What a coincidence. On Monday, a man accidentally shot himself in the leg inside an Aurora convenience store. At the same time in Denver, state Senate Republicans were pushing through a bill allowing anyone over 21, legally able to buy a gun, to carry it, concealed, almost anywhere,
Proponents said such a move would make everyone safer.
Actually, it’s difficult for police to determine exactly where or how the man fired a round into his leg. After rushing him to a nearby hospital, he no longer wants to talk about how he came to cause a serious stir inside the store and a bullet hole in his leg.
If you can’t draw your own sensible conclusion, we can do it for you. Not only Aurora, but the entire country is awash in guns. There was other ludicrous news a day before the Senate hearing on guns — where Republicans with a brand-new, one-vote majority are trying to undo what little progress Democrats have made in gun control since the Aurora theater shooting. Earlier this week, a toddler reached into his mother’s purse and fired her handgun. The single bullet wounded both the woman, who was pregnant, and the child’s father. Not a week goes by without a story of a child accidentally killing someone with a gun, or an adult doing the same thing, or someone accidentally maiming or killing themselves with their gun.
Here are the facts:
• About 37,000 Americans are shot dead each year. Of those, about 60 are children. It’s unclear exactly how many of these deaths are unintentional, because of the way shooting deaths are tracked. Think Michael Brown ambiguously shot dead in Ferguson, Mo. Estimates point to about 600 unintentional gun deaths a year. In addition, about 75,000 more Americans are wounded by gunfire but not killed.
• States with the highest proliferation of guns had a rate of unintentional gun deaths nine times higher than states with the lowest gun ownership levels. More guns means more accidental shootings.
The GOP hide-your-heater proposal would allow legal gun toters to carry their concealed weapon anywhere in the state, except for public schools. So would you want to go see a movie where just about everyone has a pistol in their purse or pocket, digging around in the dark for the candy they sneaked in? Concerts? Discount stores, where children seem regularly to reach inside mom’s purse and fire off a round or two, sometimes with lethal consequences.
No.
The permitting process for concealed weapons, as weak as it is in Colorado, at least prevents some riffraff and outright criminals from dragging their gun around everywhere they go. Carrying an un-permitted concealed weapon is at least a marginal impediment to Colorado arms-aggedon. The permitting process actually helps keep people with restraining orders against them from carrying hidden guns, as well as in some cases, from actually buying guns.
The myth that more guns makes for a safer community is dead wrong. Real studies, which anger the NRA and its followers, are consistent. If you keep a gun in your house, you are more likely, not less likely, to be intentionally shot.
While the arguments may be emotional to many people, the facts are solid and consistent. Colorado’s weak gun control laws may do little to make the state safer from gun violence, but they do nothing to prevent lawful residents from owning guns.
The state faces a growing list of real problems, legislators need to quit wasting time with these faux issues and solve the real ones.
Next up, licensing of firearms, May Issue CCW permits, an open carry ban, and a microstamping mandate.
Colorado is growing up, its time to streamroll these absurd gun advocates.
Growing up into a tyranny?
The rights you and the government fear the most are the ones that need to be defended zealously.
Education decreases accidents. Voluntary training has decreased firearms accidents. NRA firearm safety programs are conducted by more than 62,000 NRA Certified Instructors nationwide. Youngsters learn firearm safety in NRA programs offered through civic groups such as the Boy Scouts, Jaycees, and American Legion, and schools.4 NRA’s Eddie Eagle GunSafe program teaches children pre-K through 3rd grade that if they see a gun without supervision, they should “STOP! Don’t Touch. Leave The Area. Tell An Adult.” Since 1988, Eddie has been used by 26,000 schools, civic groups, and law enforcement agencies to reach more than 22 million children.
You cannot argue that the population has increased. And you have to admit there are more guns than ever. Lets talk about the unintentional (accidents) death rate by firearms?
The numbers below represent those from the CDC database.
unintentional death rate by firearms
Year………..Deaths………….Rate per 100,000
1981……….1,871…………………..82
1985……….1,649…………………..69
1991……….1,441…………………..57
1996……….1,134…………………..42
1998……….866……………………..31
2001……….802……………………..28
2006……….642……………………..21
I’m sure there are variables that can cut this up, but those are the numbers.
You can thank the NRA now if you would like by sending a donation or becoming a member..
380.1163 Gun safety instruction for elementary school pupils; model program.Sec. 1163.
(1) Not later than August 1, 2011, the department shall develop or adopt, and shall make available to schools, 1 or more model programs for gun safety instruction for elementary school pupils. The model program shall adopt or be based on the “Eddie Eagle” gunsafe accident prevention program developed by the national rifle association.
