News of mass murders and terrorist
attacks seems to fill the headlines these days.
And of course the self-righteous politically correct candidates for
public office who surround themselves with 24 hour a day security teams use the
news to further their agenda of disarming the American people. After the latest incident in San Bernardino,
Hillary says, "I refuse to accept this as normal. We must take action to stop gun violence
now." Bernie Sanders says,
"Mass shootings are becoming an everyday occurrence. We must take action to stop gun violence
now." Obviously the second sentence
from each is one of the scripted Democratic Party talking points produced every
day.
Barack pontificated, "We have
a pattern now of mass shootings in this country that has no parallel anywhere
else in the world (actually not true - see #1 below), and there's some steps we
could take to improve the odds that they don't happen as frequently, such as
common-sense gun safety laws, stronger background checks." As usual, ownership of guns is blamed.
But perhaps a little perspective is
in order. The number of murders annually
in America climbed from an average of 10,618 during the 1960's to an average of
21,166 in the 1990's. Over the last 15
years the average number of murders per year is 15,729 - the highest number
17,030 in 2006 and the lowest 14,249 in 2014.
That is a substantial drop in murders since the 1990's. The highest number of murders any one year
was 24,700 in 1991. The number of
murders last year has dropped over 42% in the last 24 years (see #2).
Of course over the last 55 years
the American population has grown from just over 179 million in 1960 to nearly
319 million in 2014. Consequently the
number of murders per 100,000 Americans has dropped significantly during that
period. The peak decade for murders was
the 1970's, with an average of 9.06 murders per 100,000 people. That has declined to 4.83 in the current
decade. The Democrats vigorous campaign
against the epidemic of gun related deaths in America appears to be
considerably misinformed.
Interestingly, the decline in
murders and murder rates corresponds with the increase in the incarceration
rate in America. An average of around
230 per 100,000 was the rate of people in jail or prison from 1925 through
1975. That grew to 270 per 100,000
people in 1980 and then skyrocketed to 990 per 100,000 in 2010 (see #3). I would bet money that the murder rate
decline and the incarceration rate increase are not unrelated.
But today terrorism and mass
murders, defined by the FBI as murdering four or more people during one event,
are a serious threat to Americans, and they are on the rise. Why is that?
Could it be that the Obama administration is ignoring the source of
terrorism and limiting the ability of law enforcement authorities to prevent
these crimes?
You can't tie the hands of law
enforcement, from the local police to the FBI and CIA, and expect criminal and
terrorist activity to go away. What do
liberals expect to happen when they arrest and prosecute police officers for
doing their jobs while encouraging civil disobedience in response to often
justified handling of dangerous situations, championing rehabilitation and
early parole rather than incarceration for violent criminals, and not providing
the much needed treatment and institutionalization for the seriously mentally
ill.
You cannot continue to ignore the
source of terrorism and expect the terrorists to stop committing their
atrocities. Profiling and investigating
Muslim's is perhaps not politically correct, but it is required if the nation
is serious about protecting itself from terrorism. In the PC world of today, apparently many
think it is more important to not offend anyone than save American lives.
Is it any coincidence that the
incidents of violence and terrorism have skyrocketed in America during the 7
years of the hate promoting presidency of Barack Obama? I think not.
Particularly when this president continues to ignore the reality of
terrorism while polarizing the country by creating an imagined war on women, an
imagined war on minorities, an imagined war on LGBT's, and an imagined war on
the global climate. Instead he conducts
a real war on law enforcement, free speech, private enterprise, small business,
the energy industry, fixed income investors, and traditional American
principles and values.
Besides, the horse is out of the
barn regarding gun ownership in the US.
There are nearly 300 million guns in circulation. Banning gun shows and requiring people to buy
or sell through a licensed dealer is not a bad idea. But requiring individual gun owners to have
permits or a license will solve nothing.
Just like a driver's license, any moron can get one. And automobiles have become weapons of mass
destruction too, particularly when a driver is talking or texting on a
cellphone. It certainly wouldn't be a
big surprise to find out that many of the people bitching about guns are the
same ones who constantly chat away on cellphones while driving an automobile.
Liberals want to believe in ideological
fantasy rather than rely on common sense to deal with reality. The reality is that there is no epidemic in
gun related murders in America. At this point perhaps it would be a
better idea to encourage gun ownership to allow people to defend themselves,
their families, and associates from terrorists and the mentally deranged than
to try to take guns away from the people who own them. Apparently the one thing that all mass murder
victims have in common is that none of them were carrying a firearm to protect
themselves.
1. http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2015/12/03/facts-shoot-holes-in-obamas-claim-that-us-is-only-host-to-mass-killings.html
2. http://www.disastercenter.com/crime/uscrime.htm
3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incarceration_in_the_United_States
