Didn’t watch the speech last night because I’m well aware of the Union’s state without anyone telling me about it, especially the incumbent. And for him, I’m sure it was just another day and another ton of BS in front of a teleprompter.
In the meantime though, this morning I found an item in a recap reporting that the incumbent said “victims of gun violence" deserve a vote on a sweeping gun control package. And I not only agree with him completely, I did some research to back up my rationale.
According to Jeffrey Weiss, Staff Writer for The Dallas Morning News on dallasnews.com, a Small Arms Survey estimated in 2007 that there were about 270 million to more than 314 million privately owned guns in America. And, “The largest-ever survey on gun ownership happened in 2002, by the federal Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System. A poll of more than 240,000 adults came up with an estimate that about a third of the households in America had at least one gun.”
However, current legal restrictions prohibit funding research with results that “advocate or promote gun control,” which in turn prevents "the Department of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms from tracing or sharing information about how often a dealer sells guns that end up seized in crimes, and stops doctors from gathering data about their patients’ gun ownership or use." Consequently, accurate up to date data is hard to come by.
Mr. Weiss though, did come up the following information, even though it’s quite outdated. “Those opposed to gun control often cite the work of Florida State University criminologist Gary Kleck. In 1992, he commissioned a survey of about 6,000 people, asking if they had used a gun in self-defense during the past year and five years. Kleck came up with an estimate of 2.5 million. But violent crime in America has dropped about 75 percent since that survey, leaving a question of how relevant the results are now.”
So, as I wrote at the outset, I think the incumbent’s absolutely right about getting a vote on gun possession. Because if the preceding statistics are even close to being correct, those seeking gun control would lose by about three to one. And since this is the U.S. where the majority's supposed to rule, he can then get off his soapbox and leave the folks owning guns alone like he should have done in the first place.
That's it for today folks.
Adios
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