Good guys can stop the bad guys

Every so often my dad hands me a few things he has read that I might find interesting. Whenever my computer takes a while to do something (this one is 8 years old, yeah, it is time for a new one) I grab something to read. I finally took the top item off the latest stack Dad had given me several months ago. This one is the Mother Jones magazine, the March/April 2013 edition. Dad indicated I should read the OutFront article Hits and Myths. It is ten claims made by pro-gun groups that don't stand up to facts. Follow the link for stats.

#1 They're coming for your guns. A fantasy that citizens will have to (get to?) face down the gov't. Fact: law enforcement and military has 4 million guns. Civilians have 310 million (which is enough for every person in the country to have one). The odds are 79 to 1 in favor of the civilians.

#2 Guns don't kill people--people kill people. Fact: There is a strong correlation between percentage of households with guns and gun deaths per state. Meaning: people with guns kill people.

#3 An armed society is a polite society. Facts: Drivers with guns are more aggressive. Concealed guns owners threaten others with their guns. Stand Your Ground laws are linked to a 7-10% increase in homicides.

#4 Good guys with guns can stop rampaging bad guys: Fact: That hasn't happened in the last 30 years. 20% of emergency room shootings involve guns taken from guards.

#5 Keeping a gun makes the home safer. Fact: Guns at home are involved a lot more in assault, suicide, and accidents than in defense.

#6 Carrying a gun for self-defense makes you safer. Fact: More likely the gun will be used to escalate an argument and increase the likelihood of injury and death.

#7 Guns make women safer. Fact: 6 times more women were shot by husbands, boyfriends, and ex-partners than by male strangers.

#8 Violent games deserve more blame. So what's up with Japan? It spends more on video games yet the US had a thousand times more homicides in 2008.

#9 The number of Americans owning guns is increasing. Fact: Fewer Americans own guns, though it appears each owner owns more of them.

#10 We don't need more laws, we need to enforce the laws we have. Fact: 40% of legal sales are ones that don't require background checks. Because of the NRA there hasn't been a head of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms for six years.