John Lott Jr, author of "More Guns, Less Crime." First --- some additional research Lott has done shows that there is an 81 percent decrease in shootings with multiple victims when people are allowed to carry concealed weapons.
Study after study after study has shown that crime rates go down, murders go down, aggravated assaults go down ....when law abiding citizens are allowed to carry guns for protection. In spite of the facts we still have the left screaming for more gun control.
Guns save lives-- even in schools. Just look at the nation of Israel. Editorialist Vin Suprynowicz of the Las Vegas Review Journal stated this week that, "In Israel, teachers and parents who serve as school aides go armed at all times on school grounds, with semi-automatic weapons. Since this policy was put into effect, terrorist attacks in Israeli schools have dropped to zero. The only recent exception was the tragic case of a group of schoolchildren who were murdered by an Arab gunman as they visited the 'Zone of Peace' on the Jordanian border. The Jordanians specifically requested that the Israeli teachers and chaperones leave their weapons behind ... which they did. American schools are, on the other hand, 'gun free zones.'"
People say, "It can't happen in this day and age." "We don't need guns." "Our government would never resort to tyranny against the people." I submit it can happen in this day and age. How do you think Hitler, Stalin, Pol-Pot, Mao and other dictators took control of their countries? They were leaders without character and without morals who disarmed the citizenry guaranteeing practically no opposition. The rest is history.
How many crimes were prevented because the would-be victim was armed? How many victims wished they had been armed? Criminals will attack the unarmed before attacking the armed. "The very atmosphere of firearms anywhere and everywhere restrains evil interference. They deserve a place of honour with all that is good. When firearms go, all goes. We need them every hour." - George Washington in address to the 2nd session of united States Congress.
"The right of self-defence is the first law of nature; in most governments it has been the study of rulers to confine this right within the narrowest limits possible. Wherever standing armies are kept up, and when the right of the people to keep and bear arms is, under any colour or pretext whatsoever, prohibited, liberty, if not already annihilated, is on the brink of destruction.” Henry St. George Tucker, in Blackstone's 1768 “Commentaries on the Laws of England.", Judge of the Virginia Supreme Court & U.S. Dist. Court of Virginia
"Laws that forbid the carrying of arms… disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes... Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants; they serve rather to encourage than to prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed man." - Thomas Jefferson, quoting Cesare Beccaria
"The strongest reason for people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government." - Thomas Jefferson Papers, 334 (C.J.Boyd, Ed., 1950)
"All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing." - Edmund Burke
"For the first time in history does a nation have complete gun registration. Our streets will be safer, our police more efficient. The world will follow our lead in the future." - Adolph Hitler, 15 April 1935, in address to the Reichstag
Because of the changes made to the gun control laws in 1997, gun owners in Australia were forced to surrender 640,381 personal firearms to be destroyed, a program costing the government more than $500 million dollars. And now the results are in. After 12 months of banning firearms:
Australia-wide, homicides are up 3.2 percent;
Australia-wide, assaults are up 8.6 percent;
Australia-wide, armed robberies are up 44 percent (yes, 44 percent).
Hot Burglaries are up 300% (where the intruders come in while you are home and knows that you are home).
In the state of Victoria, homicides with firearms are up 300 percent.
Figures over the previous 25 years showed a steady decrease in armed robbery with firearms (but increased drastically in the past 12 months). There has been a dramatic increase in break-ins and assaults of the elderly. Australian politicians are on the spot and at a loss to explain how no improvement in "safety" has been served after such monumental effort and expense was successfully expended in "ridding society of guns." Their response has been to "wait longer".
Their suggestion to citizens has been to build a fortified room in their house, so that when a burglar enters their home, the home owners may lock themselves in that room while the burglar takes what he wants from their house.
At the time of the ban, the Prime Minister said, "self-defence is not a reason for owning a firearm."
It's time to state it plainly: Guns in the hands of honest citizens save lives and property and, yes, gun-control laws only affect the law-abiding citizens. Preventing law-abiding citizens from carrying firearms for self-defence does not end violent crime - it just makes victims more vulnerable! Society benefits from ordinary people who accept the responsibilities of firearm ownership - not from gun-control laws.
