Marine Capt. Steven “Winwood” Wodnall, on August 17, 2023.

Wodnall and his F-35B Lightning II aircraft were on a tour of South Carolina’s romantic and mysterious Lowcountry region when an argument reportedly broke out between him and the aircraft’s artificial intelligence. Wodnall ejected from the stealth aircraft, which went missing for the better part of two days despite an $80 million dollar price tag that could have at least included a transponder or something.

Sources within Marine Fighter Attack Training Squadron 501 said Wodnall and the Lightning II had a troubled relationship history, with Wodnall breaking up with the Lightning at least once before. Even after counseling and mandatory retraining, “It just wasn’t working out for them,” said Wodnall’s wingman, Capt. Dane “Hair Trigger” Jacobsen. “Wodnall has been saying things like ‘she’s suffocating me’. He just really felt like he was out of control; not really in the pilot’s seat when they were together. Like the plane just has a mind of its own.“

Categories
Paint me surprised by this

Firearms Researcher Dr. John Lott: FBI Is Deliberately Misleading Americans on Defensive Gun Use By Ward Clark

AP Photo/Alan Diaz, File
The FBI is going off the rails.

Rogue federal agencies are probably the greatest threat to the liberty of the American people. They present more of a threat than drug cartels or terrorists because they operate under the pretext of law and have a legal monopoly on the initial use of force to compel compliance.

Now, Dr. John Lott, president of the Crime Prevention Research Center and the author of “Gun Control Myths,” is exposing how the FBI may well be deliberately misleading the American people on how often armed Americans really do stop active shooter incidents. Dr. Lott points out that there are a number of problems with how the FBI gathers and presents this data, starting with how shootings are defined and categorized.

The FBI defines active shooter incidents as those in which an individual actively kills or attempts to kill people in a populated, public area. But it does not include shootings that are deemed related to other criminal activity, such as robbery or fighting over drug turf. Active shootings may involve just one shot being fired at just one target, even if the target isn’t hit.

To compile its list, the FBI hired academics at the Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response Training Center at Texas State University. Police departments don’t collect data, so the researchers had to find news stories about these incidents.

Did you get that? They relied on a third-hand source to gather data, data that will be presented to try to influence policy. To call this sloppy work is the grossest of understatements. Dr. Lott’s organization did its own research and, unsurprisingly, came up with a different result.

Unfortunately, the news media unquestioningly reports the FBI numbers. After 22-year-old Elisjsha Dicken used his legally-carried concealed handgun to stop what would have been a mass public shooting, an Associated Press headline noted: “Rare in US for an active shooter to be stopped by bystander.” A Washington Post headline proclaimed: “Rampage in Indiana a rare instance of armed civilian ending mass shooting.”

The CPRC’s numbers tell a different story: Out of 440 active shooter incidents from 2014 to 2022, an armed citizen stopped 157. We also found that the FBI had misidentified five cases, usually because the person who stopped the attack was incorrectly identified as a security guard.

We found these cases on a budget of just a few thousand dollars. Though we found that armed citizens had stopped eight times as many cases as the FBI claims, I make no assertion that we unearthed all of these stories. It is quite possible that the news media itself never covers many such incidents.

I would say that it’s not only quite possible but indeed quite likely that the news media never covers many such incidents, but not having done my own research, I will defer to Dr. Lott on this. But it’s undeniable that the FBI and the legacy media are badly underestimating and under-reporting the numbers of active shooters taken down by armed citizens, just as they do other incidents of defensive gun use.

This is another example of the FBI’s ongoing deterioration, devolving from what was once a premier law enforcement agency to a barely concealed advocacy group for ever-more-intrusive government policy. They have acted in many cases as the political Left’s enforcement arm against such disparate groups as Catholics and elderly protestors. The FBI has arguably gone rogue, and the answer may well be to simply defund the agency, disband it, and start from scratch. There is, after all, already a Federal law-enforcement arm that predates the FBI by many years – the U.S. Marshals – and they do not appear (yet) to suffer from the failures in leadership that are plaguing the FBI.

Dr. Lott concluded:

The FBI data on active shootings is missing so many defensive gun uses that it’s hard to believe it isn’t intentional. Errors can happen, but the failure to fix past reports shows a troubling disregard for the truth. The reality is that armed, law-abiding citizens are unsung guardian angels.

Dr. Lott is correct; it is difficult to believe that these omissions, this sloppy data-gathering—these misleading conclusions—are not deliberate. It staggers the belief that the Federal government, through the FBI, is concocting favorable data to try to push certain policies. This is absolutely anathema to the very idea of a free country inhabited by free people. We should be able to rely on a federal agency, funded by our taxpayer dollars, to conduct honest, rigorous analyses of subjects within their purview and to report the results of these analyses honestly. It is becoming abundantly clear that this is no longer possible. Fortunately, we have private groups, like Dr. Lott’s CPRC, to take that task on.

