In the wake of the Dark Knight massacre in Aurora, Colorado, major media outlets and public figures have been making statements about guns and violence that do more to misinform than educate. Below are some of the most significant and common of these misleading assertions.
Fallacy # 1: Violence is a growing challenge
The Los Angeles Times published an article by Michael Memoli that begins by claiming that “President Obama vowed Wednesday night to ‘leave no stone unturned’ in seeking ways to curb the growing challenge of violence in American cities, including reasonable restrictions on gun ownership.”
The White House transcript shows that Obama didn’t say there was a growing challenge of violence in our cities, and rightfully so, because violence in the U.S. has been falling—not growing. For example, from 1990 to 2010 (latest FBI data), the nationwide murder rate dropped by 49% (see graph below). Furthermore, preliminary data for 2011 indicates that there were 1.9% fewer murders than in 2010, which saw the lowest murder rate in 45 years.
Fallacy # 2: Congress opposes banning military weapons
At a campaign event, President Obama stated that
steps to reduce violence have been met with opposition in Congress … particularly when it touches on the issues of guns. … [A] lot of gun owners would agree that AK-47s belong in the hands of soldiers, not in the hands of criminals—that they belong on the battlefield of war, not on the streets of our cities.
On the contrary, the AK-47s used on the “battlefield of war” are already banned. As detailed in the book Military Technology, the AK-47s used by the military are fully automatic weapons—otherwise known as machine guns—which can continuously fire bullets as long as the trigger is pulled. Federal law has strictly regulated such guns since 1934, and as the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives explains, a 1968 law expanded the definition of what constitutes a machine gun, and a 1986 law outright banned the transfer or possession of machine guns except for those grandfathered under previous law.
Read More at justfactsdaily.com. By James D. Agresti.
Photo credit: Gregory Wild-Smith (Creative Commons)
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Last week in Dallas, Texas, 3 police officers were murdered. But the “weapon” of choice was not a gun, or guns………Last week, THREE police officers were MURDERED! By DRUNK DRIVERS!!!!!!!!!! So, let’s ban drinking. Save a police officer. Don’t drink, don’t drink and drive. In Dallas, Texas, more police officers, families, and others are killed not by GUNS, but by DRUNK DRIVERS! And others are killed by knives, ballbats, beaten to death by fists…………so how do we “ban” all of these “weapons”? Mr. Oblowhard, Ms. Cankles Clinton, we would like to know, how do we “ban” all methods of murder and killing? How do we stop wars from being fought? Because wars are methods of killing also, in which more than GUNS are used to kill, bombs, explosive devices that are home made, and many other methods of killing are used to make sure that dead bodies pile up everywhere in the world? So, how do you two Know it All’s plan on bringing about a plan that will stop all manner of death, destruction and mayhem? Guns are not the problem, as if you two idiotic blowhards, and lying peices of scum know. Mr.Oblowhard, you have stirred up more anger, and murderous intentions in this country than anyone before you, and are causing more VIOLENCE than any gun made in any country! Your race of “people” are now out on the streets attacking anyone of a different race, or anyone who just happens to be in their path, they are beating them with pipes, chains, fists, and knives, and anything else they can get their evil hands on, so how do you plan on “banning” those items of destruction? Can you “ban” every method known to man to cause bodily harm, and even death? If anything, or anyone should be banned, it should be you and Ms.Cankles and your own personal favorite murderer, Mr. Eric Holder. If you so dislike guns, why did you and he sell those weapons to the Mexicans, so that they could in turn, murder one of our border patrols, and Mexicans? I am confused, exactly what do you think you will gain by this stupidity? Control Americans? oh, good luck with that. It ain’t gonna happen, not here, Americans are not a people easily controlled, as the British could tell you. In short, you and Cankles have to be the most stupid, and arrogant two humans on the earth at this point in time.