(2) Each school district and public school academy is encouraged to adopt and implement the model gun safety instruction program developed under subsection (1) in at least grade 3 beginning in the 2011-2012 school year.
Excellent response RT. According to the Department of Justice’s own National Institute of Justice/Bureau of Justice Statistics, and the FBI Uniform Crime Report every year since 1993, there are fewer and declining violent crimes when and where there are fewer gun restrictions and easier concealed carry provisions.
Is it any wonder that gun control organizations are changing their names and resorting to phony numbers in a desperate attempt to stay in the debate?
The unconstitutional laws that were passed two years ago should be repealed. I’m 100% behind all attempts to do so, no matter how long it takes. Gun control should be scuttled when proposed, opposed in the legislature, and repealed if passed.
Hopefully sanity will prevail over media hysteria resulting in poor reporting like this.
The kid that got 2 birds with 1 shot ! Well his daddy is a convicted felon ! By law there should have not been a firearm any place around him, thus, making it illegal and mommie a criminal ! They are investigating a straw purchase (mommie).
“About 37,000 Americans are shot dead each year. Of those, about 60 are children”
And about 88,000 people die from alcohol-related causes every year, including roughly one-third of all automobile deaths, per the CDC. If Dave Perry was really that concerned about public safety, you’d think he’d be focusing a lot more on limiting alcohol distribution and consumption–say, with a full background check on all alcohol purchases to prevent DUI offenders and all felons from buying booze–as its use empirically causes more harm than firearms.
Half of the gun victims are suicides. Half of the remaining are police shootings. Most gun crime occurs in places with unconstitutional gun laws.
Constitutional carry is the only moral gun law. And writers like this should be forced to take a class on the 1st amendment, pay a $150 fee and have a background check every time he writes an article. I am sure the author would agree since this would not prevent him from exercising his rights.
90,000+ are killed and 220,000+ maimed by Medical Malpractice in the US annually. That industry promises to “do no harm”. Interesting how something that is supposed to heal, kills more Americans than a person with a weapon. Do you think those numbers will improve with Obamacare? Where is your outrage and passion to reduce these preventable deaths? Are you not at all concerned you are 3 to 9 times more likely to die at the hands of your healthcare provider than by somebody with a firearm?
Wouldn’t you agree, if any deaths are preventable, those in healthcare could see immediate reductions? After all, doctors, nurses and many technicians are required to have advanced education and experience just to be qualified to do their jobs. Yet, the mortality rate is still higher than motor vehicles, firearms and a few other catagories combined.
Concealed carry is for weaklings. Open carry should be mandatory.
You first fact that 60 children a year are killed by guns is incorrect. 2800 kids a year, on average are killed each year by guns.
How old are your “kids”? 30?
2800? How many are suicides? Please share your source.
The incident referenced in the editorial where the toddler managed to shoot both parents occurred in a hotel in Albuquerque NM, not Colorado. The father is a convicted felon who was not permitted to be anywhere near a firearm anyway. It appears he really didn’t care about the law, which often seems to be the prevailing attitude among criminals (a fact that will surely surprise no one except the most naive and ideologically blinded liberals). More facts about the incident can be found here:
https://krqe.com/2015/02/05/police-arrest-father-shot-by-3-year-old/
‘So would you want to go see a movie where just about everyone has a pistol in their purse or pocket’……
This hyperbole is so typical of liberal fear and their desire for control of everything. The abject stupidity of the statement ruins all of Perry’s credibility. The fact that guns are legally available to anyone who is eligible to buy one, yet not everyone owns a gun, escapes Perry. Along those same lines, just because the ability to carry a concealed handgun was available to everyone does not mean all will do so. I bet you would not use such sweeping generalities when attributing Islamic terror to all Muslims would you? The vast numbers of lawful gun owners get no credit from you but you will bend over backwards to blindly support extremists.
Has anyone ever considered why the GOP, is pushing for more gun sales? Are they attempting to arm the whole country because of an impending assault by foreigners? There is no justification in all of this. State by state the GOP marches on, dancing to its own tune! enough is enough!
Preventing 98 private transfers seems to be small potatoes, if in fact the transfers were actually prevented. We have no way of knowing. As well, FBI and other stats show that few criminals actually purchase firearms directly. Something like 15%, IIRC. Sadly, we can’t know how many of the remaining 85% are rejects of the 15%, but the smart money is that most were. In short, this legal provision is probably more worthless than its already low face value.