We are bombarded daily with the myth that if we will only give up our gun rights, everyone will be safer. If this could be true then we should all support it, right? First let’s look at the cold hard facts, such as the FBI uniform crime reports, not the biased liberal media that blasts us daily with their political agenda as facts. To begin with, according to the FBI, crime is not catastrophically rising, as some would have us believe. On the contrary, violent crime is actually dramatically lower than in past years. From 1992 to 2011 the violent crime rate has decreased by more than 50% and murder rate is down 54% in this country. Don’t take my word for it, look it up, it’s free to everyone on the internet. There it is in black and white, so why don’t we hear this good news on television and in the news media? Our elected officials are obviously trying to use scare tactics, pull a fast one on the people, as they chip away at our freedoms. They well know the statistics, and also know their bans and schemes will not reduce crime. This should tell us that our government is working to disarm us for other reasons, and it has absolutely nothing to do with reducing homicide and violent crime.

We constantly hear it is the availability of guns that cause crime. Since 1970 gun sales have gone through the roof, putting literally millions more guns in the hands of the populace, yet homicide rates have fallen, or in some big cities, stayed about the same. Thus it is simply a myth that availability of guns cause more crime. It is a statistical fact that for every accidental death, suicide, or homicide with a gun, 10 lives are saved through defensive use of a gun. In big cities, such as New York and Chicago, where the murder rate is highest, guns are so restricted as to be a so called “gun free zone.” On the converse, places with the highest number of guns in private hands tend to have the very lowest violent crime and homicide rates. The facts therefor support that more guns in law abiding hands actually do equal less crime. Also the myth of high suicide rates because of guns, is just that, a myth. The Japanese own almost no guns, but have a suicide rate twice that of the US.

Due to the latest horrific school shootings the hysterical mob is shouting for a ban on assault rifles and magazines. In truth, according to the military, an assault rifle must be capable of full automatic fire, the likes of which are virtually non-existent in the US, without an expensive license and are almost never used in crime. Aside from that little fact, according to the FBI’s Crime in the US homicide tables, rifles of all kinds were used less than 450 times per year in homicides (2005-2009). Knives were used in about 1900 murders, almost 5 times that of rifles. Most surprising is that hands, fist, and feet caused far more deaths, over 900, than rifles. Since rifles are used in less than 2% of all crimes, we must suspiciously ask, why are our elected officials rabidly trying to outlaw them?

Another myth is that we have so many homicides due to our lax gun laws. The fact is that the US is not even in the top ten countries for homicides in the world and of the ones that are, most have very strict gun laws or an outright ban on guns. Our own government who wants our rifles and magazines banned is guilty of passing thousands of so called “assault rifles” to the Mexican drug cartels, by the “fast and furious” fiasco. Now with that despicable episode exposed, it is being hushed up, swept under the rug, and no one is being held accountable for this heinous crime.

The National Crime Survey shows that guns are used at least 2,500,000 times a year by individuals to protect themselves and loved ones against criminal attack. This is about once every 13 seconds of every day. Of the 49 states that now allow carry or have issued concealed carry permits, not one has witnessed an increase in violent crime, while most have seen dramatic decreases.

The second amendment to our constitution guarantees us the right to keep and bear arms, as was recently upheld by the Supreme Court. Someone might say, “well no one needs an assault rifle and high capacity magazines to hunt and protect ourselves.”.When the second amendment was written, the weapon of the military and civilians alike was a Brown Bess type musket, the AK-47 and M-16 assault rifle of it’s day. Another fact may come as a complete shock to some, but the second amendment is not about hunting or self defense. When we read the Federalist Papers, we can clearly see that the second amendment is about the people reserving the right and the power to protect themselves from a tyrannical government. If the Jews had not been disarmed by Hitler, the second world war may have turned out a lot different for them. What the framers of our constitution clearly had in mind was that, “we the people” be well armed, to keep our government fearful of us, and not the other way around.

“No man shall ever be debarred the use of arms. The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.” Thomas Jefferson.