Overblown: Media hype hiding real story on guns

With more mass shootings happening around the United States, and now worldwide, the United States is pushing for gun control once again.

A day before Obama’s speech on Sept. 21, there was a major shooting in Chicago, prompting Obama to consult to Congress with yet another attempt at gun control. Problem is is that Chicago is a disarmament zone, therefore the gun used in the shooting was obtained illegally. The full-blown gun control in Chicago was a failure, as it is now deemed the murder capitol of the United States.

“We can’t rest until all of our children can go to school or walk down the street free from the fear that they will be struck down by a stray bullet,” Obama said in this speech to Congress. This is another example of a hyperbole used by Mr. Obama. Now, he never states that gun crime has gone up, but as a result of the mass coverage and the demonizing of guns, many believe that gun crime has gone up.

Pew Research Center conducted a poll showing that a majority of poll respondents, 56 percent, told Pew that gun crimes have increased during the past 20 years, while 26 percent said gun crimes stayed about the same and just 12 percent correctly said the number of gun crimes went down.

Contrary to popular belief, according to usnews.com who reported on the Justice Department’s own numbers, the stats show that the number of firearm-related homicides has declined 39 percent from 1993 to 2011, and that non-fatal firearm crimes dropped 69 percent during the same period. This does not include any military-related death or any legal or illegal death by police.

The United Kingdom in 1996 banned the ownership of guns, giving the same reasons that America is doing today. New data from 2009 shows gun violence in the United Kingdom has increased by 89 percent in the past decade, making the 35 percent figure from 2002 insufficient. The latest United Kingdom government figures show that the total number of firearm offences in England and Wales has increased from 5,209 in 1998/99 to 9,865 last year; a rise of 89 percent. In some parts of the country, the number of offences has increased more than five-fold. Due to this, some parts of the United Kingdom are having their police forces armed with submachine guns. Britain is riddled with gang violence almost equal to America’s, but the difference is that in the United Kingdom guns are strictly regulated or banned, and the criminals still have them.

Shadow Home Secretary, Chris Grayling, said that, “In areas dominated by gang culture, we’re now seeing guns used to settle scores between rivals as well as turf wars between rival drug dealers. We need to redouble our efforts to deal with the challenge.”

The point is that in the UK the majority of law-abiding citizens are unarmed against the crazed criminals who illegally obtained weapons. No counteracting force for the civilians is available, except police, and how many times has that been successful with the numbers presented?

Moving back to the United States, we know that there was a shooting in the naval yard in Washington, D.C. Aaron Alexis, the shooter at the naval yard, was a known schizophrenic, committed multiple gun crimes, such as shooting through the wall of his apartment at his neighbors who were being too loud, and shooting out the tires of a person who parked in his spot. And yet he was able to retain a secret security clearance.

He went to the police many of times complaining of voices talking to him through the wall, but they didn’t do anything. Finally he cracked and went to the naval base, which was a gun-free zone, and killed 12 people before the police had to raid a military base to take out a lone gunman.

On Sept. 21, a shooting happened off of American shores, in the African country of Kenya. Al-Qaeda sieged a mall, held it hostage, and killed 67 people, and 63 are still unaccounted for. Yet again, this Kenyan mall was a gun-free zone, and criminals got guns in and used innocent humans as target practice.

This is likely the worst mass shooting in 2013, but there’s a story many mainstream news stations either don’t know, or just don’t tell us. A former Irish army ranger was concealing a weapon in the mall, illegally due to the gun-free zone, but did a heroic act. He was just leaving the mall when the siege began, and he ran back inside. He got to the parking garage under the mall, found 200 people hiding behind vehicles and escorted them out of the place, but then he ran back in and saved another hundred, and once done, the man, now joined by an ex-British army member used their medical training to help the wounded until the paramedics arrived.

“This man then spent three hours using his paramedical training to help the injured, including people who had been shot or hit by hand grenade shrapnel, and then turned restaurant tables into temporary stretchers to shuttle them to safety. His skills saved the lives of many. Eye witness accounts say he did an extraordinary job,” a friend of the Irish soldier said.

This hero is an example of how guns aren’t these evil objects that kill people, but a tool to help people, and as I stated earlier, gun crimes as a whole aren’t rising. Instead, they are steadily declining as of 2011.

On Sept. 24, John Kerry, secretary of defense, along with the president, Barrack Obama, went to an UN meeting in New York City. At this meeting, Kerry signed what was appropriately named the UN Arms Treaty. As he signed the document, Kerry called the treaty a “significant step” in addressing illegal gun sales, while claiming it would also protect gun rights.  Kerry said, when consulting Congress after-the-fact, “This is about keeping weapons out of the hands of terrorists and rogue actors. This is about reducing the risk of international transfers of conventional arms that will be used to carry out the world’s worst crimes. This is about keeping Americans safe and keeping America strong.”

He continued, “This treaty will not diminish anyone’s freedom. In fact, the treaty recognizes the freedom of both individuals and states to obtain, possess, and use arms for legitimate purposes.”

The arms treaty doesn’t posses any severe attack at the Second Amendment, but Congress is not happy with Kerry for completely bypassing them and going to the UN. Now Kerry has to return to Congress hoping that provisions after-the-fact will sway Congress to vote on his behalf. This is not the case. Most of Congress said they will not vote on behalf of the provisions. The bill is based to control the commerce of large weapons including tanks, down to the small arms of pistols. This is both for international trade and commerce to the domestic front. It would essentially ban the private sales of firearms, from both licensed and unlicensed sellers.

The Obama Administration will not succeed in their attempt at their gun-grab. It has been attempted before, it is being attempted again and it will be attempted in the future. The numbers are hard to counter, and granted there are a number of mass shootings that happen per year. That has been the case for a very long time, and prayers go out to the grieving families of the horrendous shootings, but that will not stop the shootings. If we outlaw guns, then only outlaws will have guns.