Another story for the hypocrisy files

It was just another one of the thousands of self-defense incidents that occur every day. But this one caught my eye.

Iowa Representative Leonard Boswell sprang to action when an armed intruder entered his home recently, attacked his daughter and demanded money from the family.

A Vietnam veteran, Congressman Boswell risked his own life to engage the intruder. And while Boswell, 77, was unable to overcome the burglar, the ensuing struggle allowed time for his grandson to retrieve a shotgun from another room.

Seeing that his firepower was grossly outmatched, the intruder fled the home and is still on the loose.

While this type of story occurs frequently in our country, the Boswell incident is interesting for several reasons. For starters, one should realize that the aforementioned shotgun was easily available in the home of an anti-gun member of the Ruling Class.

Consider Boswell’s record as posted on the website of Gun Owners of America, an organization that rates every congressman on their gun-related votes. According to that list, Rep. Boswell (a Democrat) has not cast a pro-gun vote since 2006 and has a “D-” rating with GOA.

Boswell has even voted for trigger lock legislation within the past five years, although it is highly doubtful that the shotgun retrieved by the grandson — the shotgun found in the Congressman’s home — had a trigger lock attached to it.

In other words, what’s good for you is not necessarily good for me. Can anyone say “hypocrite”?

Boswell comes from a long-line of Ruling Class hypocrites who have told the American people that they don’t need guns, even while they rely on their own guns for protection:

* Who can forget columnist Carl Rowan who said that anyone found with a gun “should go to jail, period,” but then he later used his own (illegal) handgun to shoot a non-violent teenager who was skinny-dipping in his pool;

* Or actress Rosie O’Donnell who also thinks people should go to prison for owning guns, but then hired armed security guards to protect her children — a pricey option which is unavailable for most Americans.

The Boswell self-defense incident is also ironic because anti-gunners frequently ignore cases like this when compiling their statistics. In 1986, junk scientist Arthur Kellerman derived a bogus figure which claimed that a gun in the home was 43 times more likely to kill the homeowner than to help him.

But Kellerman only reached that factoid by explicitly excluding self-defense episodes like the one in Boswell’s home.

Kellerman stated that, “Mortality studies such as ours do not include cases in which burglars or intruders are wounded or frightened away by the use or display of a firearm.”

Really? Why not? Is chasing away a burglar an insignificant result for a homeowner? I wonder if Boswell would agree that his shotgun was insignificant in deterring that criminal attack.

Nevertheless, people still quote the bogus Kellerman “statistic” today as though it was the gospel truth. Contrast his figure with the several studies showing that citizens use guns in self-defense, anywhere from 1.5 million to 2.5 million times a year.

That breaks down to 4,000 to 7,000 times a day. And when you contrast this to the total number of gun-related deaths every year, one finds that guns are used 50 to 80 times more often to save life than to take life.

Of course, most of those defensive uses of a firearm — over 98% of them — occur just as they did in the Boswell home. Simply brandishing the firearm or firing a warning shot is enough to send the bad guys fleeing for their lives.

Thankfully for Boswell, acting like a hypocrite is not a crime. There’s only one punishment that’s really fit for such a member of the Ruling Class. Maybe Boswell’s constituents will figure it out next year.

Source




CA: Armed homeowner foils robbery: "A would-be robber ran afoul of an armed homeowner Monday, sheriff’s officials say. The suspect, 26-year-old Carlos Solorio Gonzales of Yucca Valley, is accused of breaking into a house in the 7500 block of Joshua Lane shortly before 2:12 a.m. Inside, he was confronted by the homeowner, who was carrying a gun, Arden Wiltshire, a spokeswoman for the county Sheriff’s Department, said. At some point, the robber and homeowner began a struggle. “They start wrestling for the gun. The homeowner gains control,” Wiltshire said. “Once the homeowner gains control of the weapon, Gonzales jumps out of the living room window and runs.” A deputy found Gonzales hiding in a field near the house a short time later. The suspect was arrested at 2:59 a.m. without further incident on suspicion of residential robbery. The homeowner was not hurt."


After a defensive gun use, sleep on it: "In Meatloaf’s Paradise by the Dashboard Light, the hormone-crazed singer’s girlfriend won’t let him score a home run until and unless he promises to love her forever. His initial response: 'Let me sleep on it. Baby baby let me sleep on it. Let me sleep on it ...' When it comes to providing your version of events to the police after a defensive gun use (DGU), same answer. Do NOT submit to a police interview until at least 24 hours later."


MI: 10 years after concealed weapons law, unclear why many in state were gun-shy: "Ten years after Michigan made it much easier for its citizens to get a license to carry a concealed gun, predictions of widespread lawless behavior and bloodshed have failed to materialize. Advocates for concealed carry rights contend they have been vindicated. Violent crime is down, said Steve Dulan, a board member for the Michigan Coalition of Responsible Gun Owners."