Occasionally, I like to browse left-wing websites to see the Rant of the Day.  Recently, I found myself on CNN.com.  It took only a few lines down the list of articles before I came across an opinion piece written by Peter Bergen.  The writer declared in the title, "America's Unyielding Plague of Gun Violence," that we are a sick country.  Since this was CNN, I wasn't too shocked.

Bergen stated that 2011 was a deadly year in terms of gun violence with 11,000 deaths.  While this is a large number, unsurprisingly, Bergen failed to mention how many of these deaths were a result of self-defense.  He failed to spot a few lines down the passage stating that from 2007 to 2011, there were 29,618,300 firearm uses in self-defense.  The statistics are staggering and advocate for citizens, but in typical leftist fashion, those numbers were left out.

Bergen called for greater government control of guns.  But that tactic has already failed.  Look at Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami, and so forth.  Maybe it is time to let the individual citizen decide, as it was originally intended.

When leftists talk about gun control, they often bring up the United Kingdom.  Bergen mentioned that the average number of gun deaths in Britain is around 50 to 60 a year.  That's a feel-good number, but he omitted knife attacks.  A seven-year study shows that knifings have risen 20% to 34,703 in total.  I suppose Bergen finds no problem with not being able to defend yourself or someone else from robbery, assault, or rape at the point of a knife.

The problem with the left is that leftists' value system omits responsibility for actions.  For instance, Bergen brought up the states of Nevada and Texas as open-carry states.  He mentioned that the Las Vegas massacre shooter, Steven Paddock, hailed from Nevada, as if being able to openly carry was the reason for Paddock's rampage.  Paddock committed his heinous crime because of his depraved, evil heart – not because Nevada allows open carry.

Instead of offering a solution, Bergen said there is no hope for change in the American gun culture.  There should be change, though.  Many of the mass murders he mentioned in the article occurred in gun-free zones or gun-controlled cities.  There is a pattern with mass murders occurring in gun-free zones and hundreds of murders occurring in heavily gun-controlled cities.  When will the ones who are responsible for these zones decide to change?

Thomas Jefferson knew it better than anyone else when he said: "I prefer dangerous freedom over peaceful slavery."