Thanks as always to Pirate’s Cove, Whores and Ale, The Other McCain and Bacon Time for the Rule Five links!
There’s an interesting web site called the PanAm Post, which advocates for the cause of liberty in central and south America. That’s a big uphill battle, but the world’s got no shortage of windmills to tilt at. Anyway, last week they took a look at the relative states of violent crime vs. gun laws in the United States and points south. Excerpt:
Violent crime dropped by 48.6% in the U.S. in the same period that saw the record number of arms purchases: 423 million firearms, according to recently released data from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives.
Firearms-related accidents alone declined 68 percent between 1986 and 2018, a period in which U.S. citizens purchased 8.1 billion rounds of ammunition.
“These figures show that the United States has a strong desire to continue buying firearms for lawful purposes,” Joe Bertozzi, president of the National Shooting Sports Foundation, told American Military News.
“The continued popularity of guns demonstrates that Americans have a keen interest in protecting themselves and their homes,” he added.
I’d say “keen interest” is something of an understatement. If these sales records say anything, it’s that a lot of Americans don’t trust pols who blithely say “Oh, don’t worry, nobody will confiscate your guns” while jackwagons like the Governor of Virginia hint about using the National Guard to… confiscate guns.
But here’s the money quote:
For example, the Democratic Party demands greater control when carrying arms and has the backing of at least 150 companies that demanded greater control before the Senate. But sales show that millions of people disagree.
The irony is that the same party that seeks the removal of President Trump, whom they consider to be abusing his power, is the one that wants to deprive citizens of the ability to remove a tyrant from power.
This reflects the actions of the Democratic Party. They demand that the high and mighty state be the one to remove Trump from power, not “the people” they claim to represent.
Meanwhile, those with a more libertarian or conservative political orientation refuse to give more power to the state, much less to take away their right to self-defense.
For history has shown that every tyranny is established once it disarms its citizens. This is what happened in Cuba through Fidel Castro’s speech “Guns? For what?”
Sixty years later, Cuba is still run by the same family. Twenty-five million people in the U.S. showed with their weapons that they are not willing to risk the same thing happening in their country.
They are safer both from crime and the possibility of the emergence of tyranny. That is why they are literally in charge of their self-defense.
Note that the author of this article is , who is listed as the cofounder of the Cuban Libertarian Party. This is a young lady with a cause. The cause of liberty in Cuba, granted, is the longest of long shots, but every change has to start somewhere.
But back to the article. Ms. Flor focuses not only on crime but on defense against tyrants, which was what the Founders were concerned with when crafting the Second Amendment; unlike too many horse’s asses in the Imperial City, she gets it. And, judging from sales figures, plenty of Americans do as well.
