The Second, Second Amendment…

The Second Amendment, from The Bill of Rights (the first 10 amendments to the United States Constitution).

I know you are wondering about the title, “The Second, Second Amendment”. Above is the second amendment as written by our fore fathers, their is a second one. The second one I refer to is how a liberal reads the first, second amendment (confused yet).

The liberal reading: A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, until we can regulate them out of existence and then confiscate them all.

We keep hearing it said that the liberals do not want to take our guns, yet every new gun law proposed does nothing to take guns away from criminals or reduce crime in any way. They simply put restrictions on legal gun owners, putting legal gun owners like myself, in a position to question their real motivations. There is no way I can ask the questions without sounding insulting to the gun-control crowd, so I might as well go all out and ask. ARE THEY STUPID? With all of the facts and studies, the non-biased studies that is, painting the same picture, they keep saying the brush is bad. So let’s look at some numbers and facts.

From the estimates I have found there are approximately 270,000,000 guns in the United States in the civilian population. So by those numbers I would guess thousands of people are getting killed everyday with guns, or so the left would have you believe. In fact the CDC has dropped gun deaths (homicides) off of the top 15 causes of death in the US, lets look at the numbers. I used the 2010 census for population totals because the data available for the death rate is as of 2010.

United States Population (from US Census Bureau 2010 data): 308,745,538

Number of deaths in the US (2010 data latest available): 2,465,936

So the number of people that died in 2010 is .80% of the total population, less then 1%. Now lets look at the numbers of homicides in the US for 2010. These numbers are from the CDC (Center for Disease Control), part of the US Government.

2010 Homicides: 16,065

2010 Homicides by discharge of a firearm: 11,015

2010 Homicides by other means: 5,050

Of the 16,065 homicides in 2010 approximately two-thirds of them were with firearms, do the math and you find that of the 2,465,936 deaths in 2010, 0.45% were from guns. That is less then one-half of one percent, that does not sound like an epidemic to me!

When you consider there was 35,080 deaths caused by motor vehicles, more then double the number caused by guns. I guess we need better car control, where is the left on that?

So this brings us to the question of the AR-15 and similar rifles, the scary black assault weapons, the Websters dictionary on my desk next to me from 1987 does not even list an assault weapon. Yet the AR-15 they keep calling an assault weapon has been in production since 1963. The term is used by anti-gun groups and politicians to scare people. The only difference between a hunting rifle of a certain caliber and it’s so called scary looking brother are cosmetic parts.

Of the 11,015 deaths by firearms in 2010, the FBI statistics shows 367 deaths by rifles. This number includes all of the scary “assault weapons” that may have been used. More deaths can be attributed to knives (1732), blunt objects (549) or even the human body using fists, feet, etc… (769) in 2010 according to the FBI.

We keep hearing from the anti-gun crowd about needing more background checks. Every person that goes to a licensed gun dealer already goes through a background check, it’s already federal law. I know from personal experience, I have gone through a background check for every firearm I have bought. I have never bought a gun at a gun show, I have met people that have, and many of them went through a background check also. I am not saying there are no loop holes to be be exploited, but most criminals have avenues far from any legal means to purchase from. The additional cost of buying “on the street” doesn’t really bother them, it’s just a little less drug profits for them. Maybe the liberals have not noticed but breaking the law is what they do, more laws will not suddenly give them an epiphany and make them change their ways!

The Second Amendment is about being able to protect ourselves, even if that is to protect ourselves from a government out of control. The founding fathers understood that under the wrong circumstances that could become a reality. The push for gun control is about people control, not guns. There are those inside and outside of the US Government who want to control us, as long as we are an armed populace they understand they can’t do that.