One of the questions I’m often asked in the course of the gun debate is, “Is there common ground and room for cooperation?” The answer I always give is “Absolutely,” because one thing all of us, especially gun owners, can agree on is the importance of firearm safety.
As the leading organization to promote firearm safety, the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) launched Project ChildSafe in 2003 specifically to educate gun owners on their responsibility to keep their guns out of the wrong hands, and provide the tools to help them do so. Through partnerships with law enforcement we have distributed more than 36 million free firearm safety kits and safety information to gun owners throughout the U.S. as part of this program, and between 2000 and 2010, fatal firearm accidents dropped 22 percent. Firearms accidents are now less than 1 percent of all fatal accidents in the United States.
Our efforts have made considerable strides in gun safety, prevented accidents and saved lives, and working together with you, we can do even more. As responsible firearm owners, we must all take steps to prevent firearm accidents, theft and misuse. Firearm accidents and misuse and the tragic consequences they have on families and whole communities should compel all of us to work even harder to practice and promote firearm safety.
This year NSSF has committed $1 million to provide free gun safety kits, including a lock, in partnership with law enforcement agencies across the country, to gun owners, and educate gun owners about responsible firearm handling and storage. With this effort we will continue to be a leading voice in the nation on firearm safety, but true success with this campaign relies on the participation of responsible firearm owners at the local level. Our website has several easy tips and information to help you prevent firearm accidents, secure your firearms against theft and misuse, and educate your families on proper firearm handling, storage and safety.
We encourage you to use these resources in your home, and to share them with your friends and neighbors who own firearms. It only takes a few seconds for an accident to happen, and it takes just as few seconds to prevent one. Please join us in this important work.
via www.nssfblog.com
It does not seem like rocket science to figure out that more guns in the right hands--those of good rank and file citizens--results in less violent crime against them perpetrated by criminals with guns. But this argument has been frequently made by antigun activists such a Mayor Bloomberg. Part of his argument is that straw buyers are purchasing weapons for the black market and/or that criminals are stealing guns and selling them on the black market, thus leading to an influx of guns into jurisdictions such as NYC where guns are highly criminalized by law.
There is very little evidence that much if any of the first this occurs. This is why the infamous gunrunning operation conducte by President Obama's and Eric Holder's Feds that resulted in deaths of innocent people nd federal agents had to be manufactured. It was not happening, so in order to get the goods to support the claims that guns were being run into Mexico routinely, the feds forced legal gun dealers to cooperate with criminal straw purchasers who were supposed to be tracked. They lost track. It was a stupid and illegal idea in the first place. Guns come the other way; they come from Cold War stockpiles in South America and Central America that have now fallen into criminal black market hands as valuable contraband. These military weapons are part and parcel to drug trafficking and the Cartels and the Street Gangs. These make their way into America and are sold to criminals. The absence of any evidence that American weapons find their way into Mexico as a regular matter of course supports the reality--as does the proliferation of fully automatic military weapons that are found in the hands of criminals in America. These are the real assault weapons that have tarnished the reputations of the make-believe assault weapons that our president has famously sought to ban.
There is also a surprisingly small number of legally purchased guns that have fallen prey to thieves in recent years. Gun owner's are not stupid people. Guns are valuables that are usually protected among other precious belongings when in the hands of legal owners. More and more, firearms are being secured in special household gun safes. Gun safes are one of the biggest boons of the peripheral firearms industry, as more and more good citizens wan to secure their weapons. At the very least, most gun-owners use some creativity in hiding their guns. So, the idea that stolen guns of this kind contribute very much to the gangland and criminal element is increasingly untrue. It is an old argument that was greatly overblown to begin with.
Mayor Bloomberg and other anti-gunners have something else fueling their agendas. I am guessing that it is the hope to increase their control upon private citizens.
This study cited is one of many that shows the actual and most intuitive trend--that more guns in the hands of more good citizens absolutely reduces violent crimes perpetrated upon them. Duh!