Violence Policy Center; gun owners not likely to use guns for self-defense
The Hill reports on a recent study by the Violence Policy Center which claims that gun owners are more likely to commit a crime in the United States with their firearm that to protect themselves. From The Hill;
According to the study, gun owners committed 259 justifiable homicides compared to 8,342 criminal homicides in 2012, the most recent year data was available.
That means gun owners are 32 times more likely to kill someone without cause than to act in self-defense, the study reasoned.
“We hope legislators in every state will stop believing the self-defense myth and look at the facts,” says Julia Wyman, executive director of States United to Prevent Gun Violence. “Guns do not make our families or communities safer.”
Yeah, well, I guess that would be true if those eight thousand homicides were committed by legal gun owners. The VPC doesn’t seem to discriminate between legal and illegal gun owners, they just lump in all homicides together.
I also dispute the number of “justifiable homicides” as the total number of American citizens who protect themselves and their families with firearms. Since we run our daily series of those “feel good” stories that make it to their local news programs across the country, how many of those stories don’t involve “goblins” who aren’t killed? Some are wounded and recover, others simply surrender to the armed citizen, and other abandon their criminality all together and go on the lam.
We have had at least one of those stories everyday for over three years. Does the Violence Policy Center think that those people don’t deserve to be alive, or to continue owning their property, or that their families don’t deserve to be safe? In my own case, because the people who wish me ill stay away completely because they know what the end result will be. How does the VPC quantify that? Well, they don’t.
Category: Gun Grabbing Fascists
It’s because the mudhens at the VPC actually do believe the polease people are there to protect them.
They conveniently ignore the fact that the po-po alwasy arrive AFTER the crime has been committed or is underway.
The police are less likely to protect someone than they are to be abusive. Has VPC looked at those statistics yet? Oh, they haven’t? How convenient. I guess they know that would throw off their numbers.
they’re probably also the same group of people who rail at the police for “racism” and brutality as well.
The VPC is IMO a group of tools with a political agenda – that of disarming the population. This latest “report” they’ve published is nothing but propaganda for their cause.
Expecting honesty and unbiased analysis in one of their pronouncements is like expecting one of the people featured here at TAH to apologize for being a liar. Yeah, it theoretically could happen, and on rare occasions might. But occurrences are so rare as to be hugely noteworthy.
Given that the VPC started out as the Brady group…… I don’t think I really need to say any more then that
Legitimacy is not their point. The end game is CONFISCATION OF ALL GUNS. They will say and do whatever is necessary to achieve that end.
I think that Gun Control is little more than a shallow facade, I’m certain that PEOPLE CONTROL is their goal and obsession.
Exactly.
These sniveling snot-drooling candyassed do-gooders never take a detailed look at facts, nor do they ever honestly report them, that gets in the way of their propaganda and political agenda which is to force everyone to the quality of life experienced in Nazi Germany, North Korea, Red China, Cuba, or the Soviet Union, but here I go preaching to the choir yet again! I find the scarcity of “Feel Good Stories” from Gun Controlled States very interesting, which says to me that Gun Control Laws aid criminals.
Fear — and these people are desperately afraid — makes for very poor fact analysis.
Preying on the fear of uninformed people with their bias and propaganda is how they agitate people to their cause, and the liberal media is in lockstep with them.
I’ve heard doctors called ‘disease managers’ — in other words, they support disease rather than cure it, because that’s how they make their living. The mass media is the same way. Call them ‘chaos controllers’ — they support turmoil in society because that’s how they make their living.
See, I was one of those people who think guns are not a necessity unless you want to go hunting.
And since I lived in Chicago for 30+ years, having one seemed like more trouble than it was worth, because it was always the street criminals who had them, like the 2 idiots who tried to hole me up on the back steps of my apartment.
Then Reagan got shot by that demented jackass and that changed my mind completely, because Mrs. Brady was literally blaming the gun for the attempted assassination. Reality took a hard right turn with me when she did that. It’s the same thing as blaming your camera for taking bad pictures. It’s bullshit, and I knew when it came out of her idiotic mouth.
And no, I do not think either Hinkley or Chapman (shot Lennon) should be let out of jail, period.
Infidel, considering gun sales figures since Obama took office, I’d say they may all be in lockstep but once the media band marches past, the parade gets pretty scraggly.
Many people including me view B. Hussein 0bama as THE greatest Gun Salesman in U.S. HISTORY!
The only difference is that most other salesmen want to see you keep what you bought!
I wholeheartedly agree. I also see B. Hussein 0bama as THE MOST narcissistic, lying, two-faced conman to EVER inhabit 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, DC.
Hmm, USDoJ figures would beg to disagree with what the Violence Policy Center says.
Besides, their definition of “self-defense” is “run away while begging for a real man to come save your sniveling ass.” Guns aren’t very useful for that.
The VPC obviously isn’t familiar with Warren v. District of Columbia and Town of Castle Rock v. Gonzales.
They can eat a bowl of dicks.
Actually, you could send them a bag.
http://www.salon.com/2015/03/19/you_can_now_anonymously_send_a_bag_of_dicks_to_your_enemies_or_your_friends/
So, now we at least know what the new lefty talking point will be.
I’ll take the official FBI data over some anti-gun “Center”, every time and that means they’re full of shit.
In a perfect world, it wouldn’t be likely that I’d use my gun for self defense. However, we don’t live in a perfect world and it’s much better to have a gun and not need it, than to need a gun and not have it!
^^^ WORD ^^^
In a perfect world, we’d all live in peace and harmony. But then again, in a perfect world, Chapman would’ve shot Yoko instead of John…..
