Contrary to shilled up "popular opinion" by CNN, ABC, and PMSNBC, not everyone in California, the USA, North America, the world, or the Milky Way Galaxy believes that blaming the NRA or banning all firearms, ice picks, and knives will make humanity safer.

The statistical debate about whether privately owned weapons prevent or deter violent crime has been raging for years, but interviews with convicted felons indicate their reluctance to conduct a home invasion, murder, robbery, or rape if the homeowner is armed.

"Tough Targets: When Criminals Face Armed Resistance From Citizens," a 66-page page article published by the Cato Institute (not exactly a complicit member of the Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy), offers some interesting insight from criminals who were interrupted on the wrong side of the barrel.  Both the Heritage Foundation and the Cato Institute have fact-rich compilations about a gun's deterrent effects.

The bottom line is that Americans use firearms between 500,000 and 3 million times each year to defend themselves and their loved ones.  Most of these episodes are never reported to law enforcement.

Additionally, an inconvenient truth is that celebrities and politicians, with armed personal bodyguards, have no clue about, or respect for, the real-world hazards non-elites face daily and, therefore, why we value our Second Amendment right to self-defense.

Image: Woman firing gun.  Pixabay license.

Recent marketing data indicate that sales of guns to Black men and women in 2021 increased by 58% over the first six months of 2022.  Bureaucrats don't seem to have figured out that, in a scary world, people see a gun, not as their best offensive weapon, but as their best defensive weapon.

As Seneca the Younger (4 B.C.–65 A.D.) put it, "a sword never kills anybody; it is a tool in the killer's hand."  Certainly, firearms in the wrong hands (and minds) are dangerous tools, not at all different from an automobile.

Liberals ignore that some of America's fastest and most accurate shooters are not necessarily in the military or law enforcement, but are 12-, 14-, and 16-year-olds who participate in competitive trigger sports, hunting, scouting, Olympic, and NRA junior marksmanship programs.  Ask your local newspaper editor if they know anything about organizations such as IDPA, IPSC, Falling Plates, Skeet, Trap, Steel Challenge, Cowboy Action, and similar sanctioned events held at local ranges across the country.

While you're at it, ask your local TV/radio stations and online news outlets to investigate the number of gun injuries or deaths that have occurred at the past 25 NRA conventions.  With thousands of strangers congregating and carrying loaded (frequently concealed) firearms, injuries must surely be a nightmare for hospital emergency rooms (not!).

The tragedy of any school shooting brings forth raw pain and demands for immediate action.  But before jumping on the "woke" bandwagon, remember what Darrell Scott, whose daughter Rachel died at Columbine, had to say to a House sub-committee:

Since the dawn of creation there has been both good & evil in the hearts of men and women. We all contain the seeds of kindness or the seeds of violence. The death of my wonderful daughter, Rachel Joy Scott, and the deaths of that heroic teacher, and the other eleven children who died must not be in vain. Their blood cries out for answers. The first recorded act of violence was when Cain slew his brother Abel out in the field.

The villain was not the club he used. Neither was it the NCA, the National Club Association. The true killer was Cain, and the reason for the murder could only be found in Cain's heart. "In the days that followed the Columbine tragedy, I was amazed at how quickly fingers began to be pointed at groups such as the NRA.

I am not a member of the NRA. I am not a hunter. I do not even own a gun. I am not here to represent or defend the NRA — because I don't believe that they are responsible for my daughter's death. Therefore, I do not believe that they need to be defended. If I believed they had anything to do with Rachel's murder I would be their strongest opponent.

I am here today to declare that Columbine was not just a tragedy-it was a spiritual event that should be forcing us to look at where the real blame lies! Much of the blame lies here in this room.

[snip]

We do not need more restrictive laws. Eric and Dylan would not have been stopped by metal detectors. No amount of gun laws can stop someone who spends months planning this type of massacre. The real villain lies within our own hearts.

Read the rest of his moving, powerful statement here.

As Mr. Scott suggests, there may be better ways to solve the problem of unpredictable, violent, aberrant human behavior than violating an absolute (yes, Mr. Biden, an absolute constitutional right) or by punishing those who've never committed a crime.

Lucretia Hughes Klucken understands: