Seven Years for Murder, or the Demon Gun

I’m sitting here in prison.
I’m not worried.
No, not me!
I know that my parole board is about to set me free.

I’ve killed a dozen women.
Damn near two dozen men.
And several little children, but
I don’t number them.

You’d think I’d have to pay for
All the wrong I’ve done.
Liberals just don’t fault me.
They blame my Demon Gun!

I might kill with a crowbar.
I can always use a knife.
If you ever cross me,
You know I’ll take your life.

You’ve all seen the studies.
They prove I’m not to blame.
I was mistreated as a child.
That’s my claim to fame.

You see, it’s really your fault
For the course my life has run.
If you had been more caring,
I wouldn’t need a Demon Gun.

The Liberals want to take the guns
From the average Joe.
You want to know what I think?
I say, “Go, Man Go!”

I’ve mugged and robbed my way around.
I’ve surely had my fun.
It really isn’t my fault.
It’s all my Demon Gun!

And if another Hitler
Should give tyranny a go,
You know about my friends and me.
We’ll join the Gestapo.

So take away the Demon Guns
From sea to shining sea.
When the people are disarmed,
The Ruler will be me!

Feel free to pass along the poem for non-commercial use with attribution to this site. All other rights reserved. Let me be clear! If the Liberals succeed in turning this country into a prison, who will guard the guards?

Def Mech

Def Mech

While it may be true that Heller  makes American women nervous about Roe v. Wade, I would submit that had the decision gone the other way, the outcome could have been either heavenly or catastrophic for the Republican Party.  If around 80,000,000 U.S. gun owners, including many women, had been demeaned and marginalized by a finding of no individual right in the Heller decision, it might have energized them into a hammer that would have politically smashed the Democrat Party into pieces for years.

A decision against the “Standard Model” could have as easily so demoralized and angered the “Community of Honest People Who Own Guns,” that they would defect en masse to a third party candidate, dooming the GOP to second class status for decades.  As it stands, as flawed as John McCain is on the issue of the individual right of self-defense against crime and tyranny, he remains head and shoulders above Barack Obama, who has said that he wants to ban handguns and semi-automatic weapons.

As for Mr. Morris’s “schizophrenia” about gun control saving lives and reducing homicides, let us again summarize the scientific evidence.  Three powerful anti-gun rights research organizations affiliated in two cases with the U.S. Government and in one Case with the U.N. have studied the findings in the field of gun control and violence.  These organizations, sometimes funded by grants from anti-gun foundations, such as the Joyce Foundation, have reviewed, assuming no duplication of effort, almost 450 studies, journal articles, books and publications.

According to these unfriendly organizations, there is no scientifically significant evidence that gun ownerhship promotes crime, or that gun laws reduce violence.  There is one indication, to be completely fair, in CDC research, that waiting periods for buying a gun may reduce the gun suicide risk among persons over 55, although it does not seem to reduce the overall suicide risk for this group.  (I don’t believe this questionable benefit justifies the 22,000 federal, state, and local gun laws that we have in this country.)  (See my post, “Gun suicide article typical ‘advocacy journalism,” below on this site.) (See The National Academy of the Sciences Executive Summary on Firearms and Violence-A critical review-2004, here) (See Small Arms Survey results here.)

At its most basic level, the pro-self-defense argument runs something like this.  If a person plans to commit suicide, he or she will find a way.  Many unhappy women in the Third World kill themselves by ingesting agricultural pesticides. In “gun-free” Japan in 2006, 32,155 people killed themselves. (”4 commit suicide by inhaling fumes, rate high in Japan,” Rocky Mountain News, Denver Newspaper Agency, 04-26-08) This is roughly the same number of persons who are the annual victims of “gun” violence in the U.S., even though America has a much larger population. Suicide seems to be a particular problem among the elderly in Japan.