While Dr. Lott’s presentation of more believable data is useful and important, it’s important to remember that there is only one piece of data we need when it comes to considering firearms policy:

A well-regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

Ward Clark

Ward Clark hails from Alaska’s Susitna Valley, where he maintains his rural household in one of America’s last free places.  Ward is a twelve-year veteran of the U.S. Army including service in Operation Desert Storm and Operation Joint Endeavor, and today is a staunch minarchist libertarian, along with being an author, self-employed small businessman, woods bum and semi-professional bad influence.

Categories
All About Guns Paint me surprised by this War

What Does the Impact of a 16in Shell Look Like?

When my Dad was up near the Punchbowl during Harry’s Police Action. When he saw the handiwork done by The New Jersey. He said that one time a Hill was hit by a 16 incher and then quote “The Whole f*cking hill was just lifted up and then dropped back down!”

The other amazing thing was that when the New Jersey was on the firing line. A buck private could be able to call a full broadside in with no questions asked if he had the code book & a radio that worked.

Like my Dad, I almost felt sorry for those Commies, NAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Grumpy

Categories
Paint me surprised by this

Over 96% of Firearms Related Deaths of “Children & Teens” are Intentional

by 

  • Current comparisons between gun-related deaths of children & teens vs deaths involving motor vehicles is MISLEADING ON PURPOSE.
  • Majority of INCIDENTS INVOLVING FIREARMS ARE INTENTIONAL, involving murder, gang violence, or black-on-black crime, while most motor vehicle deaths are accidents.
  • Reducing firearms ownership is NOT A SOLUTION to homicides and suicides.

 

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Centers for Injury Prevention and Control. Web-based Injury Statistics Query and Reporting System (WISQARS) [online]. (2005) {cited 2019 & 2020}. Available from: www.cdc.gov/injury/wisqars From the CDC WISQARS database.

U.S.A. — Over 96% of firearms-related deaths of children and teens are intentional. Much has been written about the number of children and teens (people under the age of 20) who are killed in incidents involving firearms as being more significant than the number of people under 20 who are killed in incidents involving motor vehicles.

 

It is a ridiculous comparison.  It is meant to elicit an emotional response.

Nearly all incidents involving motor vehicles are unintentional deaths (accidents). There may be a few homicides and suicides. The vast majority of vehicle deaths are accidents.

Nearly all the incidents involving firearms are intentional. Murder, Gang Violence or Black-on-Black Crime. There are some accidents, but the vast majority are homicides. People are choosing to kill children and teens with firearms or choosing to kill themselves with firearms.

In 2019, 96.4% of those killed with firearms were intentional. In 2020, 96.5% were intentional. In 2019, 61% of deaths where the intent was known (homicide, suicide, or accident) were homicides; suicides were 35%. In 2020, homicides were 66%, Suicides were 30%

By contrast, fatal firearm accidents for all ages dropped more than 94% from 1933 to 2017.  Those small number of incidents cited are caused mainly by irresponsible adults. Nearly all firearm fatalities happen because someone decides to commit a crime, killing someone or themselves.

Intentional acts like murder or suicide allow for the substitution of methods. Because methods are easily substituted, when access to one method/tool is made more difficult, others are substituted in its place. This is commonly seen with homicide and suicides involving firearms. When firearms are highly regulated, the suicide and homicide rates do not change. There is a substitution of methods.

Researchers who want to see firearms more highly regulated focus on whether the number of homicides with firearms or suicides with firearms was reduced. It is a way to lie with statistics. If reducing homicides and/or suicides is the goal, it is the overall suicide or homicide rate which is important. If reducing firearms ownership is the goal, then the rate of firearms ownership is important. Focusing on homicides with firearms or suicides with firearms instead of the overall homicide or suicide rate is a way to transfer concern with homicides and suicides to concern with firearms.

Lumping all fatalities which involve firearms into a catchall Orwellian phrase of “gun violence” shows the emphasis is on reducing the number of guns, not the number of homicides or suicides.

Making one method more legally difficult than another does not change the intent of the individuals committing the actions. Those who demonize guns claim the availability and lethality of guns make suicide more common. The numbers show this is a false premise. For homicides, guns may make killing easier, but they also make personal defense easier. Homicide rates do not change or often show slight increases when it becomes more difficult to own guns legally, and it may be because the lethality of offense and defense offset each other.

Homicide rates drop when trust in the justice and legal systems increases. High-trust societies have low homicide rates, whether they have many guns or not. Suicide rates are high where suicide is accepted. Cultures that disapprove of suicide have low suicide rates.

When those who wish to reduce the number of guns in society claim such an action will reduce suicide and/or homicide rates, they ignore the actual means to reduce homicides and suicides. By transferring volition to the inanimate object of a firearm, they remove responsibility for their actions from people to the firearms (the gun made me do it!).

About Dean Weingarten:

Dean Weingarten has been a peace officer, a military officer, was on the University of Wisconsin Pistol Team for four years, and was first certified to teach firearms safety in 1973. He taught the Arizona concealed carry course for fifteen years until the goal of Constitutional Carry was attained. He has degrees in meteorology and mining engineering, and retired from the Department of Defense after a 30 year career in Army Research, Development, Testing, and Evaluation.

Dean Weingarten