The Firing Line Forums

Go Back   The Firing Line Forums > The Conference Center > General Discussion Forum

Closed Thread
 
Thread Tools Search this Thread
Old April 13, 2002, 11:00 PM   #1
WAGCEVP
Senior Member
 
Join Date: August 13, 2000
Location: Georgia
Posts: 1,989
Personal guns getting to be in style By Dave Duffy

http://www.backwoodshome.com/articles2/duffy74.html


Have you noticed how the mass media's attacks against gun ownership have
gone way down since the terrorist attacks of September 11? Of course,
it's kind of difficult to continue an unrelenting assault against gun
ownership when half of your readers are going out and buying handguns to
protect their families against terrorists.

Some in the media are even reporting incidents in which law abiding
citizens have used personal firearms to defend themselves against
criminals. In one recent robbery in Dorchester, a Boston neighborhood I
lived in for three years, a liquor store clerk pulled out his own
personal handgun after three robbers shot and stabbed two fellow
clerks. The clerk, Kenneth Hoang, 31, shot all three robbers, who then
fled only to be arrested a short while later while sitting in a pool of
blood and stolen money.

What is amazing is that the story was actually written up in the Boston
Globe, one of the more anti-gun newspapers in America's overwhelmingly
anti-gun mass media. After ignoring the estimated 2½ million cases last
year of private citizens using guns to stop crimes, the Globe finally
reports one.

Wow! The September 11 attacks changed even more things than I thought.

Of course, the Globe did put some editorial comment into the story they
wrote, calling the incident a "rare act of urban defiance" and quoting
an anti-gun zealot: "I'm glad that it worked out in this particular
case. But in the future we may be looking at a tragedy."

Tragedy? The tragedy is that it took the Boston Globe so long to take
off its ideological blinders and finally report an incident that shows
guns are so frequently put to good use. The tragedy is that the mass
media across the nation has heretofore ignored the 2½ million annual
cases of self-defense successes using personal firearms, but has laid in
wait for the rare school shooting so they could plaster it all over
their front pages for weeks.

Statistics compiled by law enforcement show the increased personal
possession of firearms lowers violent crime in direct proportion to the
amount of increase. Example: In the 33 states that now permit its
residents to carry concealed handguns, the violent crime rate has
dropped dramatically-up to 13% in the largest counties studied.
Conversely, in England, where draconian laws banning handguns were
passed in 1997, violent crime is up 40%. Disarmed Australia is having
the same problems as England, while armed-to-the-teeth Israel and
Switzerland are experiencing low violent crime rates.

Until recently, however, the mass media not only refused to report
studies showing guns in a favorable light, but they actively campaigned
against gun ownership, using bogus statistics manufactured by outfits
like Handgun Control, Inc. Now, since Sept. 11, they're not only
reporting incidents of private citizens defending themselves with
firearms, but a lot of reporters are going out themselves and buying
handguns.

I never thought I'd see the day: personal guns for self-protection are
getting to be in vogue. Gun stores can barely keep guns in stock. I'll
bet gun-banning politicians like Dianne Feinstein are sure glad they
already have their concealed carry permits. It's a long line to get one
now, and gun instructors are reporting that their classes are all filled
up well in advance.

You know what I think? I think the news media may have just had an
epiphany. They saw the attacks of September 11 and realized the nation
had just been mugged, and it's time to start defending ourselves. So
they collectively threw their next batch of anti-gun stories in the
wastebasket and decided to write some facts about an obvious method of
self-defense for America, both collectively and personally.

Ironic, isn't it? We who have always championed guns for the "freedom
protectors" they are, are now joined in combat by our archenemy-the
antigun liberal, gun-grabbing mass media that has tried to disarm us for
years.

Maybe I should have anticipated this. Maybe it's not so astonishing
after all. Maybe it was more gradual than I think. Maybe the mass
media was simply the last group of people in America to finally catch
on.

After all, prior to 1987, almost no state had laws allowing private
citizens to carry concealed handguns, but today 33 states have such
laws.
The number of people applying for those permits has been increasing
steadily over the years, with applications during the past year alone
increasing by more than 20%.

Overwhelmingly, courts have been ruling in favor of guns, tossing out
the bogus state suits against gun manufacturers one after the other.
The nation's new attorney general, John Ashcroft, who is the chief law
enforcement officer in the nation, is an unabashed supporter of an
individual's right to own firearms.

In spite of the past silence of the mass media, the public has been
making its will apparent. Gun ownership is now at an all-time high in
America, while violent crime is lower than it has been in more than 10
years.
Handgun Control, Inc., now known as the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun
Violence-an oxymoron if I ever heard one-has laid off 20% of its staff
due to a severe downturn in contributions.

What do the cops think of all this? More than 90% say individuals
should be allowed to own a personal gun for sporting or self-defense
purposes, and more than 60% favor a national concealed gun carry law.

Those statistics were actually reported in the Boston Globe! It is
indeed a new day.

- Dave Duffy
WAGCEVP is offline  
Old April 13, 2002, 11:23 PM   #2
Tamara
Moderator Emeritus
 
Join Date: March 11, 2000
Location: Indianapolis, IN
Posts: 16,002
Er, Drizzt already did this 'un.
__________________
MOLON LABE!
2% Unobtainium, 98% Hypetanium.
The Arms Room: An Online Museum.
Tamara is offline  
Old April 13, 2002, 11:28 PM   #3
WAGCEVP
Senior Member
 
Join Date: August 13, 2000
Location: Georgia
Posts: 1,989
strike two

oh well, i've been gone all day sorry
WAGCEVP is offline  
Closed Thread

Thread Tools Search this Thread
Search this Thread:

Advanced Search

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump


All times are GMT -5. The time now is 06:38 PM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.7
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.
This site and contents, including all posts, Copyright © 1998-2021 S.W.A.T. Magazine
Copyright Complaints: Please direct DMCA Takedown Notices to the registered agent: thefiringline.com
Page generated in 0.05939 seconds with 7 queries