Why Gun Control Is Wrong Response to Tragic Virginia Shooting

From The Daily Signal.com (June 7):

In the wake of the tragic shooting in Virginia Beach, Virginia, that claimed the lives of 12 people, Gov. Ralph Northam has called for a special legislative session to address gun-related violence.

Using the shooting as a call to action, he then proposed a variety of restrictions on lawful gun owners—not one of which would have prevented or even mitigated the very shooting used to justify them.

Northam’s proposals show a deep misunderstanding of the causes and mechanisms underlying gun-related violence in general, and mass public shootings in particular.

Worse, they inherently place the blame for these criminal actions on the shoulders of hundreds of thousands of law-abiding Virginia gun owners who will never use their firearms in an unlawful manner.

In fact, Americans use guns in self-defense far more often than criminals use them to kill or injure others.

A 2013 report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention concluded that studies routinely show that Americans use guns to defend themselves or others between 500,000 and 3 million times every year. Data collected by the CDC itself, which it long declined to publicize, indicates that the number of annual defensive gun uses is likely around 1 million.

This hardly comes as a shock to most lawful gun owners, who know that the right to keep and bear arms is the best—and sometimes the only—recourse against immediate threats to life, liberty, and property. Consider the following recent examples, none of which received significant national attention.

On April 1, a domestic violence incident in Idaho ended badly for the male abuser after his female victim shot him in the face. The man survived and now faces charges of domestic battery and attempted strangulation. [read more]

Gun control didn’t stop eight elementary school children being killed in Communist China. They were stabbed to death. Maybe China should have knife control? Or maybe the Left should stop blaming the weapon and put the blame on the attacker. Just a thought. Actually, a town in England has knife control but the criminal residents just attacking one another with forks and other objects.

More articles on the issue:

• A Houston Woman Proves To Her Attackers And The Media That A Gun Is A Girl’s Best Friend
• Gun Rights Made All the Difference for These Intended Victims
• Guns Saved These Americans From Assault and Robbery in July
• Why These Defensive Uses of Firearms Should Disarm Second Amendment Skeptics
• Gun-Controlled Mexico: 3,080 Homicides in June Alone
• Understanding Recent Mass Shootings
• Mass Murder without Guns
• Mass Shootings: The Elephant in the Room
• The brilliant new Joker movie offers an uncomfortable message about mass shooters
• Trump Admin Draws Up Alternative to Gun Control: Execute Mass Shooters Right Away   
• Charlie Daniels: Master Plan on Radical Side Is to Incrementally Outlaw All Privately-Owned Firearms
• Justice for Victims of School Shootings Act Could Have Unintended Consequences
• D'Souza: Gun Confiscators Are 'Coming Out of the Closet' in 'All-Out Assault' on 2nd Amendment
• Answers to Common Gun-Related Questions After the Shootings in El Paso and Dayton
• The Problem with “Do Something!”
• Anti-Gun Laws Will Never Solve Gun Violence in America
• Hawkins: Universal Background Checks Unenforceable Without Gun Registry
• Answers to Common Questions About ‘Red Flag’ Gun Laws
• The Role of Gun Control in Dictatorship
• I tried to buy a gun at Walmart twice, and roadblocks left me empty-handed both times
• Why the Right to Bear Arms Is an Individual Right
• The Firearms of the American Founders' Era
• Walmart plans to dramatically step back from ammunition sales after ‘horrific’ shootings
• Liberals Propose First Gun Grab Since Lexington and Concord
• Gun Sales Jump 15.5 Percent in August as Dems Renew Push for Regulations
• Over a Quarter of Democrats Think It Should Be Illegal to Join NRA