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Six Facts That Show Gun Control Is Not The Answer

   DailyWire.com

In the wake of the Parkland, Florida high school mass shooting, mainstream media outlets and Democratic politicians have been working overtime to push for a crackdown on Second Amendment rights. CNN, for example, held a “town hall” event wherein teenagers who attend the targeted high school were used as props to paint Second Amendment advocates and Republican politicians as callous and willing to turn a blind eye to the murder of schoolkids.

But the reality is, stripping law-abiding citizens of their Second Amendment rights and constructing anti-gun legislation has not worked. Here are six facts that show why gun control measures advocated by the Left are not the answer.

1. Over 98% of mass shootings happen in “gun free zones.”

According to the Crime Prevention Research Center, so-called “gun free zones” have been targets of more than 98% of all mass shootings — this is why they are often fittingly referred to as “soft targets.”

“According to the Crime Prevention Research Center, only a little more than 1 percent of mass public shootings since 1950 have occurred in places that were not considered to be a gun-free zone. In fact, as Crime Prevention Research Center President John Lott Jr. noted in October 2015, only two mass shootings in the U.S. since 1950 have occurred in an area where citizens were not prohibited from carrying a gun,” reports The Blaze.

Former Vice President Joe Biden introduced the Gun-Free School Zones Act (GFSZA) to the U.S. Senate in 1990 and it was signed into law by President George H.W. Bush.

2. Gun ownership does not correlate with a higher homicide rate.

More guns do not equate to a higher homicide rate, despite what the Left purports. In comparison to countries like Russia, Venezuela, and Mexico, the United States has an exceedingly higher number of guns per capita, yet a lower homicide rate.

And take the Swiss, for example. The nation of about 8 million is armed to the bone, with an estimated 2 million guns in circulation while boasting limited gun legislation. Demonstrating that gun ownership does not correlate with the homicide rate, Switzerland saw less that 120 homicides committed with a gun, per government data, as noted by USA TODAY. They also boast a low crime rate.

Additionally, data analysis from John R. Lott, Jr., in his aptly titled book “More Guns, Less Crime,” has revealed that more guns can equate to less crime.

3. Gun bans are ineffective — yes, even the much-touted “gun buyback” program in Australia.

According to a Center for Disease Control (CDC) report, “Priorities for Research to Reduce the Threat of Firearm-Related Violence,” gun turn-in programs are “ineffective”:

There is empirical evidence that gun turn in programs are ineffective, as noted in the 2005 NRC study Firearms and Violence: A Critical Review. For example, in 2009, an estimated 310 million guns were available to civilians in the United States (Krouse, 2012), but gun buy-back programs typically recover less than 1,000 guns (NRC, 2005). On the local level, buy-backs may increase awareness of firearm violence. However, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, for example, guns recovered in the buy-back were not the same guns as those most often used in homicides and suicides (Kuhn et al., 2002).

Additionally, as noted by The Daily Wire, a British Journal of Criminology study from 2007 and a 2008 University of Melbourne study found that Australia’s temporary gun ban did not appear to effect the already declining homicide rate.

“Prior to 1996, there was already a clear downward [trend] in firearm homicides, and this pattern continued after the buyback,” wrote Crime Research Prevention Center President John Lott of Australia. “It is hence difficult to link the decline to the buyback.”

And after Britain implemented a similar gun ban, they had increased homicides in the following five years, until “Britain beefed up their police force,” notes Lott.

4. There’s a correlation between higher gun ownership and fewer mass public shootings.

Between 1977 and 1999, “right-to-carry laws reduced both the frequency and the severity of mass public shootings; and to the extent to which mass shootings still occurred, they took place in those tiny areas in the states where permitted concealed handguns were not allowed,” found Bill Landes of the University of Chicago and Lott.

5. Defensive gun use is higher than criminal firearm use.

The instances in which guns are used for self-defense far outpaces the criminal use of firearms. The Daily Wire previously reported:

The number of defensive gun uses are higher than the number of criminal firearm uses. There was a range of 500,000 to over 3 million defensive gun uses in 2013, according to research from the Institute of Medicine and the National Research Council published by the CDC. That same year, there were 11,208 firearm homicides and 414,562 nonfatal illegal gun uses, according to the CDC and National Justice Institute, respectively. Even when taking the low end of the defensive gun uses, it’s clear that there are more defensive gun uses than criminal gun uses by Americans.

6. The government has failed to protect us time and again.

The government has failed us time and again when it comes to potential mass killers. Take this last school shooting in Florida, for example. As noted by Daily Wire Editor-in-Chief Ben Shapiro on Friday, recent reports have confirmed that “the FBI was warned specifically about the Parkland shooter not once, but twice — and did nothing,” “the Broward County Sheriff’s deputies were called to the home of the Parkland shooter at least 39 times since 2010,” the “Sheriff’s Office was warned multiple times about the Parkland shooter,” and that “an armed officer was present during the shooting and did nothing.”

And the FBI has dropped the ball in other recent catastrophes, too:

  • The Fort Lauderdale airport gunman told the FBI he was being mind controlled by the CIA before the rampage.
  • The Pulse nightclub shooter was on the terrorist watch list for two years and then taken off the list before he murdered in the name of Islam.
  • A 2014 report concluded that the FBI failed to act on warning signs over the would-be Boston marathon bombers.
  • And the list goes on.

How can the answer to government incompetence or malfeasance be to disarm the masses further and to rely even more heavily on the same institutions that have failed us?

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