WELL, THANKS, GUYS: The New York Times Provides a Handy Tool to Help Decide if You Should Own a Gun for Self-Defense.
The authors didn’t seriously address the detrimental effects of yanking thousands of police off the beat, reducing patrols, releasing criminals without bail or failing to prosecute criminals, only to have them repeat or commit more serious crimes. For the authors, law-abiding gun owners are the problem. The readers just needed to trust their narrative.
But the authors never proved their premise. They couldn’t show a definitive link between law-abiding gun owners and criminal activity – much less murders…because there isn’t one. There is no causation — or even correlation — between law-abiding gun ownership and shocking crime rates in urban communities across America. . . .
There is, though, a causation and correlation that goes in the opposite direction. As crime runs unabated, more Americans increasingly choose to exercise their Second Amendment rights to keep and bear arms. They refuse to be willing victims, even when “progressive” policies force police departments to issue warnings to the public to just be nice to the criminal who’s threatening your life.
Background checks for firearm sales at retail skyrocketed in 2020 to over 21.5 million. They rose from 13.2 million in 2019. The kick-off of the buying frenzy started in March of 2020, the same month that pandemic lockdowns were ordered and police began pulling back community contact for concerns over the contagion.
It was also during that time that jails were emptied. That summer, violent protests erupted across America. Those weren’t confined to one city, one state or even one region. It was a nationwide phenomenon. Despite media pitching the riots as “mostly peaceful,” they were highly destructive. Politicians blamed the police and slashed their budgets. It was all made worse by rogue prosecutors who refuse to hold criminals to account. . . .
The good news is The New York Times has provided a helpful interactive tool for law-abiding citizens to decide if now’s the time to invest in personal defense. Plugging in 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington, D.C., shows that there were at least 794 fatal shootings from 2020-2023. It’s a good thing President Joe Biden has Secret Service protection.
For those who don’t have 24-hour top-notch trained security at their disposal, this could be a practical tool to decide if it’s time to invest in a self-defense firearm. After all, in Washington, D.C., the city’s District Attorney General Brian Schwalb said, “We as a city and a community need to be much more focused on prevention…if we want to be safer in the long run. We cannot prosecute and arrest our way out of it.”
For those who might live in locations that see far less violent crime and murders, places like Bangs, Texas, where there were no fatal shootings between 2020-2023, it could still be helpful. Chances are, though, most residents in Bangs likely already live in the home of a law-abiding gun owner.
Likely.