Brady bulldust

The Brady Campaign for Gun Control provides a scorecard on how states are doing in regard to gun control legislation. If you don’t have enough gun control laws you get a low score from the Brady bunch. For example, West Virginia receives a score of 4 out of a possible 100. Utah actually scores zero.

Right now, there is a post by a blogger named Don Surber circulating widely around the internet. Don has cleverly compared the homicide rates in some of the states getting low Brady scores with states getting high Brady scores. Consider the following comparison: *Utah, the state with a zero rating, has only 1.5 homicides per 100,000 citizens. Less than half of those homicides are firearm related.

*California scores the highest according to the Brady report with a whopping 79. But they have 5.83 murders per 100,000, which is a rate nearly four times higher than Utah. Over 2/3 of the homicides in California are firearms related.

I can just hear liberals saying “People in Utah don’t need guns. There’s hardly any murder in their state.” Few probably make the connection between lawful gun ownership and low crime rates. Remember, these are the people who, in the 1990s, said that “despite the low crime rate, prison populations are higher than ever.” Back then they just could not connect the dots and figure out that crime was down because the criminals were locked up.

It all goes back to ideology. Liberals refuse to believe in deterrence theory because to do so admits to the fallen nature of man. To them, man is inherently good, not evil. Moreover, he is perfectible. The liberal is willing to die to preserve his vision of himself and others. And he wants you to die for his vision, too.

Don Surber’s comparison is clever but not dispositive. The data he examines is cross-sectional so its use is limited. What we really want to see is what happens after the laws the Brady Campaign opposes are actually put in effect. Fortunately, we know the answer when it comes to concealed carry laws. Sixteen peer-reviewed studies show that allowing citizens to lawfully carry reduces violent crime rates. Ten peer-reviewed studies are inconclusive. But there are, to date, no peer-reviewed studies reaching the opposite conclusion; namely that allowing citizens to lawfully carry increases violent crime rates.

Nonetheless, the Brady bunch continues to fight for laws that will cause themselves and others to remain helpless in the face of criminal assault. They would sooner lay your child to rest than succumb to the belief that the use of a gun for self-defense is somehow not in itself a gun crime.

The anti-gun lobby must realize that law abiding citizens need guns in a society that cannot ensure that criminals will not have them. But even if guns could be kept from criminals they would find other means to kill. After all, passengers without guns have flown airplanes into buildings.

The gun control extremist has at least two things in common with the Islamic extremist. He has a willingness to die for his fundamental beliefs. And he has the sanctimony to demand that others go with him.

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Wichita Man Opens Fire On Burglarizing Brothers: "It all started around 11:30 Tuesday morning. Mills says he was napping when he heard a knock at his door. He got up to look through the peephole. "I was familiar with one of them," Mills said, "but not enough for him to show up at my home unannounced and with a guy I didn't know." Mills decided not to answer the door. Then something caught his attention. "I turned around to go back to sleep, and I hear one of them say, 'Hey, you want to get him?' They were talking about robbing me," Mills said. Mills says the two men likely didn't realize he was home. As they began walking around the apartment to the rear entrance, Mills called 911 and got his gun. Seconds later, the suspects kicked in the back door, knocking over shelves and spilling groceries all over the floor. Mills met them face-to-face with his weapon. "They stopped," Mills said. "You should have seen the look on their faces." Mills says he fired four warning shots, shattering a window only feet from the suspects. Police found one of the bullets in the exterior wall of a nearby vacant house. "He was in fear for his life," said Wichita police Lt. Guy Schroeder, adding it appeared Mills was acting in self-defense. "He was protecting his life and his property." Police arrested the two men a short time later. Detectives say they are brothers, ages 18 and 20."


Indiana: Neighbor shot intruder during home invasion: "Police say an attacker who had tied up two women inside a rural western Indiana home was stopped when a neighbor shot him in the leg. The Sullivan County Sheriff’s Department says a man broke into the home near the town of Shelburn Sunday morning, tying up a woman and her mother and sexually assaulting the younger woman. Sgt. William Snead says the older woman was able to send a text message to a neighbor asking for help. The neighbor’s boyfriend, Sonny Osborn, heard the confrontation and went inside with a gun. Police say Osborn told the attacker to leave before shooting him in the leg three times. The man was treated at a hospital and was being held in the Sullivan County Jail."


Guns banned on Colorado campuses: "Stun guns, Tasers and pepper spray would still be allowed in purses and backpacks at Colorado State University-Pueblo under a new weapons ban passed by the Board of Governors on Tuesday. However, students at CSU's Fort Collins campus won't have that option under a stricter version of a policy that officials stretched to meet the needs of individual campuses. "The goal of the board is to have avoided having a policy where one size fits all," said CSU spokesman Brad Bohlander. Still, the policy that drew support of the board and faculty at both the Fort Collins and Pueblo campuses is almost sure to attract the ire of gun-rights groups. "I think the race will be on to the courthouse," said Bradley Deats, a CSU parent and a certified National Rifle Association instructor. Rocky Mountain Gun Owners has threatened to lead the legal charge against the gun policy, which bans people from carrying licensed concealed weapons on both campuses. State Sen. Greg Brophy, R-Wray, has also said he will craft legislation to nullify the CSU policy, which he claims violates the state's concealed-weapons law."