POINT/COUNTERPOINT: Editorial’s gun control slant: Liberal hogwash

I read Friday’s editorial by Mr. Ward and found it to be typical progressive hogwash.

If Mr. Ward would do some research on gun violence he would find out that gun-related homicides have decreased 49% since the high in 1993. If he did any checking on the Michael Bloomberg-supported group, Every Town for Gun Safety figure of 74 school shootings he would have found that several groups fact-checked that figure and found only about 15 were actual school shootings. I will say that 15 is still too many, however not as exciting as a fake number of 74.

Further investigation into homicides would show that in 2011 (last year’s records from the FBI are available), there were 323 homicides by rifle (that includes assault weapons), while in the same year there were 496 homicides by hammer or club. Gun homicides did claim 8,853 lives, and of those 6,383 were gang-related leaving about 2,500 non gang-related. In comparison the number of stabbing deaths that year was 1,694.

For more perspective on yearly deaths according to the government: about 32,000 people die each year in auto accidents and of those, 10,322 are connected to DUIs. Also, the government estimates that there are 195,000 deaths each year from medical malpractice.

Mr. Ward wants more control on gun sales and ammo sales. Well from the figures I have above, maybe knives and hammers should also require equal controls. We already control who gets a driver’s license and the medical doctors and nurses and hospitals are licensed and inspected and those numbers are really up there.

The mentally unstable person in Santa Barbara stabbed his first three victims, then shot some victims and then ran over some more with his car. Yes, he bought three guns and in California he passed the background check required by law. Mr. Ward mentions the shooting of the officers in Las Vegas, the male shooter was a convicted felon and not allowed to have a gun. What happened to control there?

A last point, this one about the school shooting in Oregon, the MSM failed to mention that the shooter was confronted by two armed security guards and that is when he went into the restroom and took his own life before he could do any more harm. Good guys with a gun stopped a bad guy with a gun.

My last comment is for all to remember what really started the Revolutionary War with that shot heard around the world. The British were coming to take the arms of the colonists, arms confiscation and control that led to the Second Amendment.