The Patriot Post® · Democrats Campaign on Gun Control

The New York Times sees a renewal of Democrats’ efforts to increase restrictions on guns. The newspaper says that after 20 years of holding back on the gun control initiative, “a string of mass shootings involving high-powered weapons, rising anxiety about domestic terrorism, and killings of and by police officers have emboldened Democrats. They say the shootings are intensifying support for gun control, elevating weapons policy to a top-tier issue, with particularly strong appeal to suburban female voters.”

Democrats, The Times says, will press for new restrictions in political races across the country that will include expanded background checks, new limits on gun purchases and increased scrutiny on gun makers and dealers — all of which is buoyed by polls they say show strong support for these measures.

National Rifle Association (NRA) spokeswoman Jennifer Baker said, however, that the American public would ultimately reject added gun control because Democrats, while cloaking their gun agenda in the language of “common sense,” really want to go much further. “The political elites and DC politicians don’t understand Middle America,” she said. “They don’t understand that voters support the Second Amendment and the individual right to self-protection.” The NRA rightly says Clinton would put an individual’s right to self-defense at risk.

Connecticut Democrat Senator Christopher Murphy agrees that Clinton and other gun control advocates are committed to making the issue a major theme of the campaign, and, should she win the November election, will continue it in her presidency. “This issue is a core value for Hillary Clinton and it is good politics,” Murphy said.

He should ask Barack Obama, the Gun Salesman of the Decade, about the results of these “good politics.”

One of the favored talking points in support of restricting the rights of law-abiding citizens to protect themselves and their families is that 30,000 people die in America each year from guns.

If you accept that 30,000 figure taken all by itself, without context, it’s shocking. That’s a lot of people.

However, when context is applied, it is substantially less damning. Considered as part of the roughly 320,000,000 total population of the United States, it represents just 0.0001%. That means each American has a one in 10,000 chance of dying from a gunshot each year. And, frankly, if you’re not a gang-banger on a Democrat-run urban poverty plantations, your chances are far lower.

Even that doesn’t dig down into the details of gun deaths, showing how many are accidents, suicides, or justified shootings.

Furthermore, according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), more than 20 times more people die from heart disease each year than from guns, and nearly that many die from cancer. More people — 42,700 — die from “intentional self-harm (suicide)” than from so-called “gun violence.”

In 2013, according to DrugWarFacts.org, which cites data from the CDC, motor vehicle deaths totaled 35,369, all homicides were 16,121, and in 2014, drug overdoses claimed 47,055 lives.

Gun deaths do not appear on the list of the top 10 causes of death in America. In fact, FBI data show slightly more than 8,000 gun homicides in 2014, quite a difference from the overhyped 30,000 figure.

Conspicuously missing from the leftist tirade is that guns are inanimate objects, incapable of doing anything on their own. Like such things as hammers, kitchen knives and automobiles, guns are under the control of their user. Is this simple concept too complex for leftists to understand?

No, it just gets in their way: They know and understand that a disarmed populace is a compliant populace.

Last week, we noted, “This year’s [DNC] platform doesn’t even bother to mention the words ‘Second Amendment.’ … Drafters opted instead for the meaningless tripe about how ‘gun ownership is a part of the fabric of many communities.’ Fabric can be changed. Rights endowed by our Creator cannot.”

The actions of average Americans tell a story different from Democrats. Matt Vespa reports that women obtaining concealed carry permits increased at twice the rate of men from 2012 to 2016. And the Crime Prevention Research Center notes that the murder rate fell by16% between 2007 and 2015, all while gun sales have gone through the roof.

Yet again Democrats are wrong about what Americans think.