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“Every day in America, some 30 people are murdered and some160 are wounded by gunfire…”

According to research by award winning criminologists at Florida State University 5,479 citizens use firearms for self-defense against crime daily, and according to a Police Foundation/ National Institute of Justice study firearms are used for self-defense against crime 12,876 times a day. Placing additional restrictions on our right to keep and bear arms will only turn those survivors of crime into victims. Of course, citizen disarmament zealots, their organizations, and their media allies see that as collateral damage to their idealism.

http://www.saf.org/LawReviews/KleckAndGertz1.htm

Suter E. "Guns in the Medical Literature - A Failure of Peer

Review." Journal of the Medical Association of Georgia. March 1994; 83: 133-48.

https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles/165476.pdf

It should be noted that citizens use firearms tens of thousands of times a day for other lawful purposes like recreational, sport, and competitive shooting. Shooting is an NCAA and Olympic sport as well as in 4H, ROTC/JROTC, Boy Scouts, etc. Then there is hunting and collecting. With all of this taken into account is obvious that the safe and lawful use of firearms far outnumber the unsafe and illegal use of firearms.

Moreover, our right to Keep and BEAR arms have been increasingly restored over last several years and more citizens are now free to carry firearms in more places since the year 1900. Yet, homicides, including homicides with firearms, as well as all other violent crime have been decreasing since 2006. Moreover, after a dramatic increase in firearms sales and ownership after the last Presidential election including an increase in first time firearms purchases and an increase in firearms carry permits, citizen disarmament zealots and organizations predicted that there would be a corresponding increase in homicides and other violent crime. However, the U.S. homicide rate decreased from 5.0 per 100,000 in 2009 to 4.8 per 100,000 in 2010, and 4.7 per 100,000 in 2011.

In addition, two recent studies found that firearms homicides have dropped 49% since 1993.

http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/crime-in-the-u.s/2010/crime-in-the-u.s.-2010/tables/10shrtbl08.xls

http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/crime-in-the-u.s/2011/crime-in-the-u.s.-2011/tables/expanded-homicide-data-table-8

http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/crime-in-the-u.s/2011/crime-in-the-u.s.-2011/tables/table-4

http://news.nationalpost.com/2013/05/08/u-s-gun-homicides-have-dropped-since-1993-peak-report-says/

We don’t need any additional restrictions on our Constitutional right to keep and bear arms.

“The group paid for television ads before and after Obama’s address, accusing Congress of bowing to the demands of the gun lobby.”

No, Congress is bowing to their electorate. A recent Gallup poll shows that the majority of those surveyed are satisfied with current firearms laws.

“If Congress is intransigent and the president can’t get a law passed, then isn’t it up to us to demand the banning of assault rifles…”

Another inconvenient fact is that in 2011, Aks, ARs, Uzis and all other semi-auto “Assault Weapons” as well as all other rifles accounted for 323 murders nationwide even with those so called “High capacity magazines.” That is less than three percent of all homicides and comes to less than one homicide a day. Not only does that mean that no one in you state will be murdered by an “Assault Weapon” or any other rifle this month but likely not next month, or even the month after that.

By contrast, over five times the number of murders, 1,649, were with knives or cutting instruments, over two and a quarter the numbers of murders, 728, were with hands, fists, feet, etc, and more murders, 496, were committed using blunt objects like clubs, hammers, baseball bats, etc. A person is far more likely to be murdered with a weapon other than a weapon other than a firearm than one of those so called “Assault Weapons” or any other rifle.

http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/crime-in-the-u.s/2011/crime-in-the-u.s.-2011/tables/expanded-homicide-data-table-8

Additionally, a study funded by the Department of Justice concluded, “Should it be renewed, the ban’s effects on gun violence are likely to be small at best and perhaps too small for reliable measurement. AWs were rarely used in gun crimes even before the ban.”

https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/grants/204431.pdf

Of course, citizen disarmament zealots and organizations ignore these inconvenient facts because they are trying to frighten the public into banning all civilian firearms one class of weapon at a time.

“We must do what we can do. Write to our own senators and representatives.”

I did! I sent my representatives a letter, followed that up with an e-mails and phone calls urging them to vote against and further restrictions on our right to keep and bear arms, and they did.

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