If a felon is intent on committing a capital crime, a misdemeanor gun law is of little deterence.  In the absence of guns, knives, clubs, broomsticks, ball bats, barstools, shoestrings, neckties, cars, and bathtubs work about as well and don’t make as much noise.  A gun used in the defensive role, up to 2 to 2.5 million times a year, according to Kleck, gives a smaller potential victim an advantage over a larger, stronger attacker.  According to Kleck, Kates and Mauser, Wright and Rossi, and Lott, the overall impact of guns in a society would seem to be positive.  See my post, “Gun suicide…,” as above.

The Left makes much of “acquaintence homicide.”  See my 06-30-08 post, “Stay safer, avoid criminal behavior and criminals,” on this site, regarding the higher incidence of homicide among persons with criminal records.  Very few people “snap.”  Most spree killers and killers in general have mental health histories that have been ignored or minimized by civil authorities and the courts.

America has 22,000 gun laws and regulations, many of which may not be affected by Heller.  These laws include the unfortunate creation of “gun-free zones” (actually upheld by Heller ) in schools and some other places.  These zones should actually be called “criminal-safe free-fire zones,” since felons benefit from the governmental disarmament of honest citizens, creating a “target rich” environment of helpless victims.

Robberies and spree killings in Northfield Minnisota, Coffeeville, Kansas, Pearl Mississippi, Colorado Springs, Colorado, and the Appalachian School of Law were all disrupted or stopped by armed citizens, some of whom were in law enforcement or had law enforcement backgrounds.

Why are there no spree killings at gun shows?  I would opine, because the life expectency of a shooter would be about one minute, even though ammuniton boxes are routinely sealed and gun actions are rendered momentarily inoperable.

Suzanna Gratia Hupp’s parents died in the Luby Cafeteria Massacre in Killeen, TX.  Her handgun was locked in the car in accordance with TX state law at the time.  Anti-self-defense laws had created a perfect criminal free fire zone.  She vowed, “Never again!” and worked to reform Texas law regarding concealed carry.

Gun laws don’t prevent crime and may very well enable it.  Thomas Jefferson echoed the ideas of Italian criminologist Caesare Beccaria.  “The laws that forbid the carrying arms…disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes…they” (the laws) “serve rather to encourage than to prevent homicides…”

 In conclusion, Heller  affirmed the “Standard Model” of an individual rights interpretation of the Second Amendment.  Guns in the hands of honest citizens prevent, rather than cause crime.  “Schizophrenia” or “hoplophobia” (fear of weapons) are unnecessary psychological burdens for a free citizen of the United States of America.  I believe Mr. Morris can rest easy in his belief that the Second Amendment recognizes an individual right.

Def Mech

The article is more remarkable for what it leaves out, than for what it presents.  For example, the Japanese, who have banned guns, have a higher suicide rate in Japan than Americans, including Americans of Japanese descent.  Read David Kopel’s The Samurai, The Mountie, and The Cowboy for information on Japanese gun laws and suicide. (Prometheus Books, Buffalo, NY, 1992, pages 43,44.)

Two common methods of group suicides in Japan are hoses from auto tail pipes into closed passenger compartments and charcoal braziers in tightly sealed apartments.  Reports have surfaced of young Japanese strangers getting acquainted on the Internet for the purpose of group suicide.  Clearly there are cultural factors at play here independent of the availability of “demonic” guns.

Is suicide even a concern of the Liberal state?  What about the “right” to commit suicide.  Liberal Holland, Belgium, and Luxembourg in “sophisticated” Europe have policies allowing assisted suicide.  Oregon, a Liberal state, has experimented with assisted death.  The Hemlock Society publishes detailed instructions on how to kill yourself using pills and plastic bags.  (Thank God, they don’t advocate guns.  Whoops!  Not politically correct to invoke the Deity.  Might offend somebody.)

What about Colorado ex-Governor Dick Lamm’s “duty to die” comment?  Socialized Medicine has resulted in rationed care and long waiting lists in Great Britain and Canada.  Is suicide a viable option when the waiting time for treatment for a serious, painful disease exceeds the prognosis, i.e., the wait time is a year, the patient will almost certainly die in six months?  What are the choices?  Kill yourself?  Die on the waiting list?  Try to get to the U.S., before socialized medicine takes over here? 

