If left wants to fight 'gun violence', then focus on violence

[Charlie T Waite]

[Blackwater 53393]

There are two overarching facts that MUST be recognized in ANY discussion on violence!! The first is that law abiding gun owners only use firearms for protection. While these instances are indeed part of the overall number of VIOLENT cases of gun use, they ARE NOT criminal use of a gun!! Therefore, these incidents SHOULD NOT BE COUNTED in the “violent crime” statistics!! While a crime may have been committed or attempted, the use of a firearm to protect potential victims or to prevent said crime isn’t criminal! It therefore can not  and SHOULD NOT be counted in those statistics!!

 

The second indisputable fact is that in most of the violent criminal activities where a gun is used, if guns didn’t exist, some other weapon would be used in their place!  Violent crime existed for thousands of years before any sort of firearm was invented!! People were drowned, stabbed, strangled, stomped, stoned, and beaten to death before ANY mechanical weapon was created!

 

It’s become a cause celebre in some of the more “nanny state” countries to ban or regulate knives and other bladed instruments where firearms are already “controlled/prohibited”!!

 

Until the violence becomes the issue, standing on its own, without differentiation as to what if any weapon is used, useful discourse among ALL those concerned cannot take place fairly or logically.