That would have been a mercy killing. Her voice is reminiscent of cats mating.
The VPC is FOS.
That is all.
That’s like saying “Water is wet”, “Fire is hot”, and “Shit stinks”! 😀
And they’re consistent, too!
Even in the anti-gun Clinton Justice Department admitted the defensive use of firearms in the 1.5 million range per year back then (published in 1997). The actual use was likely significantly higher, and would be even higher today.
Will agree with these nuts on one point that they almost made – I, as a law abiding citizen, am not likely to defend myself with a gun, a knife, a baseball bat, or any other something which can be used as a weapon. The major reason for this is that I reduce the odds by avoiding situations where I am most likely to need to defend myself. However, I am prepared to defend myself if need be.
Used to claim to not engage in criminal activity – and still do not knowingly commit crimes. With all the new rules and regulations, am not so sure these days.
What happens with these “studies” is that the numbers are repeated ad nauseum until they become gospel truth. It has happened many times with many lefty agenda items and this will be no different. Veteran suicides? Check. Military sexual assaults? check.
I don’t give a rat’s ass how many self-defense shootings resulted in the death of the bad guy. Why should I? What I care about is that we have the right to own firearms. In a similar vein, I don’t care how many times someone’s exercise of his 1st Amendment right prompted a change in the mind of a listener or, for that matter, whether the speaker had an audience at all.
I think we should be able to choose whether or not we want to have firearms of our own.
I’m most likely to use my handguns to put holes in paper at various distances. I will probably never shoot a person. I can never consider an instance in which I would intentionally commit intentional homicide.
This is the constant drum beat from the gun grabbing lobby. Throw some numbers out, without well defined definitions and divisions of them and use them to scare the hell out of the masses. By lumping in the “259 justifiable homicides” (Who I would wager are legal gun owners by a vast percentage.) with “8,342 criminal homicides” (Who I would wager are illegal gun owners by a vast percentage.) in 2012, they then painted a picture titled, “All Gun Owners”. This picture to the uninformed, does not distinguish between legal gun ownership and self defense and criminal gun ownership and criminal homicide. The current ill or uninformed masses in America are for the most part “sheeple”. They are led by the scariest, the loudest, the most provocative of “evidence” thrown at them the hardest and most often. Sadly, they have neither the abilities nor the inclinations to learn and thus discern these things for themselves. It is easier for them to nod their heads in oblivious agreement than be interrupted from their social media long enough to find out if that “petition” they are signing is good or bad.
The reason Amendment II exists in our divinely inspired Constitution of the United States of America is to guarantee our ability as a people to violently overthrow our own government when it becomes necessary.
This is why, a couple years ago, I was so happy that you posted the link to the gun control being counter-productive to murder, suicide, etc., paper done at Harvard.
I never get any counter argument when I say, “Yeah, here’s the harvard study about gun control being counter productive.” from anyone.
I don’t even need to read this bullshit past one paragraph to see that they came up with the answer they wanted and did the research to support it.
Have to disagree with you in part, Eric.
What they did was cherry-pick data from published statistics, then did bogus analysis to justify their predetermined conclusion.
That’s not “research”. That’s creating propaganda.
One thing the slobbering propagandists at VPC claim is that gun ownership is unnecessary because we have Police Departments, which to me is like saying there’s no reason for anyone to have a fire extinguisher in their home because that’s what Fire Departments are for!
Nice one.
You could add that, we don’t need to exercise or work out or live a healthy life because there are Doctors who can heal us back up.
Those of you living a healthy lifestyle and eating right, you’re causing doctor unemployment! How dare you! Doctorslivesmatter…
Infidel, that is an excellent response to use with the gun grabbers. Unlike the varying and debatable police response times we normally use, this comeback is one that is readily apparent to even the dimmest of the liberal dim bulbs.
While many of them don’t have enough common sense to fear criminals or a tyrannical central government, the fear of fire is universal.
Same argument with a first aid kit. Just call 911 and try not to bleed to death until the EMTs arrive.
YEP! 😀
I was reading comments about VPC’s study on another blog and came up with a great idea.
Disarm the police.
They carry weapons in plain sight. That inspires people to fear and distrust them, doesn’t it?
Well, just take those guns away and everything will be fine… everything will be just fine… maintain an even strain….
Just don’t get any of it on you.
Ain’t that what Michael Moore said was necessary? Everyone give up their guns, gather ’round and sing “Kum-ba-yah”, yeah, that’ll go over like a Hooker farting in Church on Easter Sunday!
Or seatbelts. Most drivers never need their seatbelts either!
Do not forget to thank the Joyce Foundation for making the Violence Policy Center a viable leftist organization.
*WHOO!*, no shit, I’m glad I had an empty stomach when I loked at that gargantuan vat of liberal snail and slug snot! Yeah, they spout the same lies that the rest of the snot-nosed candyassed do-gooder left does.
In most things in life there is a penalty for being wrong and aggravating circumstances tends to increase to penalty.
Why is it that people like the VPC can spew their erroneous BS and not suffer for it?
It is frustrating to keep defending something that should not need to be defended except that if we don’t actively defend the right to keep and bear arms, we won’t have it. THAT would be a real tragedy.
The best self-defense use of a gun is to pull it, and not have to shoot.
I’ve done this, and I have never owned a gun. They are not counting this type of incident.
I always like the fire extinguisher analogy myself. I’ve owned one my entire life never needed to use I, never looked for opportunities to use it.
I’m betting over 99% of all fire extinguishers have never been used. Actually I wonder if more people have been attacked with an extinguisher rather then have it used.