According to the article, the “experts” discount substitution of other suicide methods in the absence of guns.  Why?  Hanging is so easy that special curtain cords are now mandated by child safety laws to prevent accidental death.  How many fatal auto “accidents” are actually suicides.  Not too long ago, a man jumped from an airplane without a parachute after asking his friends if they would rather die that way or jump from a  high place, such as a bridge or building.  I believe suicide prevention, to the degree that a Liberal society wants to prevent suicide, is a mental health issue, not a question of what means are available to carry out the intent.

According to a recent post by Eugene Volokh on the Volokh Conspiracy, most studies that purport to show that guns increase the risk of suicide do not control for criminal affiliation.  Spree killers, serial killers, depressed drug dealers, and other felons who kill themselves with guns rather than face capture and imprisonment, are almost certainly included in the suicide statistics.  (See my recent post “Stay safer.  Avoid criminal behavior and criminals,”  06-30-08, which can be found under the category of “Culture War” on this site.)

What about the overall comparative benefits of guns in society?  The article quotes the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and attempts to set up Florida Researcher Gary Kleck as the “straw man” whose counter argument is “easily” demolished by the “experts.”  Not quite so fast!

The CDC, itself admits that after looking at 51 studies, it can not say that gun control has prevented a single crime.  (First Reports evaluating the Effectiveness of Strategies for Preventing Violence: Firearms Laws)  Keep in mind that in most states the law looks askance at suicide and attempts to assist suicide.  Remember Jack Kevorkian (Dr. Death) and the hard time that he did for his efforts in this area.  The National Academy of the Sciences(NAS) reviewed 253 journal articles, 99 books and 43 government publications in its efforts to “propose new gun control strategies.   The NAS found that it was impossible to say, based on that massive research effort, and some of its own studies that gun control had prevented a single crime.  The conclusions of these august bastions of science?  We need more research.  John Lott.  David Kopel and Glenn Reynolds.

The Small Arms Survey(SAS), a U.N.-affiliated organization out of Geneva recently pointed out that there are nine guns in this country for every ten Americans.  What the SAS also pointed out, but what was not reported by much of the mainstream media, was that there seems to be no significant correlation between gun ownership and violence.  Many countries with numerous guns have low rates of violence, while many countries with draconian gun laws have high rates of meyham.  Mexico is a case in point.

Keep in mind that the above organizations have reputations as being against citizen ownership of firearms.  It is an indication of their honesty in these cases that they admit that the supposed benefits of gun control have little basis in scientific fact. 

A recent Kates and Mauser study, in fact, indicates that there is often an inverse relationship between the number of guns in a society and the rate of violence.  (Kates, Mauser, “Would banning firearms reduce murder and suicide?” America’s First Freedom, NRA, Palm Coast, FLA, August 07, pages 32-35.)  They do not claim to have found causation based on their research, but they have certainly documented correlation.

John Lott, on the other hand, makes a stronger claim based on his research that areas with less gun control have less crime.  More guns, less crime, is a worthwhile read for anyone interested in the debate.  (Lott, John, …, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, Ill., 1998.)  Lott, by the way, looked at every county in the U.S., controlled for numerous variables, and made his data set available to anyone who wants to look at it.

Our article claimed that Gary Kleck, their “straw man,” found up to one million defensive uses of firearms per year.  (Point Blank: Guns and Violence in America, Aldine de Gruyter, Hawthorne, N.Y., 1991)  Kleck’s later research indicates that figure may be as high as 2.0 to 2.5 million.  In over 98 percent of these cases, merely brandishing the weapon causes a felonious attack to cease, mooting the headline that you have to put your boot on the neck of your fallen assailant in order to successfully defend yourself against crime.  In many other cases, the defender merely wounds the attacker, which of course, does not count as a “kill” in the records of the folks who look at this issue as black or white.  (Aren’t Liberals supposed to be fans of relativism and nuance?  I guess not, if it doesn’t fit their agenda.)

Kleck is a bad researcher to pick for a “straw man.”  He started out with the hypothesis that gun ownership crontributes to crime.  He looked at the data and changed his mind.  He is a Democrat, a member of the ACLU, and takes no money from either side in this debate.  The “experts” downplay the effectiveness of phone surveys, yet anti-gun organizations use phone survey results to claim that U.S. gun ownership is rapidly declining.  (See my post “When surveyed, do you admit that you own a gun?” under the categories of “Culture War,” or “Politics” on this site.  Kleck makes many of his claims based on FBI statistics.  A bad “straw man,” indeed.

Finally the “experts” point again to a need for further study.  We can take this to mean that they want to keep doing ”research,” until they get the desired result.  The issue of bias in CDC ”research” was apparently one of the reasons that Congress ordered them to stop promoting gun control in 1996.  Our ”objective” news article, of course, bemoans the fact that the CDC is limited in its ability to use public money to help strip the American People of their right to self-defense against crime and tyranny.  If the Democrats sweep the field in November, we can expect CDC funding to increase in this area.  If you own a gun and/or love freedom, think before you vote.  Campaign and vote for the most pro-Second Amendment electable candidate available.  We can not afford to have a Liberal Democrat in the White House.

Def Mech                                                     

The fairly obvious conclusion that we can draw from this information is that, if you don’t want to be murdered, don’t commit crimes and don’t associate with criminals.  Of course, this approach flies in the face of liberal political correctness, which postulates that even the most violent career criminals deserve “another chance.”  In their view, we are apparently all criminals at heart.  We have just not yet been pushed over the edge by the pressures of our “heartless” capitalist society or exposed to the demonic influences of “evil” guns, whose very presence could cause us to snap.

There are in the neighborhood of 80,000,000 gun owners in the U.S.  On any given day, 99.99 percent of those gunowners and their guns do not commit crimes.  The guns, of course, commit no crimes on their own, although there are probably some liberals who would disagree with that statement.  On the other hand, every day, criminals murder each other, law enforcement personnel, and innocent civilians with everything from guns, to kitchen knives to rocks.  Given their long history of use, rocks have probably killed more humans than any other weapon.  (Why isn’t there a movement to ban rocks?  We could start with registration and restrictive licensing.  You know, I always thought there was something strange about rock collectors.) 

While we are waiting for the anti-rock campaign to start, I strongly recommend that you reduce your risk of being murdered.  Don’t engage in criminal behavior and don’t associate with people who do.  If it only saves one life, it’s worth it.

Def Mech

When Moon Pies are outlawed, only outlaws will have moon pies. An assailant in Galesburg, Illinois apparently attacked a mature citizen on 05-23-08 with a plastic bag containing Moon Pies. When will it end? How many laws do we have to pass condemning violence with food items? Maybe if we eliminated all food packaging and only allowed commoners to eat semi-liquid baby food from plastic bags… No, wait! Some evil-minded villain would freeze the bag, creating a deadly club made of ice. Maybe if we took away all the freezers from ordinary citizens… Yeah! That’s it. Then they couldn’t hurt each other or any members of the ruling elite. Nah! They could still throw rocks or pick up a stick to use as a weapon.

We could make them all wear handcuffs outside their houses. That might not work. They could strangle each other with the chains. Strait jackets! Why didn’t we think of this before? If all the commoners are confined to strait jackets… Darn! They could still kick and head butt each other. This whole public safety thing gets so complex!

Sorry about that, but it must be obvious to any thinking individual that human beings have been assaulting and killing each other for tens of thousands or millions of years without the benefit of firearms. Restricting the ability of honest people to defend themselves against criminals and tyrants makes about as much sense as hitting someone with a bag of Moon Pies. There! I said what I had to say, and I’m glad. Glad! Do you hear me? Glad! Bwa Ha Ha!

Def Mech